Grants and Contributions

Following the Announcement of Opportunity published on Dec. 18, 2020, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to allow one of its scientists to participate in the Euclid mission in the role of co-investigator.

Following the Announcement of Opportunity published on Dec. 18, 2020, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to allow one of its scientists to participate in the NASA Perseverance mission in the role of co-investigator.

The upper-troposphere and lower-stratosphere (UTLS) is a critical atmospheric region that influences the Earth climate. However, the thermodynamic conditions in this region are insufficiently observed and poorly simulated in current weather and climate models. In this project, we will integrate the measurements of Canadian and international satellites to better understand the distribution of clouds, temperature and water vapor and their co-variabilities in the UTLS region and incorporate the observational constraints in the modeling process to improve the simulations of the Canadian models. The research will help improve Canada's ability of climate and weather prediction and support the development of future satellite missions.

Air pollution regulations have led to dramatic reductions in emissions of CO and NOx, but studies using atmospheric observations to quantify these reductions produce a wide range of emission estimates. The proposed project will use a multi-model and multi-sensor approach to quantify potential sources of discrepancies that contribute to uncertainty in the emission estimates. The project will focus on using space-based measurements to better quantify emissions of CO globally and of NOx in North America. Improved estimates of the emissions of CO and NOx are critical for assessing the effectiveness of air pollution regulations.

Despite the success of the Montreal Protocol in phasing out ozone depleting substances, lower stratospheric ozone continues to decrease. Currently it is not clear, if this ongoing decrease is related to so far unexplored chemical effects or to changes in the atmospheric circulation, the large-scale movement of air by which ozone is redistributed. The proposed project will use satellite measurements from OSIRIS and ACE-FTS in combination with simulations from the Canadian Earth system model to understand lower stratospheric ozone changes and driving forces. Based on the improved understanding, predictions of ozone recovery in the lower stratosphere will be produced.

Data from two Canadian space-based instruments will be utilized to investigate our changing atmosphere and to improve our ability to simulate these changes with atmospheric models. In one activity, we will focus on understanding how to best simulate the injection and dispersal of wildfire pollution in the atmosphere including its year-to-year variation. In a second activity, we will examine how different models describe greenhouse gases that are also air pollutants. For the third activity, we will assess the quality of space-based measurements of greenhouse gases and air pollutants and evaluate how well models simulate these important gases.

Canada's boreal forest is forecast to experience changes in precipitation, evaporation, and temperature due to climate change. This will lead to changes in the frequency and intensity of drought and wildfire. Large-area peatland soil moisture monitoring is required to improve our understanding of the carbon cycle, predict the locations of drought-driven wildfires in the boreal forest, and provide better estimates to air quality forecasts. Through the analysis of space-based data, this research will enhance our understanding of the physical processes of drought and wildfire in the boreal forest, and lead to an ability to predict the risk of wildfire.

Lakes play an essential role in many economic, social and cultural activities, as well as being important for ecology and biodiversity. This research project aims to improve our knowledge of the water balance and connectivity of Canadian lakes using satellite data and to evaluate the added value of the information for hydrodynamic modeling. The integration of two data sources will be explored: the future SWOT satellite, scheduled for launch in 2022, and the RADARSAT constellation mission synthetic aperture radar.

The goal of the proposed research is to employ state-of-the-art aerosol and aerosol-cloud-interaction (ACI) models in the context of a continuing program of ground- and satellite-based remote sensing and microphysical analysis to help characterize and better understand aerosol and ACI dynamics over the Arctic. The measurement-based approach of this proposal consists of carrying on previous analyses of aerosol and cloud dynamics at the event and seasonal level. The modelling component, by the same token, incorporates a moderate-spatial-resolution model for analysis of long term aerosol statistics a and a high-spatial-resolution, meteorologically-coupled aerosol model for the detailed evaluation of aerosol and ACI events.

The SWOT satellite mission will provide water level information for millions of lakes, rivers and wetlands in Canada. This project proposes to exploit this information to improve our understanding of the influence of these environments on the Earth system and to improve the quality of the hydrological forecast issued by the Canadian surface and river forecasting system. The project also aims to take advantage of in situ and multi-mission satellite observations to calibrate and validate SWOT products and assess their accuracy under various environmental conditions.