Abstracts: CMOS Ottawa, 2016-2017

(in language given)


McBean:  Addressing the Global 2030 Agenda for climate change, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development goals requires understanding the interrelationships among the environment, economy, society, cultures and beyond.  These are complex and to "see the future" we need to bring together transdisciplinary teams, across the natural, social, humanitarian, engineering and health sciences, while maintaining disciplinary excellence.  These are challenges now being addressed in international science.

The international research programs - Future Earth, Integrated Research on Disaster Risk and Urban Health and Well Being - are moving ahead and will be further linked.  The International Council for Science and the International Social Sciences Council are enroute to merger.  These issues and opportunities will be discussed.

Brunet:  Over the last decade or so, predicting the weather, climate and atmospheric composition has emerged as one of the most important areas of scientific endeavour. This is partly because the remarkable increase in skill of current weather forecasts has made society more and more dependent on them day to day for a whole range of decision making. Also it is partly because climate change is now widely accepted, and the realization is growing rapidly that it will affect every person in the world profoundly, either directly or indirectly.

One of the important endeavours of our societies is to remain at the cutting-edge of modelling and predicting the evolution of the fully coupled environmental system: atmosphere (weather and composition), oceans, land surface (physical and biological), and cryosphere. Some examples of seamless modelling and prediction across a range of time scales will be discussed.

Dewey:  The Pacific Ocean has exhibited a number of major anomalies during the last few years, generally responding to large scale atmospheric patterns. Some of these patterns have been seen before, including the Pacific Oscillation dating back over nearly a century. However, recent occurrences have been detected under the shadow of climate change and in the presence of enhanced observing and forecast systems. Our ability to detect, characterize, and correlate these patterns continues to advance, while our ability to predict and understand the causes and linkages remains somewhat limited. In this overview of major events dating from 2012 through to the end of 2016, we will piece together some of the puzzle, or puzzles, peculiar to the northeast Pacific to reveal what we know and don't know about this critical region.

Manore:  Observations of known quality are the cornerstone of meteorological, climatological and hydrological services and science.  Providing accurate, reliable and sustainable observations in a field where technologies and requirements are constantly changing requires a strategic, modern and integrated approach to monitoring.  The MSC's monitoring networks and data management systems are currently undergoing numerous transformations to address these needs - some large, some small.

Scott:
  Since its establishment in June 2015, POLAR has made great strides to advance Canadian leadership in Arctic science and technology, and to mobilize knowledge of the polar regions, including Antarctica. Its engagement and partnerships with federal, territorial, Indigenous, national and international networks of interest promise to leverage collective resources to enhance Arctic and Antarctic research. The opening of the Canadian High Arctic Research Station in Cambridge Bay in 2018 will provide a northern-based world-class hub for science and technology research. Through advancing innovation in northern monitoring and modeling science and technology, as well as promoting collaborative integrative approaches, POLAR aims to improve economic opportunities, environmental stewardship and quality of life for Northerners and other Canadians. Dr. Dave Scott, President, Polar Knowledge Canada, will discuss the importance of POLAR's work to northerners and the polar regions, as well as discuss how collaboration and knowledge will ensure resilient northern communities.

Nikolic:  This is a talk about our moody Sun and the hazards that it poses. 

Throughout history, we did not think much about the Sun as a threat, but our opinion was significantly changed by an event in 1859.  Back then, we still believed that the auroras are reflection of light from icebergs in the north. The 1959 event was the first time we documented a powerful solar eruption (R. C. Carrington), its terrestrial manifestation and impacts on the human activities. Mr. O. S. Wood, Superintendent of the Canadian Telegraph, wrote at that time: "I never witnessed anything like the extraordinary effect of the aurora borealis, between Quebec and Father's Point, last night...  so completely were the wires under the influence of the aurora borealis, that it was impossible to communicate..."

Another example was the collapse of the Hydro-Quebec power grid in 1989 reminding us that space weather, the chain of Sun-to-Earth phenomena, poses a hazard.  In the age where our society is more and more dependent on technology, vulnerability to space weather is an increasing concern.

Hamme:  The ocean's biological, solubility and carbonate carbon pumps control the surface-to-deep gradient in carbon dioxide and hence strongly impact atmospheric levels. Quantifying these pumps individually is challenging because their impacts overlap with each other. This talk will focus on efforts using high precision measurements of inert gases to disentangle these transport mechanisms with particular emphasis on the solubility pump and to provide metrics to assess their efficiency in large climate models.

Taillefer:  In 2014, Maritime Way was recognised as one of the leading companies in acoustic modelling by the US Dept. of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).  This led to dialogues with the US Dept of Homeland Security, a US Homeland Congressional Committee, the Canadian Embassy and, this year, with the RCMP to help locate narcotics submarines.   In addition, in August 2014, Maritime Way acquired the Marine Services of Quester Tangent Corporation (of Victoria BC).  Maritime Way is now building up their market presence in Canada and Internationally as a leading company in seabed mapping and analysis.  The presentation will showcase advanced seabed classifications technologies - including a recent cross-Atlantic survey cruise aboard the French RV L'Atalante.

Barrie:  Forty years ago, little was known about pollutants in the Arctic atmosphere and their relevance to climate and the environment. Since 1976, the long range transport and potential impacts of a multitude of substances in the Canadian north has become better understood through cooperative research.

In chronological order, these substances include: aerosols laden with sulphate, organics and black carbon;  stratospheric ozone-destroying perfluorocarbons; persistent organic pollutants; mercury; and long lived greenhouse gases.  Each class of chemicals have been the target of research involving Canadian government and university research scientists, managers and diplomats that ultimately led to international UN-based agreements to limit their emission to the atmosphere and mitigate their environmental impacts.

A brief history of almost everything related to Canadian Arctic air pollution and its impact on climate and the environment will be discussed along with some recent highlights of analysis of thirty five years of aerosol chemistry observations at Alert on Northern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada.



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