Atmospheric and Climate Science Directorate

Atmospheric Processes

The Meteorological Research Branch (MRB) studies many components of atmospheric processes, including cloud physics & chemistry, freezing precipitation processes related to aircraft icing, fog/water processes, and the characterization of clouds for use in climate change and weather prediction models. Much of the information or data required for these atmospheric process studies is collected from sensors mounted on aircraft that are flown during severe weather conditions (i.e. winter storms and hurricanes). The MRB coordinates with the Institute for Aerospace Research (IAR) of the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada to run the Environmental Research Aircraft Facility (ERAF). The NRC provides the MSC with up to 6 months of access to a Twin Otter and a Convair 580 to service the Atmospheric and Climate Science Directorate's (ACSD) airborne research needs. The aim of MRB's atmospheric process research is to:

• improve aircraft safety by determining safe operating conditions and safe aircraft design elements,
• improve numerical prediction models for more accurate forecasts of potential hazardous aircraft icing regions, and
• enhance our understanding of cloud processes to improve the accuracy of weather forecasting and climate models.

The Green Lane^TM,
Environment Canada's World Wide Web Site.