Research on the Canadian Arctic coast in the marine, terrestrial, health and social sciences fields
The Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen has been a major catalyst in revitalizing Canadian Arctic science by providing Canadian researchers and their international collaborators with research infrastructure and scientific equipment that gives them unprecedented access to the Arctic Ocean and its ancillary seas. The ship’s facilities and sophisticated pool of equipment make it a unique and versatile research platform for scientists in the natural, health and social sciences along with their government and industry partners as well as partners from northern communities. By welcoming an impressive number of multinational teams and encouraging exchanges between different disciplines and sectors, Amundsen contributes to the development of new research projects aiming to increase our understanding of northern environments. In this way, Amundsen is building national and international research communities!
Please see the CCGS Amundsen website for a full list of laboratory, laboratories and oceanographic research and atmospheric research equipment.
- Coordination and organization of integrated polar expeditions
- Ship time; funding for eligible organisations
- Maintenance and availability of basic instruments in physical oceanography
- Processing and distribution of basic oceanographic data
- Laboratories and instrumentation in oceanography and other polar research:
- geology
- climate studies
- oceanography
- biogeochemistry
- marine ecology
- fisheries
- benthic ecology
- sea ice
- atmospheric sciences
- climatology
- contaminants
- terrestrial ecology
- human health
- epidemiology
- Aerospace and satellites
- Education
- Energy
- Environmental technologies and related services
- Fisheries and aquaculture
- Healthcare and social services
- Mining, minerals and metals
- Ocean industries
- Policy and governance
- Transportation
Specialized labs and equipment
| Specialized lab | Equipment | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Kongsberg EM304 | Hull-mounted multibeam echosounder for sea floor and water column mapping | |
| Hull ADCP (150 kHz) | Real-time mapping of the distribution of ocean currents | |
| Knudsen K320R sub-bottom profiler | 6 element, hull-mounted, sub-bottom profiler | |
| Seabird Carousel CTD-Rosette systems (2) | Seawater sampling (fluorometer, transmissometer, pH, oxygen, PAR, nitrate sensor, current meter, conductivity, temperature, pressure, optical probe) | |
| Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) | Submersible with 1,600-m diving depth capacity | |
| Kongsberg HiPAP: Ultra Short Base Line | Remote positioning system | |
| Brooke-Ocean MVP300 | Moving vessel profiler provides high- resolution vertical sections of oceanographic conditions (conductivity, temperature, pressure, oxygen, fluorometer, transmissometer) | |
| Kongsberg HUGIN 1000 AUV | Autonomous underwater vehicle enabling the geophysical and oceanographic study of ice‑covered Arctic seas (conductivity, temperature, pressure, fluorometer, multibeam ecosounder, side-scan ecosounder, sub-bottom profiler, photosynthetically active radiation sensor, nitrate sensor, oxygen, light backscatter sensor) | |
| Simrad EK60 scientific echosounder | Echosounder for fisheries research | |
| Internal moon pool | Deployment of CTD-Rosette, ROV and other equipment in ice-infested waters | |
| 0.7-m (Hydrobios) and 1.0-m (BIOness) multinet zooplankton samplers | Zooplankton sampling nets | |
| Rectangular midwater trawl and experimental trawls | Sampling nets | |
| 10-m piston corers, box corers and a core splitter | Sea floor sampling equipment | |
| A heavy-duty (500 hp) oceanographic winch and A-frame (10 tons) | Deployment of heavy instruments and& mooring arrays | |
| Medium-duty (30-75 hp) oceanographic winches (4) | Heavy lifting equipment | |
| Deck incubators (2) | Temperature-controlled incubators for incubation at arctic temperatures | |
| Fully-equipped wet and dry laboratories | ||
| Temperature-controlled units | ||
| Microscopy and instrumentation rooms | ||
| RADVAN | Lab equipped and standardized for analysis using radioactive products | Lab dedicated to radioisotopic analyses |
| PILMS | Class 100 cleanroom | Portable in-situ Laboratory for Mercury Speciation |
| PILMS | Ultra-pure water purification system | |
| PILMS | Mercury analyzers |
Private and public sector research partners
- ArcticNet
- Government of Canada
- Institut national de santé publique du Québec
- National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS France)
- SOLAS Canada
- Network on Climate and Aerosols (NETCARE)
- Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)
- National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR)
- The W. Garfield Weston Foundation
- Environmental Studies Research Fund (ESRF)
- GEOTRACES: Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) System Study
- EU ATLAS Horizon 2020 Project Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) System Study
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada (St. John’s, Newfoundland; Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO), Halifax, Nova Scotia; Freshwater Institute, Winnipeg, Manitoba)
- Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium (ARICE)