Iqaluit in March: Experiencing an Arctic Winter

Visiting Iqaluit for the IAFS was like a home coming and a new experience rolled into one. A home coming because I had spent so much time in and around Iqaluit in 2013 and 2014 conducting my PhD field work. I even stayed in the Nunavut Arctic College's Q units during the IAFS as I had in my previous stays in Iqaluit. A new experience because I have never experienced an Arctic winter before. We actually lucked out with the weather with beautiful sunny, windless blue-sky days a little warmer than might be typical but days still no warmer than about -15C and dropping below -20C at night. The Arctic winter I experienced was no colder than a cold, sunny, winter day in Ottawa

Iqaluit in winter from the breakwater (left) and Frobisher Bay from behind the visitors centre (right)
both pictures show extensive rough ice where the tides heave up the sea ice close to shore.

The city of Iqaluit has both stayed the same and changed. All the old buildings and institutions are still there but some new buildings have been added. The new airport building has now opened, replacing the old “yellow submarine”. There are some new small low rise colourful apartment buildings in the centre replacing open spaces. The empty field with inuksuks next to the Nunavut Arctic College is in the process of being transformed into a huge expansion of the college.

Iqaluit's new airport building (top left) that recently replaced the old "yellow submarine" (top right).
Iqaluit's new colourful downtown buildings (middle). The igloo shaped building is Iqaluit's cathedral.
The new Nunavut Arctic College building under construction (bottom left) and the field of Inuksuk's
in 2013 (bottom right) where the building is now being constructed.

There is a beautiful new, bright fitness centre with swimming pool and gym. I was super excited to get the opportunity to swim in the new pool because when I was in Iqaluit last time it was nothing more than pylon supports for the building. The Iqaluit Director of Recreation, Amy Elgersma, was at Lake Hazen for a couple of weeks in 2014 so I had heard many stories and challenges of building a swimming pool in the Arctic.

Iqaluit's new aquatic centre with swimming pool and gym. The pool is upstairs, I suspect to minimise the impact to the permafrost, the colourful windows (left) allow in lots of natural light. There is a six lane 25m pool and a kiddies
pool with water slide (right). The whole building is suspended off the ground on pylons to allow air circulation
underneath and help keep the permafrost cold.

There was not much more snow this time in March 2018 than when I arrived at the end of May 2013 (a very snowy year) but the snow we encountered at the start of March this time was hard packed wind slab that we could walk on without sinking in compared to the soft snow that was hard to travel over that I encountered in May in previous years. As this was my first visit to the Arctic in the winter, it was interesting to compare my summer photos from 2013 and 2014 with my winter photos from 2018.

 

Iqaluit in summer and winter: Apex beach with the boat we use to shelter in out of the wind for lunch while conducting field work near Apex in 2013 and 2014 (top). Hudson Bay Company building at Apex (middle). Sylvia Grinnell River from the pavillion in Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park (bottom).

Participating in an International Arctic Field School

I just returned from an action packed, intensive 7-day International Arctic Field School (IAFS) on The Changing Cryosphere: From Sensors to Decision Making, in Iqaluit, Nunavut run through the Sentinel North Program at Laval University. The field school brought together local experts, students and researchers from multiple disciplines from across North America and Europe interested in many different aspects of the Arctic and the impact of climate change. It was a great networking opportunity; we meet so many different Arctic researchers and Nunavut community members and learnt through their expertise and experience. Each morning started with 5 participants giving a 2-minute elevator pitch on their research, there were a fascinating array of elevator pitches on permafrost, glaciers, whales, plants, Arctic policy and Inuit health and wellness.

IAFS participants and bowhead whale jaw bone arch. I am in the front row on the right.
(photo taken by Pascale Ropars at Apex Cemetary)

The cryosphere is anything that is permanently frozen for 2 years or more including sea ice, permafrost and glaciers and as the climate warms the cryosphere is changing. As we learnt throughout the week, this has impacts on the land and ocean ecology, the Inuit way of life including hunting practises and travel, and community infrastructure including buildings, roads, airports, water supplies and pipes. In the mornings we heard presentations on everything from ecology to health to infrastructure and how they are being impacted by the changing cryosphere. In the afternoons, we headed out on the land to see the cryosphere in action, digging snow pits, building igloos and boring holes through lake and sea ice. We took measurements of the properties of the snow and lake water which we then used in subsequent analysis to further our understanding of cryosphere processes.

A) Taking snow pit measurements at Sylvia Grinnell Park. The snow structure was wind slab on top of depth hoar. We measured snow temperature and snow density at 10cm intervals down the snow pit and looked at snow crystal structure.
B) Igloo building at Sylvia Grinnell Park. The wind slab snow used for igloo building is dense and strong. It was easy to cut blocks with a knife or saw. We just shaved the blocks to fit them into the igloo.
C) Our completed two person igloo. The blocks are built up in a spiral and the entrance is dug out below snow level.
D) Camille, Sarah and Pierrick, inside the big igloo.
E) IAFS participants outside the big igloo we built. I am kneeling to the right of the igloo entrance.

We completed mini projects on snow properties, limnology and infrastructure culminating in short presentations on our findings and interpretations. We worked in small groups composed of graduate students and postdocs from universities and Inuit students from the Environmental Technology Program, Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit, drawing on local knowledge from the Inuit students and what we had learnt in the class room and on the land. The field school structure of lectures, field work, group exercises and presentations was a great approach to gain a deep understanding in a very short space of time of many facets of the Arctic that we were not always familiar with. Our final mini project was to design a road across the tundra taking into consideration the permafrost properties in different superficial geologies and applying different construction techniques to minimise the thawing of the permafrost.

A) Traveling by skidoo and komatik on a beautiful sunny, windless day in the Arctic winter to take lake limnology and snow water equivalent measurements near the Road to Nowhere.

B) Augering a hole through the sea ice. The sea ice was about 1.4m thick.
C) Ready to take lake limnology measurements. The lake near the Road to Nowhere stretching behind me is ~8m deep. 
D) Augered hole through lake ice. The lake ice was as thick as I am tall and the water underneath was 1.5-2°C.
E) Thermal siphons outside the RCMP building, Iqaluit. These are passive devices with horizontal liquid gas pipes underneath the building that draw heat away from the building reducing the warming of the permafrost underneath. The liquid gas is pressurised and evaporates on heating rising up the vertical tubes seen here. The heat is wicked away by the thermal diffusers on the vertical pipes and then condenses and runs back as liquid to the horizontal pipes under the building.

You can read more about the field course through the daily blog the participants wrote http://sentinellenord.ulaval.ca/en/changing-cryosphere-field-report. All in all, an excellent and well organised experience for both participants and mentors.