Dr. Chris Derksen

Environment Canada
Atmospheric Science and Technology Directorate
Climate Research Division, Climate Processes Section
4905 Dufferin Street
Toronto, ON, M3H 5T4
Phone: (416) 739-5804
Fax: (416) 739-5700

Mr. Arvids Silis

Environment Canada
Atmospheric Science and Technology Directorate
Climate Research Division, Climate Processes Section
4905 Dufferin Street
Toronto, ON, M3H 5T4
Phone: (416) 739-5804
Fax: (416) 739-5700

 

Chris Derksen is a research scientist with the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada. Chris first experienced the Arctic in 1994 as a second year undergraduate student, when he worked at a sea ice research camp near Resolute Bay. Chris also met Arvids Silis during this field project, which marked the start of their collaborative field activities which continue today. Arvids Silis is a cryosphere climatologist with Environment Canada, and his first experience in the Arctic was as a student on a 4th year field course to the polar bear capital of the world, Churchill Manitoba, in August of 1983. Needless to say he has been chasing bears ever since, whether in the high Arctic Islands, back in Churchill, or anywhere in between. Chris and Arvids (affectionately known as ‘Team Bigfoot’) have since worked together on field projects in Saskatchewan, northern Ontario, northern Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories, operating under the motto that “a bad day in the field is better than a good day in the office.”

 

The focus of Chris and Arvids’ field work is the acquisition of snow cover measurements to assist in the interpretation and validation of satellite estimates of snow cover and snow water equivalent (the amount of liquid water stored in a snowpack). They will be joining up with their Alaskan colleagues at the Tundra Ecosystem Research Station at Daring Lake in the Northwest Territories. Daring Lake is the site of many sub-Arctic tundra research projects, including intensive studies of the snowpack, ongoing since 2003. Measurements made along the Alaska – Canada barrenlands traverse route will represent the first systematic snowpack survey across this area, providing an invaluable perspective on regional properties of the snowpack. These data will complement the detailed measurements made in recent years, in the vicinity of Daring Lake.

 

 

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