Grants and Contributions

At high Canadian latitudes, warming is increasing which is having significant impacts on permafrost stability, disturbance regimes, and vegetation. Despite advancements in carbon observation efforts they remain sparse. This proposal will validate a new modelling framework (CAN-TG) focused on northern Canada ecosystems to predict carbon accumulation and flux. The model is remote sensing focused and will be calibrated and validated using observations from CSA supported missions. The project will advance CSA priorities by providing estimates of carbon flux for national reporting, increase use of data acquired with CSA support and increase the number of scientists with PhDs in Canada.

When internal loads from surface winds and ocean current reach critical threshold in shear, compression or tension, sea ice floes slide relative to another along fracture planes where large amounts of heat, moiture and salt are exchanged between the ocean and atmosphere. We propose to use the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images from the Canadian RADARSAT Constellation Mission to create a new high-resolution (1 km) sea ice deformation dataset with full Arctic coverage and higher temporal resolution when compared with existing RADARSAT-1-derived products. This new data set will be used to develop a new granular-physics sea ice model.

This project focuses on improving Arctic sea ice monitoring from satellite technology. By combining C-band and L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery and developing a machine learning algorithm, the project aims to enhance the accuracy of sea ice information. Collaboration with international institutions and access to data from the upcoming NASA-ISRO SAR mission (NISAR) will contribute to the project's success. The research team will also gather field data to validate the satellite observations. Ultimately, the project will advance our understanding of sea ice and provide more reliable information for the Canadian Arctic.

SMOS and SMAP missions have shown the unprecedented capability of L-Band radiometry to monitor central variables related to the energy, water and carbon cycles. However, despite the unique capacity of L-Band radiometry, no missions are planned to continue L-band observations. A team of twelve scientists, are proposing a new L-band radiometry mission (FRESCH). They propose to improve approaches using L-Band radiometry in Canadian northern regions using drone and ground-based L-Band radiometers. The work will be crucial to the preparison of the FRESCH proposal and will ensure that the Canadian community will be well placed to participate into the scientic studies of FRESCH.

The locations of zooplankton-food for Right Whales can be linked to ocean fronts which can therefore be a predictor for their habitat. The reserachers propose to detect these fronts from sea surface temperature patterns, which can be obtained from satellite observations. Their focus is the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is recognized as a whale feeding area. Using probability distribution functions of frontal activity and whale sightings, they will develop probability maps for Right Whale aggregation patterns. They will also correlate these results with satellite-derived indices of dominant currents, like the Gaspé Current, which provides the zooplankton-food for the whales.

Following a first-place success in the European Space Agency’s AutoICE Challenge, the Vision and Image Processing Lab (VIP Lab) is continuing to advance state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms towards the automation of operational sea ice mapping using remotely sensed and ancillary data. Manual ice charting is very time consuming and limited in the number of images that can be processed. Automation of this process using artificial intelligence has been an elusive goal for decades. The researchers seek to further their solution to support Canadian operational ice mapping in partnership with the Canadian Ice Service (CIS).

This project aims at discovering new knowledge about the contribution of large-scale ultra-low frequency (ULF) waves to energy, momentum, and mass transfer in near-Earth’s space. This objective will be achieved by utilizing the advanced diagnostic capabilities of Borealis, a digital SuperDARN radar system designed in Canada with world-leading space weather radar engineering, providing unmatched temporal resolution and spatial coverage.

Freshwater ice thickness and snow water equivalent provide a proxy for monitoring climate, however both are difficult to derive from conventional satellite observations. This project utilizes data from the Surface Water Ocean Topography Mission during the Fast Sampling (daily) and Science Data Collection (11 day repeat) phases to retrieve ice thickness and SWE for Kluane (Yukon) and Teshekpuk (Alaska) Lakes. Two sensors are utilized: 1) Ku-band altimeter, which has been shown to retrieve ice thickness from waveforms, and 2) Ka-band interferometric syntheric aperture radar that has demonstrated capability for snow retrievals, but has not been tested for snow on ice.

This project will use a comprehensive data set collected on at scales relevant to SWOT and Sentinel missions to understand ocean mixing and coastal currents in the Northeast Pacific. There is considerable variability in the region that is poorly resolved in older generation altimetry products, and most in situ observations. The reserachers will use high resolution shipboard surveys, underwater glider surveys, mooring measurements, and targeted float releases to groundtruth and enhance the data returned from the new generation of altimeters. The results will be used to test and improve operational and research ocean simulations, with applications to fish stocks and weather prediction.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are energetic radio flashes that emanate from extragalactic sources of unknown origin. This project will use AstroSat and several sensitive ground-based radio telescopes (GBT, Effelsberg, and CHIME) to conduct simultaneous X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, and radio observations of FRB 20200120E, the closest known extragalactic repeating FRB, during a radio outburst. AstroSat will be used to search for multiwavelength emission from the source. The results from this study will provide new insights into the enigmatic FRB phenomenon and enhance Canada's reputation in space astronomy.