This field program was designed to collect data for 4 BaySys research teams over 3 legs.

Leg 1: Feb 19 – Mar 11, 2017

Leg 2: Mar 18 - Apr 5, 2017

Leg 3: Apr 5 – Apr 15, 2017

This project campaign took place on the landfast sea ice in southwestern Hudson Bay, near the mouth of the Nelson Estuary. The program was based out of the Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge, which is located near the shore of Hudson Bay between the mouth of the Nelson River and Cape Tatnam (Figure 3.1). The seasonal ice cover that forms annually within Hudson Bay is composed of both mobile pack ice and landfast ice that forms a narrow band of stationary ice in the nearshore areas of Hudson Bay. In southwestern Hudson Bay, the landfast ice provided an excellent opportunity to study the freshwater-marine coupling near the mouth of the Nelson River. The area is typically ice-covered from November to June, though the landfast ice cover typically becomes unstable is forced offshore from May to early June. Hudson Bay experiences large tides, for the Nelson Estuary the tidal range is ~4.5m. Hence, while the landfast ice is stationary it does move vertically and continue to behave dynamically. The large tidal range leads to grounding of some of the landfast ice, a concern for both collecting ice and water samples, but also deploying any sort of under-ice autonomous equipment.