UQTR · 2026 – 2030
The glaciers of western North America are retreating fast. Increasingly frequent wildfires could speed this up: soot and ash settling on snow and ice lower their albedo, which accelerates melt.
My Ph.D. measures this effect at the regional scale and separates it from that of climate. It draws on satellite albedo since 2002, smoke simulations from Environment and Climate Change Canada, and field measurements. The project brings together UQTR, ECCC, NRCan, the University of Waterloo, the Desert Research Institute and Ouranos.
Fieldwork
UpcomingPeyto and Saskatchewan glaciers, Alberta — Monitoring stations deployed with NRCan, from summer 2027.
Ausangate Glacier, Peru — Drone and GNSS mapping of a tropical glacier darkened by fires in the Amazon basin.
Athabasca Glacier, Alberta — Mass balance measurements during the Jasper wildfires, where the idea for my project was born.
Kuujjuarapik, Nunavik — Drone photogrammetry of thermokarst ponds, with INRS.
Bylot Island, Nunavut — Permafrost, snow cover and the effect of shrubs on snow; a snow workshop with students in Pond Inlet.