Nordicana D93 / DOI : 10.5885/45735XD-011EA11523034D87

Climate station data from Purple Valley at the head of Milne Fiord, northern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada.

Luke Copland¹ Derek Mueller²
¹Laboratory for Cryospheric Research, Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
²Water and Ice Research Laboratory, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

Abstract

This dataset provides a long-term weather record from Purple Valley, Ellesmere Island. This location is near the head of Milne Fiord and can serve as an index location for the region adjacent to the ice shelves of northern Ellesmere Island. Weather data were observed every 4 minutes by an automated weather station, averaged and recorded hourly and transmitted daily using a satellite data connection. The station was a 3 m tripod with a Hobo Energy Pro logger, an Iridium satellite transceiver, a solar panel/battery bank, and the following data are available: air temperature at 1 m above surface, air temperature at 2 m above surface, relative humidity at 2 m above surface, wind direction and wind speed at 4 m above surface, incoming radiation at 3 m above surface, atmospheric pressure, and snow depth. The station is located at the east end of Purple Valley (82.483986°N, 80.7881122°W at 20 m asl) above the valley floor and a few hundred metres south of a little bay in Milne Fiord. It is on a small area of level ground at the top of a bench along the slope of an arrete that borders Milne Fiord. The immediate surroundings are bare, flat ground with sparse polar desert vegetation. Note that the snow conditions at this site are not representative of the general area as the bench where the station was located is exposed and often blows clear.

Data citation

Copland, L., Mueller, D. 2021. Climate station data from Purple Valley at the head of Milne Fiord, northern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada., v. 1 (2009-2019). Nordicana D93, doi: 10.5885/45735XD-011EA11523034D87.

Location map

Key references

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Bonneau, J., Laval, B. E., Mueller, D., Hamilton, A. K., Friedrichs, A. M., & Forrest, A. L. (2021). Winter dynamics in an epishelf lake: Quantitative mixing estimates and ice shelf basal channel considerations. Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans, In revision.

Hamilton, A. K. (2016). Ice-ocean interactions in Milne Fiord (PhD Dissertation). University of British Columbia, Department of Civil Engineering, Vancouver, BC. https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0314106 DOI: 10.14288/1.0314106.

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Mortimer, C. A., Copland, L., & Mueller, D. R. (2012). Volume and area changes of the Milne Ice Shelf, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, since 1950. Journal of Geophysical Research, 117(F4), F04011. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JF002074 DOI: 10.1029/2011JF002074.

Pope, S. (2010). Changes in Multiyear Landfast Sea Ice in the Northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago (MSc thesis). University of Ottawa, Department of Geography.

Pope, S., Copland, L., & Mueller, D. (2012). Loss of multiyear landfast sea ice from Yelverton Bay, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 44(2), 210–221. https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-44.2.210 DOI: 10.1657/1938-4246-44.2.210.

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White, A. C. (2019). Glacier changes across northern Ellesmere Island (PhD Dissertation). Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-23350 DOI: 10.20381/ruor-23350.

White, A., & Copland, L. (2018). Area change of glaciers across Northern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, between ~1999 and ~2015. Journal of Glaciology, 64(246), 609–623. https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.49 DOI: 10.1017/jog.2018.49.

White, A., & Copland, L. (2019). Loss of floating glacier tongues from the Yelverton Bay region, Ellesmere Island, Canada. Journal of Glaciology, 65(251), 376–394. https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.15 DOI: 10.1017/jog.2019.15.

White, A., Copland, L., Mueller, D., & Van Wychen, W. (2015). Assessment of historical changes (1959–2012) and the causes of recent break-ups of the Petersen Ice Shelf, Nunavut, Canada. Annals of Glaciology, 56(69), 65–76. https://doi.org/10.3189/2015AoG69A687 DOI: 10.3189/2015AoG69A687.

Contributors

White, Adrienne (Laboratory for Cryospheric Research, Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Ottawa)

Hamilton, Andrew (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of British Columbia)

Acknowledgements

We thank the following funding and logistics agencies for support: Polar Continental Shelf Program, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, ArcticNet Network of Centres of Excellence, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Research Fund, University of Ottawa. The following individuals helped to maintain the station: Sierra Pope, Colleen Mortimer, Adrienne White, Andrew Hamilton, Miriam Richer-McCallum, Tyler de Jong, Nat Wilson, Kelly Graves, Sam Brenner, Kevin Xu, Jill Rajewicz, Adam Garbo, Gregory Crocker, Dorota Medrzycka, Peter Wray, Jinsuk Kim, Drew Friedrichs, Yulia Antropova, Jérémie Bonneau. We thank the pilots and staff of the Polar Continental Shelf Program for their assistance getting our teams in and out of the field. We acknowledge the communities of Resolute (Qausuittuq) and Grise Fiord (Aujuittuq) for providing their permission for us to conduct our research and are grateful for the support of the Nunavut Research Institute for their assistance with research licences.