Research Interests

The Canadian Arctic is characterized by low mean annual temperatures, long dark winters, permafrost soil and persistent snow cover. These environments are very sensitive to impacts from climate change and ongoing and future human development in the form of  resource extraction.

Snow cover data represent a key contribution to the development and validation of climate (Regional and Global), energy balance, land surface, hydrological and ecological models. The physical properties of snow affect the atmosphere at its lower boundary, and snow cover is recognized as an critical factor which influences the climate on local, regional and global scales.

Accurately representing snow in regional and global models is necessary in order to achieve realistic simulations of future weather and climate. Several models have been developed to estimate snow cover properties and distribution, however, estimates of snow cover do not always reflect the complex spatial variability present at scales below those used in climate and atmospheric models.

This is especially problematic in the tundra due to a lack of spatially distributed observational datasets for model development and validation

My current research projects are focused on developing a better understanding the spatial and temporal distribution of tundra snow cover in the Canadian Arctic at a regional scale.

Spatially extensive ground measured snow data heve been collected since 2004 along with ground based and airborne microwave remote sensing observations.

In addition to enhancing the understanding of tundra snow cover properties, these data are being used to develop and validate new operational satellite based passive microwave snow cover retrieval algorithms.

During the past seven years, I have been conducting end of winter field work out of the Daring Lake NWT camp (located ~ 300 km north of Yellowknife).

photos by A. Silis

My research is heavily collaborative with the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada. I have assisted them on many field campaigns in Northern Canada, most recently in Churchill Manitoba. I have lead the testing of their ground based passive microwave sensors during several campaigns on Trout Lake here in North Bay.

I have also recently designed and constructed a new platform for deploying the ground based radiometer system to remote northern study sites. The system was deployed in Churchill Manitoba during the winter of 2009/10 and will be sent to more remote locations in the coming winters.