Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC)

The MSC and Our Partners

The MSC transition will see important changes to what we do and how we do it; however, the importance of partnerships to the work of the MSC will not change. Indeed, many of the elements of the transition reflect feedback over time from our partners across Canada and the experience of partners in other countries.

For example, we will continue to conduct research and development with universities and the private sector. We will work closely with the media to communicate information to protect Canadians from environmental hazards and will conduct other educational and outreach activities. We will continue working with other government departments and international organizations to develop assessments and policies to protect and conserve Canada's natural environment as well as meeting the special requirements of partners such as the Departments of National Defence and Fisheries and Oceans.

All these commitments will build on the many examples of partnership during 2002-2003.

The MSC Advisory Board

A key to our partnerships is the work of the MSC Advisory Board, which consists of senior executives from various stakeholder and client groups. It provides guidance on our direction, major initiatives and partnerships with the private sector.

The Board held three meetings in 2002-2003, with discussion focusing on the future of the MSC. A sub-group of the Board was established to review the monitoring network aspects of the MSC. Presentations were made by various sectors that partner with the MSC in providing meteorological services, including agriculture, forestry, media, the Ontario Provincial Police, universities, other government agencies and the National Search and Rescue Secretariat. The MSC is pleased to now have a 'voice' from the marine sector with the addition of an Advisory Board member from the Canadian Coast Guard.

Members of the MSC Advisory Board

• John ApSimon (Special Science Advisor to the Deputy Minister)
• Richard Cavanagh (Canadian Association of Broadcasters)
• Phil Duffield (Ontario Provincial Police)
• David Egar (Environment Canada)
• Marc Denis Everell (Environment Canada)
• Kate Fawkes (Canadian Coast Guard)
• Kathleen Fox (NAV CANADA)
• Robert Friesen (Canadian Federation of Agriculture)
• Michel J.C.M. Gauthier (Department of National Defence)
• David Grimes (Environment Canada)
• Ashkon Hashemi (Canadian Federation of Students)
• Azzah Jeena (Federation of Canadian Municipalities)
• Allan Jeffrey (Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre)
• Paul Kovacs (Insurance Bureau of Canada)
• John Mills (Environment Canada)
• Pierre Morrissette (Pelmorex)
• Samuel Scully (Dalhousie University)

Domestic Partnerships

We work with partners in nearly everything we do. Our research and development is done in collaboration with universities and/or research institutes. We partner with NAV CANADA to provide specialized aviation products and services, and with the Canadian Coast Guard for marine products and services. The Department of National Defence can count on weather information we provide to perform its work in Canada and abroad. Many governmental organizations rely on our expertise in atmospheric, hydrospheric and cryospheric science research to support their work.

Other Domestic Partnership Results

We have initiated many partnerships with organizations and governments in Canada over time. They are designed to meet specific client and stakeholder needs and support outreach efforts that communicate weather, climate and other information to Canadians. The following is a list of some of these efforts during 2002-2003.

Ouranos Consortium

Ouranos Consortium, announced in May 2002, pools the expertise and disciplines of numerous researchers to advance the understanding of the issues and the associated requirements for adaptation resulting from climate change in North America. Ouranos is international in its scope with a team including more than 100 scientists and specialists.

The creation of Ouranos was a joint initiative of the Government of Quebec, Hydro-Quebec and the MSC. The founding partners contribute staff and financial resources to support the organization and its work. The value of long-term commitments in the form of pooled human, financial, technical and computer resources exceeds $12 million annually, nearly half of which are cash contributions from Ouranos' partners.

ref: http://www.ouranos.ca/intro/intro_e.html

Media Website Opens

We officially launched an MSC website specifically for the media in October 2002. It allows registered media organizations to personalize their weather pages in line with their information requirements. Weather information, including watches and warnings, is automatically updated, enabling the weather bulletins broadcast by media organizations to remain current. To achieve sound, ongoing business relationships between media organizations and the MSC, the website enables instant e-mail communication with all clients. As of March 2003, the website had more than 525 open accounts.

Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Mountain Meteorology and Hydrology

The Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Mountain Meteorology and Hydrology (CICMMH) has been active since its establishment in April 2002 by the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Environment Canada (EC), including the MSC. The Institute has focused on a number of important areas with respect to the unique BC coastal/mountain environment, such as high resolution numerical weather modelling, environmental data sharing, air quality, remote sensing (radar) and training (post graduate studies for meteorologists). The collaboration has drawn in the highly successful annual Western Canada Weather Workshop and the EC/UBC Meteorology Practicum Course. The partnership has strengthened the meteorological and hydrological science program in BC and has aided in the larger scale national Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences and international programs.

Climate Change Resource Produced

We partnered with Natural Resources Canada to produce a CD-ROM on climate change. The CD-ROM is intended for university and secondary school educators, scientists and others, to provide information on the science and impacts of climate change as well as referenced and annotated resource material. The CD-ROM includes a special Climate Digest Report that summarizes recent results from climate change experiments using the first version of the Canadian Coupled Climate Model.

ref: http://www.msc.ec.gc.ca/education/scienceofclimatechange/

International Activities

Canada, through the MSC, is a key player in international meteorological initiatives and our modernization activities will enhance this work. MSC employees are key members of a number of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) committees, including the Commission on Basic Systems, the Commission on Climatology, the Commission for Aeronautical Meteorology and the World Climate Research Programme. The MSC also has a number of international cooperative agreements. There are many current examples of these initiatives and agreements.

Weather station in Newfoundland

MOU for the Exchange and Use of Environmental Data

The MSC finalized a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the American National Oceanographic and Atmospheric administration's (NOAA) National Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS) to enhance the exchange and utilization of environmental data. The agreement encourages the national weather agencies to seek collaborative or common solutions to collect, process, exploit and archive data and the information products derived from satellite observations. The MOU identifies several areas of cooperation in operational ice mapping, climate extremes monitoring, volcanic ash advisory centres, telecommunications, data archive and research and development. Each area of cooperation will be detailed in an Annex to the MOU to be developed over the next few years.

Internship Program for China Meteorological Administration

We collaborated with the Sino-Canada Technology Exchange Centre to deliver an internship program for the professional development of eight officials from the China Meteorological Administration who arrived in Canada in September 2002. A common theme of discussion among the Chinese participants was how the MSC is able to achieve excellent results with a relatively small workforce. The interns held a variety of assignments at MSC offices across the country; for example, one intern was a "shadow" manager in Pacific and Yukon Region and has since drafted papers for publication based on the research methodology learned while in the region.

WMO Technical Conference on Data Processing and Forecasting Systems

The WMO held a Technical Conference on Data Processing and Forecasting Systems in December 2002, that was organized and chaired by an MSC manager. Participants from more than 40 countries attended the conference, which focused on Ensemble Prediction Systems and Severe Weather Forecasting. They agreed that ensemble forecasting is evolving as a vital tool for weather forecasting on all time scales. It is being applied to severe weather prediction such as tropical cyclone tracks, heavy rainfall and high winds and has potential for applications in the area of environmental emergency response. Staff of the MSC made presentations on the ensemble forecasting system developed in Canada and on products developed for winter and summer severe weather. The wide range of products developed in Canada generated great interest among conference participants.

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