Wilfrid Laurier University

Published purpose

The Research component of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Class Grant and Contribution Program to support Research, Awareness and Learning in Space Science and Technology provides financial support to organizations to conduct space related research and development in priority areas. It will support targeted knowledge development and innovation to sustain and enhance the Canadian capacity to use space to address national needs and priorities in the future. The Announcement of Opportunity “ Capacity Building in SS&T – Clusters Pilots” aims to contribute to the development of Future Canadian Space Capacity in order to attract, sustain and enhance the nation's critical mass of Canadian space specialists, foster Canadian space innovation, and preserve the capability of the nation space-related facilities. More specifically, this project entitled "" Cluster for Subarctic Ecosystems in Transition, C-SET "" has the objective (s): To use a combination of remote sensing and intensive ground-based measurements to define and measure the major topography, vegetation, permafrost and soil characteristics of each representative site type and to define their distributions. This project will also define the sub-grid processes controlling the flux and storage of near-surface soil moisture and carbon cycling and how the two are linked. Additionally, the project will use LIDAR and RADARSAT-2 imagery as well as results from the first two objectives to develop tools for space-borne distributed soil moisture measurements for dominant sub-arctic terrain regions. Finally, the project will test, validate and improve existing models used to predict soil moisture and carbon cycle dynamics.