Eureka is a small research base on Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island,
Qikiqtaaluk Region, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is located on
the north side of Slidre Fiord, which enters Eureka Sound farther west. It is
the third-northernmost permanent research community in the world. The
only two farther north are Alert, which is also on Ellesmere Island, and Nord,
in Greenland. Eureka has the lowest average annual temperature and least
precipitation of any weather station in Canada. The base consists of three
areas, the Eureka Aerodrome which includes "Fort Eureka", the Environment
Canada Weather Station, and the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research
Laboratory, formerly the Arctic Stratospheric Ozone Observatory. PEARL
is operated by a consortium of Canadian university researchers and government
agencies known as the Canadian Network for Detection of Atmospheric Change.
PEARL announced it would cease full-time year-round operation as of April 30,
2012 due to lack of funding, however this decision was reversed in May 2013
with the announcement of new funds. Eureka's postal code is X0A 0G0. Its
area code is 867. Base history
Eureka was founded on April 11, 1947, as part of a requirement to set up a
network of Arctic weather stations. On this date, 100 tonnes of supplies were
airlifted to a promising spot on Ellesmere Island and five prefabricated
Jamesway huts were constructed. Regular weather observations began on January 1,
1948. The station expanded over the years. At its peak, in the 1970s, there
were at least fifteen staff on site; in 2005, it reported a permanent population
of zero with at least 8 staff on a continuous rotational basis.
There have been several generations of buildings. The latest operations centre,
with work areas and staff quarters in one large structure, was completed in
2005. Climate
The settlement sees the midnight sun between April 10 and August 29, with no
sunlight at all between mid-October and late February. Eureka has the lowest
average annual temperature and least precipitation of any weather station in
Canada with an annual mean temperature of −18.8 °C. Winters are frigid, but
summers are slightly warmer than at other places in the Canadian Arctic.
Even so, since record keeping began, the temperature has never exceeded 20.9 °C,
first reached on July 14, 2009. Although a polar desert, evaporation is also very
low, which allows the limited moisture to be made available for plants and
wildlife. Location and accessibility
The complex is powered by diesel generators. The station is supplied on a
tri-weekly basis with fresh food and mail by air, and annually in the late
summer, a supply ship from Montreal brings heavy supplies. On July 3, 2009 a
Danish Challenger 604 MMA jet landed at Eureka's aerodrome. The jet is a
military observation aircraft based on the Challenger executive jet. This jet
visited Eureka on a familiarization trip, in order to prepare for the
possibility of Danish aircraft assisting in Search and Rescue missions over
Canadian territory. The Canadian American Strategic Review noted
critically that the first jet to fly a mission to Eureka was not Canadian.
At Eureka's latitude, a geosynchronous communications satellite, if due south,
would require an antenna to be pointed nearly horizontally; satellites farther
east or west along that orbit would be below the horizon. Telephone access and
television broadcasts arrived in 1982 when Operation Hurricane resulted in the
establishment of a satellite receiving station at nearby Skull Point, which has
an open view to the south. The low power Channel 9 TV transmitter at Skull Point
was the world's most northern TV station at the time. In the 1980s, TV audio was
often connected to the telephone to feed CBC-TV news to CHAR-FM in isolated
Alert. More recently, CANDAC has installed what is likely the world's
most northerly geosynchronous satellite ground-station to provide Internet-based
communications to PEARL. Other settlements on Ellesmere Island
include Alert and Grise Fiord. Flora and fauna
Eureka has been described as "The Garden Spot of the Arctic" due to the flora and
fauna abundant around the Eureka area, more so than anywhere else in the High
Arctic. Fauna include musk oxen, Arctic wolves, Arctic foxes, Arctic hares, and
lemmings. In addition, summer nesting geese, ducks, owls, loons, ravens, gulls
and many other smaller birds nest, raise their young, and return south in August.
References Further reading
:lidar.ssec.wisc.edu/Eureka_movie_v3.avi External links
Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory