Located 200Km North of the Canadian Arctic Circle, nestled between the treeless tundra, boreal forest and Mackenzie Delta, the Town of Inuvik functions as a central service hub, a key gateway to the communities of the Beaufort Delta and Western Arctic, but also an International Research hub!
The Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (ISSF) is an international, multi-use science and technology facility with an emphasis on Earth Observation. Situated above the Arctic Circle, the Inuvik satellite station is ideally positioned to track and receive data in near real-time from polar-orbiting satellites for scientific, mapping, weather, surveillance and other purposes.
The ISSF is located on land owned by the Government of Canada and is administered and managed by the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO), part of Natural Resources Canada.
The ISSF currently hosts antennas owned by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR); the SSC (Swedish Space Corporation); by a partnership between SSC and Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES); the Canadian Research and Development Corporation and has land available for potential new development projects.
NRCan also owns and operates its own infrastructure at the ISSF like I-CAN1 – a 13-metre diameter antenna providing Reception and Telemetry, Tracking and Control (TT&C) services.
The Aurora Research Institute in Inuvik supports scientific research and education in the Western Arctic. It provides logistical support for researchers and conducts its own studies on topics like climate change, permafrost, and northern ecosystems. The institute also engages the community through events like Science Rendezvous, where people can learn about various scientific fields, including space and robotics.
Inuvik is home to the Inuvialuit and Gwich’in people, who have rich cultural heritage and history in the region. The interaction of river, ocean, permafrost, and ice floes in the area provides unique opportunities for studying geomorphology and climate change.
The town also participates in educational initiatives like the Junior Astronauts campaign, where students get to interact with Canadian astronauts and learn about space exploration.
The Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link Project is providing a fibre optic telecommunications backbone infrastructure that supports economic development throughout the region, including high-speed connections to the Inuvik satellite ground stations, the Aurora Research Institute (ARI), and the GNWT Northern Geomatics Centre.
