2016 Connaught Summer Institute in Arctic Science: Atmosphere, Cryosphere, and Climate

The Connaught Summer Institute in Arctic Science: Atmosphere, Cryosphere, and Climate took place from July 18 to 22, 2016 at the Nottawasaga Inn in Alliston, Ontario.  The Summer Institute is supported by the University of Toronto's Connaught Fund and builds on the Summer School program developed by the NSERC CREATE Training Program in Arctic Atmospheric Science (CREATE-AAS). It is affiliated with three NSERC-funded networks: Probing the Atmosphere of the High Arctic (PAHA), the Network on Climate and Aerosols (NETCARE), and the Canadian Sea Ice and Snow Evolution (CanSISE) Network. The Summer Institute spans the disciplines of physics, chemistry, earth sciences, geography, environmental science, and related areas, and encompasses the use of experimental, field observation, and modelling methodologies to study the Arctic region.  Thirty-three graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from across Canada and the USA attended. A wide variety of topics covered include Arctic sea ice trends and changes, Arctic tropospheric chemistry and climate, Arctic snow, composition-climate interactions, Arctic aerosols, Inuit heritage and archaeology, Antarctic ClO measurements, the Arctic’s role in the global carbon cycle, science writing and journalism, remote sensing in the oil and gas industry, monitoring Arctic weather, instrumentation for remote sensing of the atmosphere, and career planning.

Speakers and panelists included Peter Braesicke (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Henry Buijs (ABB Inc.), Peter Calamai (communications consultant and freelance writer), Ray Clement (EnviroAnalysis, formerly with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment), Brian Connor (BC Consulting Ltd., NZ), Chris Derksen (Environment and Climate Change Canada), Sarah Finkelstein (University of Toronto), John Fyfe (Environment and Climate Change Canada), Gabrielle Gascon (Environment and Climate Change Canada), Dorothy Gordon (Senior HR Consultant), Patrick Hayes (Université de Montréal), Bob Holmes (New Scientist magazine), Bill Simpson (University of Alaska Fairbanks), Boyd Tolton (Synodon Inc.), Deborah Kigjugalik Webster (Author and Heritage Researcher), and Debra Wunch (University of Toronto). 

Students also participated in an introductory Jamboree, a career development workshop, a science writing workshop, and a career panel discussion, and presented their own research during a poster session.  Students and speakers got to know one another at the opening “Bingo” icebreaker hosted by the CREATE-AAS Trainees’ Advisory Committee (TAC) and generously sponsored by ABB.  The Poster Session gave students a chance to present and discuss their current research projects with the speakers and their peers. 

We recruited six of our speakers to act as poster judges to ensure that all students presented their work to a minimum of two judges. Peter Braesicke, Chris Derksen, John Fyfe, Patrick Hayes, Bob Holmes, and Boyd Tolton served as judges for the Outstanding Poster Awards, which were awarded to two MSc students and three PhD students. The MSc Outstanding Poster Awards were awarded to Ludovick Pelletier, a student from Université du Québec à Montréal who presented preliminary results from a new instrument prototype, the Far InfraRed Radiometer located at Eureka, and to Keegan Smith, a geography student from Carleton University who presented his research on terrain modeling of snow accumulation near Iqaluit, Nunavut. The PhD Outstanding Poster Awards were presented to Brendan Byrne, a PhD student at the University of Toronto whose research involves the use of Observing System Simulation Experiments to examine how differences in sensitivities influence the ability to recover surface fluxes; to Shannon Hicks, a PhD student at the University of Western Ontario whose thesis involves working with a lidar that has been operating for almost nine years; and  to Erik Lutsch, a PhD student at the University of Toronto whose used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic measurements at Eureka, Toronto, and Halifax to investigate the long-range transport of wildfire pollution from the 2014 Northwest Territories fires. Congratulations to all the winners!

One of the goals of the Connaught Summer Institute in Arctic Science is to provide attendees with some professional skills training. This year, two workshops were offered. The first workshop was given by HR consultant Dorothy Gordon. Dorothy’s workshop entitled, “How to find your Superpower within to help you land your dream job” advised new graduates looking for jobs on integral parts of the job search process such as what to include in a personal narrative/elevator speech, and how to prepare for a phone screening and face-to-face interviews. The second workshop was delivered in two parts, beginning with a lecture given in tandem by two acclaimed science journalists, Bob Holmes and Peter Calamai. Peter, who has nearly four decades of journalism experience, outlined “10 new maxims for communicating science to a thinking audience.” Bob, a correspondent for New Scientist magazine, gave a workshop on science writing later in the week, which included many helpful tips for both writing scientific articles and speaking to journalists. 

As a summer school based on Arctic science, it is important to recognize the local knowledge and those who live where our research is performed. This year, we invited Inuit historian and archaeologist Deborah Webster to give a series of three lectures on topics in her field, ranging from Inuit heritage and oral tradition to conducting archaeological projects in Nunavut.

The Career Panel on Wednesday evening provided perspectives from industry (Henry Buijs and Boyd Tolton), government (Ray Clement and Gabrielle Gascon), and academia (Sarah Finkelstein).  The session began with short introductions by each panelist. Yasmin AboEl-Fetouh, a PhD student at Université de Sherbrooke, moderated the career panel, and had prepared questions in advance for each panelist, based on some of the questions asked by students in a submission box. Attendees also had the opportunity to talk to speakers and panelists informally during meals and coffee breaks.

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Summer Institute Schedule

2016 Connaught Summer Institute Program

2016 Connaught Summer Institute Survey - summary of results

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Suggested Readings and Websites

Peter Calamai:

 
ECO Canada - environmental careers: http://www.eco.ca/

"What Color is Your Parachute?" by Richard Bolles

Brian Connor:

20 Years of ClO Measurements in the Antarctic Lower Stratosphere - one-page summary

Nedoluha et al., 20 Years of ClO Measurements in the Antarctic Lower Stratosphere, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., doi:10.5194/acp-2016-188, in review, 2016

Miller et al., PALEOCLIMATE | Paleoclimate History of the Arctic. Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science (Second Edition).  Amsterdam: Elsevier, 113-125, 2013.

http://www.cccma.ec.gc.ca/ 
Ed Hawkins' climate spiral: http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/~ed/home/twitter.php and Jay Alder's version: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/temperature-spiral-update-20399
Susan Solomon, Emergence of healing in the Antarctic ozone layer, Science, 353 (6296), 269-274, 15 July 2016.  And supplementary commentary.

Gabrielle Gascon

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gabrielle_Gascon
Government of Canada Job Bank: http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/home-eng.do?lang=eng
Environment Canada Pan Arctic Science Showcase (ECPASS) website: ecpass.ca

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/dgordonhrprofessional 

Website for resume assistance: www.beatresumesystems.com
Glassdoor - Jobs and Reviews on Organizations: www.glassdoor.ca
“Get the Job”  by Pamela Paterson
"Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi

Patrick Hayes

 

Bob Holmes:
http://bobholmes.org/about-us/ 

 
2015 AMAP Assessment on Black carbon and ozone as Arctic climate forcers: http://www.amap.no/documents/doc/AMAP-Assessment-2015-Black-carbon-and-ozone-as-Arctic-climate-forcers/1299

Kimberly Strong:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/inuit-special-constable-nunavut-deborah-webster-1.3528764 
Report of the Ittarnisalirijiit Conference on Inuit Archaeology, Igloolik, February 7-9, 1994
Inuit Heritage Trust: http://www.ihti.ca/
Nunavut Research Institute: http://www.nri.nu.ca/
Knud Rasmussen, Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921-24, The Netsilik Eskimos, Social Life and Spiritual Culture (1931)
"Harvaqtuurmiut Heritage: the heritage of the Inuit of the Lower Kazan river" compiled by Deborah Webster
"Inuksuit: Silent Messengers of the Arctic" by Norman Hallendy (Douglas & McIntyre, 2001)
"Tukiliit: The Stone People Who Live in the Wind" by Norman Hallendy (University of Alaska Press, 2009)
Norman Hallendy: http://www.douglas-mcintyre.com/author/norman-hallendy

@CanSISE           

 

CREATE-AAS

http://www.candac.ca/create/

@CREATEArcticSci: https://twitter.com/CREATEArcticSci

CANDAC: http://www.facebook.com/groups/CANDAC/

CREATE Arctic Science Blog: http://createarcticscience.wordpress.com/

2011 Summer School

2012 Summer School

2013 Summer School

2014 Connaught Summer Institute

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Student Poster Session

Click on thumbnails for larger versions of the photos and posters.

Name, Institution		Poster		Name, Institution		Poster
Yasmin AboEl-Fetouh (PhD) Université de Sherbrooke			Climatological-scale variation of the fine mode aerosol optical depth and effective radius over Eureka and Ny Alessund, Spitsbergen	Whitney Bader (PDF) University of Toronto	Not available		Heavy methane to explain the unexplained recent methane growth?
Ralf Bauer (PDF) University of Toronto			Validating satellite measurements over the Canadian high Arctic	Kristof Bognar (MSc) University of Toronto			A bromine explosion event, as seen by ground based spectrometers at Eureka
Brendan Byrne (PhD) University of Toronto			Sensitivity of CO2 flux inversions to the temporal and spatial distribution of observations	Laurence Coursol (MSc) Université du Québec à Montréal			Using far infrared satellite observations for data assimilation in polar regions
April Dalton (PhD) University of Toronto			Investigating the Missinaibi Formation, Hudson Bay Lowlands, Canada: implications for ice sheet paleogeography and paleoclimate	Joan De Vera (PhD) University of Toronto			Role of aerosols in understanding movement of contaminants in the Arctic
Jing Feng (MSc) McGill University			Cloud-assisted retrieval of stratospheric water vapor from nadir view satellite measurements	Shayamila Gamage  (PhD)  University of Western Ontario			RALMO Rotational Raman Temperature Retrieval: Traditional Method and First Steps Towards The Application of Optimal Estimation Method (OEM) Retrieval
Shannon Hicks (PhD) University of Western Ontario		Not available	A Multi-year Water Vapour Mixing Ratio Climatology using the MeteoSwiss RAman Lidar for Meteorological Observation (RALMO), Step 1: Lidar Calibration, A Different Approach	Siraj ul Islam (PDF) University of Northern British Columbia			Quantification of uncertainties in modelling the present and projected hydrology of the Fraser River Basin, British Columbia
Liviu Ivanescu (PhD) Université du Québec à Montréal			Challenges in operating an Arctic telescope	Ali Jalali (PhD) University of Western Ontario			Evaluation of Temperature Retrieval Techniques Using PCL Rayleigh Scattering Temperature Climatology
Paul Jeffery (PhD) University of Toronto			Global Trends in Water Vapor as Measured by ACE-FTS	Allison Kolly (MSc) McGill University			Diagnosing the sign of Cloud Radiative Feedback
Kunna Li (MSc) University of Toronto			The impact of Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) and vertical resolution on dynamics and chemistry in Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM)	Li Li (PDF) St. Mary’s University			Measurements of Ozone from OP-FTIR in Halifax, Canada
Zhenhua Li (PDF) University of Saskatchewan		Not available	Polar Vortex and Circulation Patterns of Persistent Cold Events In Central-Eastern North America	Erik Lutsch (PhD) University of Toronto			Detection of Wildfire Pollution Across Canada: From the High Arctic to Toronto and to the East in Halifax
Sarah Murphy (PhD) Washington State University			A Preliminary Case Study of Cloud Radiative Forcing During the N-ICE2015 Experiment	Ludovick Pelletier (MSc) Université du Québec à Montréal			Far Infrared Radiometer campaign at Eureka
Keyvan Ranjbar (PhD) Université de Sherbrooke		Not available	Polar winter sea-salt events over and near Ny Alesund, Spitsbergen	Ellen Reyes (MSc) University of Waterloo		Not available	Assessing Mercury Risks for the Optimization of Nutrient Benefits from Wild-harvested Fish Consumption in the Northwest Territories, Canada
Sébastien Roche (PhD) University of Toronto		Not available	GFIT2 : CO2 profile retrievals	Rodrigue Sandrin (MSc) University of Toronto			Trend analysis of atmospheric trace gases over Toronto during the past 15 years
Kanupria Seth (UG) University of Toronto			Overview of the University of Toronto Atmospheric Observatory, and investigation of atmospheric temperatures and trace gas concentration in Toronto	Keegan Smith (MSc) Carleton University			Terrain modeling of snow accumulation near Iqaluit, Nunavut
Chris Vail (MSc) University of New Brunswick			Climatology of Gravity Wave Activity over Eureka, Nunavut using the PASI	Jeff VanKerkhove (PhD)  Western University			Characterizing the Purple Crow Lidar Water Vapour Lidar to investigate potential sources of bias
Dan Weaver (PhD)  University of Toronto			TCCON vs. MUSICA: Can the carbon-focused network measure atmospheric water vapour accurately?	Charlie White (MSc) University of Toronto			Identification of patterns in the global atmospheric circulation preceding extreme heat and ozone events
Xiaoyi Zhao (PhD)  University of Toronto		Not available	Accuracy, precision, and temperature dependance of Pandora total ozone measurements estimated from a comparison with the Brewer triad in Toronto

 

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Photos

More photos of the 2016 Summer Institute can be found on our flickr page.

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Information about the 2016 Summer Institute can be found on this poster, but the competition for 2016 has now closed.
The application form can be downloaded from this link.  The application deadline was May 30, 2016.
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