Eureka! Studying the atmosphere in the High Arctic

Remember we when we told you about the sunrise campaign and the group of scientists who will be travelling to Eureka? Well, they have arrived safely and the Canadian Space Agency has published a great infographic of the work CANDAC scientists are doing up north. Check it out:

You can learn more about the campaign on the Canadian Space Agency's website. 

The Student-Researcher Atmospheric Collaboration Program launches in Iqaluit!

Dan, Shannon, and Aubyn spent the week of February 5-10 in Iqaluit, Nunavut launching the 2017 Student-Researcher Atmospheric Collaboration Program with students at Joamie Iliniarvik School and Inuksuk Highschool.

Our first visit was to Pascale's Experiential Science class (grade 11/12) at Inuksuk. It was a cloudy day, but we still managed to get outside to take measurements with hand held sun photometers. Pascale's students will be taking daily AOT measurements starting Feb. 20th.

Our next visit was to Joamie Elementary School where we visited the classes of Ida, Hamdi, Angelo, Miali, and Marsha. The student-researchers at Joamie will be taking daily temperature, wind, and solar insolation measurements using thermometers, windsocks, anemometers, and pyranometers.

Thank you to all classes we visited for your hard work and attention, and of course, your wonderful questions! We will be sending some of your questions to the scientists heading to Eureka, Nunavut next week and will be posting their replies here on the blog.

 

Shannon, Pascale, and Dan

 The plants in Pascale's classroom were thriving even though it was -45 outside!

We were enthralled by the class chicken coop. Pascale's class hatched these
chickens from eggs!

Shannon with the very charming class quail.

Searching for the sun on a very cloudy day

Experimenting with where we place the pyranometer, and where we
stand to take the measurment!

On Wednesday the sun finally came out- a great day for taking measurements!

Testing out the pyranometers

Demonstration convection currents- did anyone try this at home?

The Outreach team heads to Iqaluit

Dan, Shannon, and Aubyn flew to Iqaluit on Sunday, February 5th, 2017. We are launching the Student-Researcher Atmospheric Collaboration Program with students at Inuksuk High School and Joamie Elementary! Here are a few photos Dan took along the way:

Getting on the plane in Ottawa:

A beautiful view from the plane:

At the airport in Iqaluit  when we landed, around 5:00PM!

We are very excited to be in Iqaluit and to meet the student-researchers at Inuksuk and Joamie! 

Program launch at da Vinci Public School!

On Thursday, February 3, 2017 the CANDAC Outreach Team travelled to visit Mrs. Cregg's kindegarten class and Mrs. Pignatell's grade 4 class at da Vinci Public School in Ajax, Ontario. The student researchers at da Vinci will be taking wind, temperature, and solar insolation measurements over the next eight weeks. Mrs. Cregg's class had already mapped out two of the locations where measurements will be taking place:

 Mrs. Cregg's class was also studying polar bears and other arctic animals:

  Taking wind measurements using an anemomemeter and a wind sock outside: it was a windy day!

 Taking temperature measurements outside with thermometers, it was -2 on Thursday:

 Good luck with your measurements da Vinci student researchers!

Taking measurements on the roof! Where will you be taking measurements?

Today Aubyn went up to the chilly roof of the Physics building at the University of Toronto to test the intstruments we will be using to take measurements during the 2017 Student-Researcher Atmospheric Collaboration Project.

She's testing a pyranometer and a multimeter: instruments used to measure solar insolation.

Orfeo came to help her out!

It's a crisp, cloudy day here in Toronto. Can you tell what type of clouds those are?