Indication of climate change not good news from NASA
Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Monday, June 27, 2016
NUNAVUT
The North is getting greener, a new NASA study shows.
It's not good news because the tundra is getting greener due to a warming climate. But the silver lining - if it can be called that - is that Nunavut isn't greening as quickly as Nunavik or the northwestern NWT.
"Vegetation 'greening' is a widespread phenomenon above Canada's treeline," said Robert Fraser, research scientist with Natural Resources Canada's Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation. Fraser noted that the study, which used satellite images to map vegetation in the North, expands on other similar regional studies.
"They also show that this greening is particularly strong and extensive in northern Quebec. Arctic vegetation scientists believe that the majority of these Northern vegetation changes in Canada and elsewhere are being caused by a warming Arctic climate."
An overall image mapping the greening shows most of Nunavut is experiencing the effect, although there are pockets with less greening.
The satellite images captured by NASA are much more detailed than what researchers have had available in the past. Previous research was based on a resolution of one km, whereas the NASA study can show detail to 30 metres, 33 times as detailed as before.
