Lassonde’s Haas talks about Arctic Ice

Lassonde Professor Christian Haas is featured in the latest edition of Arctic Journal in a feature On Thin Ice: The State of the Arctic Sea Ice.

My arms and back are sore and eyes and face are burning as we tackle the last 50 kilometres of our 400 km, five-day snowmobile survey from Resolute Bay to Grise Fjord, the two northernmost communities in Canada’s Arctic. But a bright sun shines through the crispy air as we cross Jones Sound and approach the grand views of the mountains and fjords along the southern coast of Ellesmere Island. It is mid-May, and behind us lie long days of negotiating rough snowdrifts and ridged sea ice. We have camped among polar bears and seals and enjoyed good company with our Inuit guides. Nothing seems to be able to ever change this pristine landscape.

However, in our tow are qamutiit equipped with electromagnetic ice thickness sensors and snow radars, which can map ice and snow conditions continuously as we move along on our snowmobiles. The data are required to evaluate the state of the sea ice in the sounds, straits and channels of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, where little is known about sea ice and oceanic change and consequential impacts on the ecosystem and local residents.

The rest of the article can be found on www.arcticjournal.ca