An early nineteenth century meteorological register from the eastern Canadian Arctic

Polar Record ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (178) ◽  
pp. 335-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Kay
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Modern Experience ◽  
Eastern Canadian Arctic

AbstractSignificant warming in the Arctic is anticipated for doubled-CO2 scenarios, but temperatures in the eastern Canadian Arctic have not yet exhibited that trend in the last few decades. The spatial juxtaposition of the winter station in 1822–1823 of William Edward Parry's Northwest Passage expedition with the modern Igloolik Research Centre of the Science Institute of the Northwest Territories affords an opportunity for historical reconstruction and comparison. Parry's data are internally consistent. The association of colder temperatures with westerly and northerly winds, and wanner temperatures with easterly and southerly winds, is statistically significant. Temperatures are not exactly comparable between the two time periods because of differences in instrumentation, exposure, and frequency of readings. Nevertheless, in 1822–1823, November and December appear to have been cold and January to March mild compared to modern experience. Anomalously, winds were more frequently northerly (and less frequently westerly) in the latter months than in recent observations. Parry recorded two warm episodes in mid-winter, but, overall, it appears that the winter of 1822–1823 was not outside the range of modern experience.

The painting of the Arctic explorer Captain W. E. Parry (1790–1855) at Crosthwaite, near Kendal, Cumbria

Polar Record ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-279
Author(s):  
Robert G. David
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Northwest Passage

ABSTRACTResearch following the discovery of a picture of William Edward Parry painted onto wooden boards in the stairwell of a house in Cumbria, has resulted in the identification of the probable artist. It has also been possible to show that this painting was a copy of an engraving of Parry that was published in The European Magazine and London Review, and which was based on a portrait by Samuel Drummond. It is suggested that the new picture was probably painted between 1821 and 1823, and the fact that it was painted in a small provincial community reflects the reach of the early nineteenth century media and the significance of the search for the northwest passage for the country at large.

National Bodies: Robert Southey's Life of Nelson and John Franklin's Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea

2007 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-448
Author(s):  
Jen Hill
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Stark Contrast

This essay investigates the Arctic as an important, if unlikely, location for the formation of a British national and imperial masculinity in the early nineteenth century. Robert Southey's Life of Nelson (1813) established the national naval hero's heroic masculinity as Arctic in origin, revealing the utility of the Arctic in making British character legible. Perceived as unpopulated and "blank," Arctic geography stood in stark contrast to populated,torrid regions of the colonized tropics. The essay concludes with an examination of John Franklin's best-selling Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea(1823). This account of hardship, imperiled bodies, and cannibalism in an uncertain geography would appear to contradict Southey's claims. Yet despite the expedition's failures, Franklin's narrative only augments public perception of the Arctic as a proving ground for a British masculinity uniquely suited to imperial projects.

scholarly journals A first assessment of microplastics and other anthropogenic particles in Hudson Bay and the surrounding eastern Canadian Arctic waters of Nunavut

FACETS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 432-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aimee Huntington ◽  
Patricia L. Corcoran ◽  
Liisa Jantunen ◽  
Clara Thaysen ◽  
Sarah Bernstein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Long Range Transport ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Arctic Ecosystems ◽  
Range Transport ◽  
Eastern Canadian Arctic

Microplastics are a globally ubiquitous contaminant, invading the most remote regions, including the Arctic. To date, our understanding of the distribution and sources of microplastics in the Arctic is limited but growing. This study aims to advance our understanding of microplastics in the Arctic. Surface water, zooplankton, sediment, and snow samples were collected from Hudson Bay to north Baffin Bay onboard the CCGS Amundsen from July to August 2017. Samples were examined for microplastics, which were chemically identified via Raman spectroscopy for surface water and zooplankton and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for sediment. We found that 90% of surface water and zooplankton samples, and 85% of sediment samples, contained microplastics or other anthropogenic particles. Mean anthropogenic particle concentrations, which includes microplastics, were 0.22 ± 0.23 (per litre) for surface water, 3.51 ± 4.00 (per gram) for zooplankton, and 1.94 ± 4.12 (per gram) for sediment. These concentrations were not related to the human populations upstream, suggesting that microplastic contamination in the Arctic is from long-range transport. Overall, this study highlights the presence of microplastics across the eastern Canadian Arctic, in multiple media, and offers evidence of long-range transport via ocean and atmospheric currents. Further research is needed to better understand sources, distribution, and effects to Arctic ecosystems.

Tracing One Warm Line: Climate Stories and Silences in Northwest Passage Tourism

2021 ◽  
pp. e20200006
Author(s):  
Jenny Kerber
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Cruise Tourism ◽  
Significant Measure ◽  
Bear Witness

This article examines representations of polar cruise tourism in the Northwest Passage as climate change extends the geographic range of open waters and increases the number of ice-free days in the Canadian Arctic. It connects current cruise promotion to earlier exploration histories and investigates the paradoxes that arise in the drive to bear witness to climate change while accelerating its impacts through carbon-intensive travel. It also examines some of the ways that Franklin expedition tourism in particular is being used to reinforce claims of Canadian sovereignty over Arctic resources. Overall, the promotion of this kind of maritime tourism highlights many of the key fault lines between visitor expectations and geophysical and cultural realities in a changing North, raising doubts about whether expanded development of such tourism can succeed in creating climate change ambassadors. The article concludes that the potential for developing cross-cultural environmental justice solidarities depends in significant measure on the tourism industry’s greater inclusion of Inuit perspectives that understand the Arctic not merely as a place to travel through, but as a homeland of earth, sea, and the shifting ice between.

Beach observations of plastic and marine litter along the Northwest Passage

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Gijsbers ◽  
Hester Jiskoot
Keyword(s):  
Marine Pollution ◽  
Chukchi Sea ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Bering Strait ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Distant Early Warning ◽  
Dew Line

<p>Marine litter and microplastics are everywhere. Even the Arctic Ocean, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Island are contaminated as various publications confirm. Little, however, is reported about marine waters and shores of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. This poster presents the results of a privately funded citizen science observation to scan remote beaches along the Northwest Passage for marine litter pollution.</p><p>The observations were conducted while enjoying the 2019 Northwest Passage sailing expedition of the Tecla, a 1915 gaff-ketch herring drifter. The expedition started in Ilulissat, Greenland, on 1 August and ended in Nome, Alaska, on 18 September. After crossing Baffin Bay, the ship continued along Pond Inlet, Navy Board Inlet, Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, Peel Sound, Franklin Strait, Rea Strait, Simpson Strait, Queen Maud Gulf, Coronation Gulf, Amundsen Gulf, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea and Bering Strait. The vessel anchored in the settlement harbours of Pond Inlet, Taloyoak, Gjoa Haven, Cambridge Bay and Herschel Island. In addition, Tecla’s crew made landings at remote beaches on Disko Island (Fortune Bay, Disko Fjord), Beechey Island (Union Bay), Somerset Island (Four Rivers Bay), Boothia Peninsula (Weld Harbour), King William Island (M’Clintock Bay), Jenny Lind Island, and at Kugluktuk and Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula.</p><p>Following the categorization of the OSPAR Guideline for Monitoring Marine Litter on Beaches, litter observations were conducted without penetrating the beach surfaces. Beach stretches scanned varied in length from 100-400 m. No observations were conducted at inhabited settlements or at the abandoned settlements visited on Disko Island (Nipisat) and Beechey Island (Northumberland House).</p><p>Observations on the most remote beaches found 2-5 strongly bleached or decayed items in places such as Union Bay, Four Rivers Bay, Weld Harbour, Jenny Lind Island (Queen Maud Gulf side). Landings within 15 km of local settlements (Fortune Bay, Disko Fjord, Kugluktuk, Tuktoyaktuk) or near military activity (Jenny Lind Island, bay side) showed traces of local camping, hunting or fishing activities, resulting in item counts between 7 and 29. At the lee shore spit of M’Clintock Bay, significant pollution (> 100 items: including outboard engine parts, broken ceramic, glass, clothing, decayed batteries, a crampon and a vinyl record) was found, in contrast to a near-pristine beach on the Simpson Strait side. The litter type and concentration, as well as the remains of a building and shipwrecked fishing vessel indicate that this is an abandoned settlement, possibly related to the construction of the nearby Distant Early Warning Line radar site CAM-2 of Gladman Point. DEW Line sites have long been associated with environmental disturbances.</p><p>Given the 197 beach items recorded, it can be concluded that the beaches of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, which are blocked by sea ice during most of the year, are not pristine. Truly remote places have received marine pollution for decades to centuries. Where (abandoned) settlements are at close range pollution from local activities can be discovered, while ocean currents, wind patterns, ice rafting, distance to river mouths, and flotsam, jetsam and derelict also determine the type and amount of marine litter along the Northwest Passage.</p>

scholarly journals A case Study of old-ice import and export through Peary and Sverdrup Channels in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: 1998–2005

2006 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 329-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bea Alt ◽  
Katherine Wilson ◽  
Tom Carrières
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Ice Coverage ◽  
Through Flow ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
Import And Export

AbstractThis case Study attempts to quantify the amount and timing of the import, export and through-flow of old ice in the Peary Channel–sverdrup Channel area of the northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago during the period 1998–2005. The Study combines quantitative weekly area-averaged ice coverage evaluations from the Canadian Ice Service (CIS) Digital Archive with detailed analysis of Radarsat imagery and ice-motion results from the CIS ice-motion algorithm. The results Show that in 1998 more than 70% of the old ice in Peary–sverdrup was lost, half by melt and export to the South and the other half by export north into the Arctic Ocean, and that no Arctic Ocean old ice was imported into Peary–sverdrup. A net import of 10% old ice was Seen in 1999, with Some indication of through-flow into Southern channels. In 2000, no net import of old ice occurred in Peary–sverdrup, but there was Significant through-flow, with evidence of old ice reaching the Northwest Passage by November. Full recovery of the old-ice regime was complete by the end of 2001. More than two-thirds of the recovery was due to the in Situ formation of Second-year ice. Conditions in the following 3 years were near normal.

scholarly journals Recent extreme light sea ice years in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: 2011 and 2012 eclipse 1998 and 2007

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1313-1358 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. E. L. Howell ◽  
T. Wohlleben ◽  
A. Komarov ◽  
L. Pizzolato ◽  
C. Derksen
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Surface Air Temperature ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
First Year ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Northwest Passage

Abstract. Record low mean September sea ice area in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) was observed in 2011 (146 × 103 km2), a level that was nearly exceeded in 2012 (150 × 103 km2). These values eclipsed previous September records set in 1998 (200 × 103 km2) and 2007 (220 × 103 km2) and are ∼60% lower than the 1981–2010 mean September climatology. In this study, the driving processes contributing to the extreme light years of 2011 and 2012 were investigated, compared to previous extreme minima of 1998 and 2007, and contrasted against historic summer seasons with above average September ice area. The 2011 minimum was driven by positive July surface air temperature (SAT) anomalies that facilitated rapid melt, coupled with atmospheric circulation in July and August that restricted multi-year ice (MYI) inflow from the Arctic Ocean into the CAA. The 2012 minimum was also driven by positive July SAT anomalies (with coincident rapid melt) but further ice decline was temporarily mitigated by atmospheric circulation in August and September which drove Arctic Ocean MYI inflow into the CAA. Atmospheric circulation was comparable between 2011 and 1998 (impeding Arctic Ocean MYI inflow) and 2012 and 2007 (inducing Arctic Ocean MYI inflow). However, evidence of both preconditioned thinner Arctic Ocean MYI flowing into CAA and maximum landfast first-year ice (FYI) thickness within the CAA was more apparent leading up to 2011 and 2012 than 1998 and 2007. The rapid melt process in 2011 and 2012 was more intense than observed in 1998 and 2007 because of the thinner ice cover being more susceptible to positive SAT forcing. The thinner sea ice cover within the CAA in recent years has also helped counteract the processes that facilitate extreme heavy ice years. The recent extreme light years within the CAA are associated with a longer navigation season within the Northwest Passage.

scholarly journals Heroism and Imperialism in the Arctic: Edwin Landseer’s Man Proposes – God Disposes

Nordlit ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Ingeborg Høvik
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Bears ◽  
Northwest Passage

Edwin Landseer contributed the painting Man Proposes - God Disposes (Royal Holloway College, Egham), showing two polar bears amongst the remnants of a failed Arctic expedition, to the Royal Academy's annual exhibition of 1864. As contemporary nineteenth-century reviews of this exhibition show, the British public commonly associated Landseer's painting with the lost Arctic expedition of sir John Franklin, who had set out to find the Northwest Passage in 1845. Despite Landseer's gloomy representation of a present-day human disaster and, in effect, of British exploration in the Arctic, the painting became a public success upon its first showing. I will argue that a major reason why the painting became a success, was because Landseer's version of the Franklin expedition's fate offered a closure to the whole Franklin tragedy that corresponded to British nineteenth-century views on heroism and British-ness.

scholarly journals Arctic marine climate of the early nineteenth century

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-61
Author(s):  
P. Brohan ◽  
C. Ward ◽  
G. Willetts ◽  
C. Wilkinson ◽  
R. Allan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Ice Coverage ◽  
Proxy Reconstructions ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Marine Climate

Abstract. The climate of the early nineteenth century is likely to have been significantly cooler than that of today, as it was a period of low solar activity (the Dalton minimum) and followed a series of large volcanic eruptions. Proxy reconstructions of the temperature of the period do not agree well on the size of the temperature change, so other observational records from the period are particularly valuable. Weather observations have been extracted from the reports of the noted whaling captain William Scoresby Jr., and from the records of a series of Royal Navy expeditions to the Arctic, preserved in the UK National Archives. They demonstrate that marine climate in 1810–25 was marked by consistently cold summers, with abundant sea-ice. But although the period was significantly colder than the modern average, there was a lot of variability: in the Greenland Sea the summers following the Tambora eruption (1816 and 1817) were noticeably warmer, and had lower sea-ice coverage, than the years immediately preceding them; and the sea-ice coverage in Lancaster Sound in 1819 and 1820 was low even by modern standards.

Henry Asbjorn Larsen (1899-1964)

ARCTIC ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
A.E. Porsild
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Royal Canadian Mounted Police ◽  
Blue Book ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Compulsory Military Service ◽  
Arctic Exploration ◽  
Arctic Navigation ◽  
Old Maid

Henry Asbjørn Larsen, retired Superintendent of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, died in Vancouver, B.C., on 29 October 1964, after a brief illness. He was buried in the R.C.M.P. cemetery at Regina, Saskatchewan. Superintendent Larsen was born on 30 September 1899 at Fredrikstad on the east coast of Oslo Fjord in Norway, not far from the birth place of Roald Amundsen, the first to bring a ship through the Northwest Passage, and the leader of the first expedition to reach the South Pole. It is uncertain if Larsen ever knew Amundsen personally, but when he was an adolescent the tradition of Norwegian arctic exploration was at its height and the brilliant exploits of Nansen, Sverdrup and Amundsen undoubtedly fired his imagination and inspired a strong desire to follow the sea in search of arctic adventure and exploration. It is not surprising, therefore, that young Henry should choose to do his compulsory military service in the Norwegian Navy. Later he learnt practical seamanship in merchant ships and entered navigation school from which he graduated with a mate's certificate. After some years spent in Norwegian ships, including a stint as Chief Officer in a trans-atlantic liner, he was at last to realize his cherished ambition for arctic service when offered the berth as navigator in the veteran arctic trading schooner Old Maid of Seattle, bound for the Western Canadian Arctic. The arctic experience gained during two voyages in the Old Maid qualified Larsen for command of the R.C.M.P. patrol vessel St. Roch, specially designed for arctic navigation, built and commissioned in Vancouver, in 1928. In April of that year Larsen had joined the Force as a Constable; he was promoted to Corporal on April 1, 1929, six months later was made a Sergeant and on November 1, 1942 a Staff Sergeant. Between 1928 and 1939 the St. Roch with Larsen in command spent 12 summers and 7 winters patrolling the Western Canadian Arctic, supplying northern detachments and, in general, serving as a floating detachment; but the two voyages for which the St. Roch and its captain became famous were the west to east trip through the Northwest Passage in 1940-42 and the east to west return passage, completed in one season, in 1942. On the first Larsen followed Amundsen's route in the Gjøa, 1903-06 but on the return voyage he sailed the St. Roch through Lancaster and Viscount Wellington Sounds and south through Prince of Wales Strait to Beaufort Sea, the first ship to have completed this passage. The official report of the two historic voyages is recorded in a R.C.M.P. "Blue Book" published in 1945. To those familiar with arctic exploration and its long history of privation, hunger and cold, the terse daily entries copied from the St. Roch's log seem as undramatic and commonplace as if each voyage had been entirely routine. ... In his northern work, whether on the bridge of his sturdy little ship or heading a winter patrol, Henry Larsen proved himself an experienced traveller and an eminently successful navigator and leader of men. By his sympathetic understanding, patience and quiet sense of humour he completely won the confidence and lasting friendship of the Eskimo who in him have lost a staunch friend and understanding advocate. Henry Larsen was commissioned Sub-Inspector in the Force in September 1944, promoted to Inspector in 1946, and to Superintendent in 1953. ... Superintendent Larsen was a graduate of the Canadian Police College. From 1949 until his retirement on February 7, 1961 he was stationed at Ottawa as Officer Commanding the "G" Division of the R.C.M.P. whose work deals with the Northwest Territories and Yukon. ...

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document