December 6, 2021
Tim is a recent graduate of Carleton University’s Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering program. He is part of the University of Prince Edward Island’s ClimateSense internship program, which aims to build climate change adaptation capacity in recent post-secondary graduates.
Evidence shows that the effects of climate change may be quite serious for PEI. However, there is a lack of dedicated, robust facilities for monitoring climate and the environment. Without a dedicated facility it is not possible to quantify, understand, and adapt to the impacts of climate change on ice accumulation, major weather events, storm surges, sea level rise, coastal erosion, and renewable energy power production. These changes will impact all the major sectors on PEI: fisheries, agriculture, and renewable energy.
The Wind Energy Institute of Canada (WEICan), in partnership with the University of Prince Edward Island Climate Research Laboratory (UPEI-CRL) have created a Climate Monitoring Facility at WEICan’s site. This tower will provide the infrastructure for long-term climate change observations and experiments with national and international partners; as well as research, test, and verify meteorological and environmental measurement systems all co-located at the same facility for calibrations, intercomparisons, and contributions to global monitoring networks.
This presentation will describe the instrumentation installed in WEICan’s new climate monitoring facility and the goals for using the data for climate change adaptation. It will also illustrate climate trends observed at North Cape, PE since 1987.