The Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) is an atmospheric research facility in the Canadian High Arctic , located on Ellesmere Island , Nunavut . Considered one of the most important Arctic research labs in the world, it was the subject of international media attention when it almost closed due to funding cuts by the Canadian Federal Government in 2012.
21-1094: PEARL is located on Ellesmere Island, about 15 km from the Eureka Weather Station in Eureka, Nunavut and about 1,100 km from the North Pole. It consists of 3 facilities: the Ridge Lab building, originally built by the Meteorological Service of Canada in 1992 to hold the Arctic Stratospheric Ozone Observatory (AStrO), the Zero (0) Altitude PEARL Auxiliary Laboratory (0PAL) and the Surface Atmospheric Flux and IRradiation Extension (SAFIRE). Full time AStrO operations ended in 2001 due to government budget cuts. After hearing that
42-533: A polar climate ( ET ). The settlement sees the midnight sun between April 10 and August 29, with no sunlight at all between mid-October and late February. Eureka has the lowest average annual temperature and least precipitation of any weather station in Canada with an annual mean temperature of −18.1 °C (−0.6 °F). Average winter temperatures are almost comparable to those found in northeastern Siberia. However, summers are slightly warmer than other places in
63-481: A familiarization trip, in order to prepare for the possibility of Danish aircraft assisting in search and rescue missions over Canadian territory. The Canadian American Strategic Review noted critically that the first jet to fly a mission to Eureka was not Canadian. At Eureka's latitude, a geosynchronous communications satellite , if due south, would require an antenna to be pointed nearly horizontally; satellites farther east or west along that orbit would be below
84-557: A member of his expedition. On December 24, 2013, CBC News reported that ancient Camel fossils had been found in a petrified forest of paleontological significance, on the peninsula. Canada Coal had been considering proposing exploitation of coal reserves in the region, and said it would take the fossil riches into account in a revised proposal. 79°40′N 083°45′W / 79.667°N 83.750°W / 79.667; -83.750 ( Fosheim Peninsula ) This Qikiqtaaluk Region , Nunavut location article
105-512: A promising spot on Ellesmere Island, and five prefabricated Jamesway huts were constructed. Regular weather observations began on January 1, 1948. The station has expanded over the years. At its peak, in the 1970s, at least fifteen staff were on site; in 2005, it reported a permanent population of zero with at least eight staff on a continuous rotational basis. Several generations of buildings have been developed. The latest operations centre, with work areas and staff quarters in one large structure,
126-875: Is likely the world's most northerly geosynchronous satellite ground-station to provide Internet-based communications to PEARL. Other inhabited places on Ellesmere Island include Alert and Grise Fiord . Eureka has been described as "The Garden Spot of the Arctic" due to the flora and fauna abundant around the Eureka area, more so than anywhere else in the High Arctic. Fauna include polar bears , muskox , Arctic wolves , Arctic foxes , Arctic hares , and lemmings . In addition, summer nesting geese, ducks, owls, loons, ravens, gulls and many other smaller birds nest, raise their young, and return south in August. Eureka experiences
147-596: Is located in western Ellesmere Island , a part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut . Eureka , a permanent research community, is located on the north side of Slidre Fiord, a few kilometers east of Eureka Sound . While the peninsula was first sighted by the Arctic explorer Adolphus Greely in 1881, it was not explored until 1899 by Otto Sverdrup , who named it after Ivar Fosheim,
168-576: The Canadian Arctic because Eureka is somewhat landlocked, being near the centre of Ellesmere Island . Even so, since record keeping began, the temperature has never exceeded 20.9 °C (69.6 °F), first reached on July 14, 2009. Although a polar desert, evaporation is also very low, which allows the limited moisture to be made available for plants and wildlife. Its frost-free season averages 56 days, much longer than many other places nearby. Fosheim Peninsula The Fosheim Peninsula
189-472: The "move comes just as data from the fast-changing Arctic climate are most needed" and that it "is hard to believe that finance is the true reason" for the closure. In the month after the announcement, the Canadian public donated $ 12,000 to help keep the station from closing. Kim Strong , one of the founders of CANDAC, said that while the funds were not enough to keep the station open, the expression of support
210-571: The 2012 funding cuts the lab lost its trained operators and observations were no longer taken continuously, which reduced researchers' confidence in their data. The lab again faced an uncertain future when CCAR funding ran out in 2017. The new, Liberal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau provided $ 1.6-million in short-term funding for the facility. However, this funding ran out again in September 2019. Canadian scientists have criticized
231-563: The Canadian Network for Detection of Atmospheric Change. PEARL announced it would cease full-time year-round operation as of April 30, 2012, due to lack of funding, but this decision was reversed in May 2013 with the announcement of new funds. Eureka was founded on April 7, 1947, as part of an initiative to set up a network of Arctic weather stations . On this date, 100 t (98 long tons; 110 short tons) of supplies were airlifted to
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#1732791116497252-526: The Ridge Lab was in danger of being demolished, Canadian Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Change (CANDAC), a group of university-based climate scientists and government researchers who study the atmosphere over Canada, proposed to take over the facility. CANDAC was able to successfully re-open the facility in 2005 with a grant from the federal Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). PEARL has operated continuously since 2005. From 2005 to 2010, most of
273-424: The Trudeau government for not having a more stable source of funding for fundamental climate science. Eureka, Nunavut Eureka is a small research base on Fosheim Peninsula , Ellesmere Island , Qikiqtaaluk Region , in the Canadian territory of Nunavut . It is located on the north side of Slidre Fiord, which enters Eureka Sound farther west. It is the third-northernmost permanent research community in
294-506: The arctic atmosphere. The closure of PEARL, along with the closing of the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario, provoked an outcry from Canadian and International scientists. Critics pointed our that closing PEARL and opening CHARS made little financial sense, and charged said the new base would be "a command and control center for resource extraction and sovereignty." The scientific journal Nature said that
315-488: The horizon. Telephone access and television broadcasts arrived in 1982 when Operation Hurricane resulted in the establishment of a satellite receiving station at nearby Skull Point, which has an open view to the south. The low-power Channel 9 TV transmitter at Skull Point was the world's most northern TV station at the time. In the 1980s, TV audio was often connected to the telephone to feed CBC-TV news to CHAR-FM in isolated CFS Alert . More recently, CANDAC has installed what
336-514: The same time, the government announced final plans to build a new $ 204 million federal government Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) in Cambridge Bay , Nunavut. With an annual budget of $ 26.5 million, the government said this new facility would be "a world-class hub for science and technology in Canada's North." Located about 1200 km south of PEARL, this station is too far south to effectively measure ozone depletion or changes in
357-419: The station's $ 1.5 million per year operating budget came from the nonprofit Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Science (CFCAS), which received more than $ 100 million in research grants over 10 years from the Canadian federal government. In the 2011 budget, put forward by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government, CFCAS received no funding. A new fund with $ 35 million over five years
378-503: The world. The only two farther north are Alert , which is also on Ellesmere Island, and Nord , in Greenland . Eureka has the lowest average annual temperature and the lowest amount of precipitation of any weather station in Canada. Eureka's postal code is X0A 0G0 and the area code is 867 . The base consists of three areas: PEARL is operated by a consortium of Canadian university researchers and government agencies known as
399-415: Was "quite heartwarming." In 2013, about 20 days before the facility was set to permanently close, the government released last-minute funding from CCAR to save PEARL, allotting $ 5-million over 5-years. This was about two-thirds of the previous operating budget, and was not enough to keep an operator at the station year-round, meaning that much of the existing equipment had to be automated. In addition, during
420-514: Was allocated for climate and atmospheric research, the Climate Change and Atmospheric Research Initiative (CCAR). This new fund was administered by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). In 2012, one year after the creation of the $ 35 million dollar CCAR fund, no money had been released to scientists. In February 2012, with no funding to continue station operations, CANDAC announced PEARL's impending closure. At
441-484: Was completed in 2005. The complex is powered by diesel generators. The station is supplied once every six weeks with fresh food and mail by air, and annually in the late summer, a supply ship from Montreal brings heavy supplies. On July 3, 2009, a Danish Challenger 604 MMA jet landed at Eureka's aerodrome. The jet is a military observation aircraft based on the Challenger executive jet. This jet visited Eureka on
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