Lake and River Ice Fieldwork in Support of RADARSAT Constellation Mission Image Analysis
| Principal Investigator: |
van der Sanden, Joost J. (3) |
| Licence Number: |
17670
|
| Organization: |
Natural Resources Canada
|
| Licensed Year(s): |
2025
|
| Issued: |
Feb 27, 2025
|
| Project Team: |
Hugo Drouin, Paul Wilson, Peter Morse, Marcus Phillips, June Skeeter,
|
Objective(s): This project aims to collect field data for use in the development of methods that will enable the application of images from Canada’s RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) to the mapping and monitoring of river and lake ice properties and processes.
Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 6038.
This project aims to collect field data for use in the development of methods that will enable the application of images from Canada’s RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) to the mapping and monitoring of river and lake ice properties and processes.
We expect the fieldwork to take place on approximately six days over a period of two weeks in the period from March 1st to March 31st, 2025 A helicopter will be the main means of accessing the sampling locations. A rental truck will be used as a backup, to the extent possible, if persistent poor weather prevents flying. The team will use RCM images that will be acquired in January and February 2025 to pre-select sampling locations of interest. These sites will be located on either Federal or Inuvialuit lands. The systematic acquisition of RCM images will start in November 2024. In combination, ... Show morethe sampling locations will represent the dominant lake and river ice conditions in the area. At each location, we will auger the ice to determine its ‘groundedness’ and thickness as well as extract an ice core for further analysis in an improvised cold laboratory at the Aurora Institute (Inuvik). Analysis of the core will focus on a description of layering in terms of ice types (i.e. thermal ice, snow ice, frazil ice). In addition to ice cover data, the team will collect data on snow cover characteristics such as thickness, layering and wetness. Our typical fieldwork methods are featured in a YouTube video found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3-usSNyEG0
The project team is open to hosting an online meeting for interested stakeholders. The purpose of this meeting will be: (1) to explain the use of radar satellites for the characterization of lake/river ice cover, (2) to outline the fieldwork proposed in this project, (3) to address questions from stakeholders. Stakeholders are invited to express their interest to attend by emailing the PI (joost.vandersanden@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca ). The team also plans to contribute to communication events that may be organized by Natural Resources Canada in connection with the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (ISSF) ( https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/science-and-data/research-centres-and-labs/satellite-receiving-stations/satellite-facilities/inuvik-satellite-station-facility/10953 ). A series of videos showcasing the overall nature of the team’s research and development work is available on YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=joost+van+der+sanden+ice+radar ). Project results will be published in journals subscribed to by most libraries. Also, the team expects to share results by presenting at symposia, including the Yellowknife Geoscience Forum.
The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from:
March 01 - April 30, 2025 Show less
