Marine Atmospheric Composition & Visibility

Lay Summary 

This research will investigate marine atmospheric composition, including fog, low cloud and haze, and seek to understand its effects on visibility, climate and air quality across the Northwest Atlantic Ocean and the Canadian Arctic Gateway. Accurate forecasts of the dynamic marine atmosphere would support safe shipping and aviation — and our understanding of the effects of changing air quality on northern coastal communities.


Visibility can change quickly in the Northwest Atlantic, resulting in dangerous conditions for shipping and aviation. This creates risk for people who travel by sea and air and puts in jeopardy the economic benefits derived through the goods and services enabled by the transportation. In addition, those who live in northern coastal communities are vulnerable to declining air quality. As climate change decreases the amount of ice in the Northwest Atlantic, more and more ships are travelling through the region, producing pollution-causing emissions.


Marine aerosols are the microscopic particles in the atmosphere that degrade air quality in coastal communities and lead to decreased visibility by creating haze and fog.


The marine atmosphere in Canada’s north is dynamic and unique. Aerosol types — fog, clouds, visibility and air quality — are all influenced by ship emissions, oceanic and land-based sources of aerosols, sea ice extent, precipitation and weather patterns.


Accurate, data-driven models to forecast atmospheric composition and marine visibility will be critical as climate warming continues, ice extent decreases and transportation and other activities in the north increase.


This research has five objectives:


1.     Better understand the processes that control the types of particles found in the marine atmosphere


2.     Determine how aerosols affect visibility in the Northwest Atlantic and Canadian Arctic Gateway


3.     Determine what factors degrade visibility along the coast and in the marine atmosphere, examining fog formation and its properties


4.     Predict visibility in the marine atmosphere using computer modeling, ship-board measurements and satellite imagery


5.     Determine the quantity of aerosols in marine and northern environments that come from natural, human and transported sources.


More information about this project can be found here.


Adapted from


Mathematics and Statistics
Newfoundland and Labrador
Cold Ocean and Arctic, Science, Technology and Society
Climate Change
Start date 
1 Jan 2020
Lead Organization 
Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI)
Partner Organization 
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Alfred-Wegner Institut of Germany
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of the United States
AMEC Foster Wheeler