One goal of the MSC transition effort that was announced in March 2003 is to ensure that services meet current expectations and make the most of available technologies. This goal reflects the fact that weather services are among the most frequently used federal government services. Results of our 2002 National Survey on Meteorological Products and Services indicate that 92 percent of Canadians consult weather forecasts at least once per day. The MSC is at the source of all such forecasts, either in providing the official forecast through the media or directly to Canadians, or in providing the data by which others produce their own forecasts.
Following transition, the MSC will have a greatly enhanced focus on service to Canadians and their economic activities. Four new offices will be created to service specific sectors of the economy; these sectors are the marine community, the media, road transportation and agriculture. In addition, new resources will be provided across Canada to allow increased interaction with citizens and local businesses.
The mass media are our primary means of reaching Canadians and are vital to ensuring that Canadians receive weather information, particularly warnings, in a timely manner. Weather information can be accessed via the following Environment Canada dissemination systems:
The MSC provides scientific services and information to many users, clients and partners, including government departments and agencies, research institutes and businesses such as the private meteorological sector, agriculture, transportation and construction interests. The following section highlights some of the service initiatives undertaken by the MSC in 2002-2003.
The MSC's "weatheroffice" website has grown significantly over the years and is becoming a major source of weather information and warnings for Canadians. A new architecture is being implemented that provides a more robust and flexible base to implement web technologies. Additionally, new capacity can be added as demand increases. A major component of this architecture that allows for better traffic management and has added redundancy in case of failure is now operational. During the last quarter of 2002-2003, the "weatheroffice" website received 900 million hits corresponding to 138 million pages viewed during 28 million visits.
ref: http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca
A new version of the Aviation Weather website was implemented in January 2002, allowing aviation users real-time Internet access to Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) and aviation weather products. The operational access to NOTAM is an important addition to the implementation of NAV CANADA's concept of single window Internet access to real-time information required for general aviation operations. There are over 21,000 daily visits to the website and nearly 11,000 registered users.
The MSC continued to provide extensive meteorological support to Operation Apollo, Canada's military contribution to the ongoing counter-terrorist operations in the Middle East. Weather Services Centres (WSCs) in Halifax and Comox supplied mesoscale forecasts to navy ships en route to the Arabian Sea and WSC Greenwood prepared daily depictions of significant weather over the area for military commanders and planners across Canada and in-theatre. The MSC has used its numerical weather prediction model to provide detailed forecast guidance in support of these efforts.
The weather information provided by the MSC in support of the ship transits is important to decisions on ship routing and operation. It is also critical for flight operations of the ship-borne Sea King helicopters. All this information aids in safe and efficient operations in a difficult environment.
Since June 2002, our Quebec Region has disseminated sea state forecasts for the St. Lawrence River. The sea state program provides an analysis of the wave and swell heights, periods, speed and direction and forecasts of the significant wave heights and their directions over deep waters.
This new service was made possible with funding from the National Search and Rescue Secretariat and through a partnership with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). This partnership led to the creation of a wave model that incorporates MSC wind and ice forecasts with DFO bathymetry and marine currents.
In 2002-2003, our Prairie and Northern Region completed the installation of three Weatheradios in Cape Dorset, Baker Lake and Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. The project was funded through the New Search and Rescue Initiative Fund and will be operated in partnership with the Government of Nunavut.
1500 schools in Canada are registered in the Children's UV Index Sun Awareness Program. They receive information from the MSC on the relationship between UV radiation, weather, ozone depletion, climate change and air quality. Through this program, jointly funded by the MSC and Health Canada, young Canadians are better able to protect themselves from the harmful effects of UV radiation. Over the next year, the program will be expanded with new activities and information guides for high school students.
Sun Savvy assembly, Terry Fox Public School, Brampton, Ontario
Data are critical to the environmental prediction process. In Canada, information on weather, air quality, ice, snow and water are gathered through an array of observation networks, some based on the ground or in water and others operating from the upper atmosphere and space. The MSC transition will bring a renewed focus on the modernization and Life Cycle Management of our networks. We will also focus on enhancing quality assurance and data access systems for the storage of key data that we and our partners use. The following section describes some of the MSC monitoring activities in 2002-2003.
Two groups of university-based scientists in Quebec obtained grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to establish infrastructure for research in meteorology and agricultural geomatics.
Approximately $1.1 million of the funds will be used to establish a mesonet of some 35 new automated weather stations within a 100-kilometre radius of Montreal. These stations are needed to increase the density of measuring stations in support of mesoscale meteorology and research objectives. The scientists have asked for assistance and expertise from the MSC in planning the network and in installing and operating the stations, including data management.
The Mesonet is an opportunity for the MSC to capitalize on two major investments in meteorology to create a very dense weather network in the Montreal area in support of Canadian atmospheric research and work related to severe weather.
Mesonet stations
A partnership agreement between the MSC and Air Canada Jazz began with the launch of the new Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) program. The program reports weather data, collected from meteorological sensors and the navigational, processing and communications systems found on board 21 Air Canada Jazz DHC-8 aircraft, in near real-time, to the MSC. It is being expanded to the full Jazz fleets of DHC-8 and Canadian Regional Jet aircraft. Talks have begun with other Canadian air carriers, including First Air, for possible enrolment in the AMDAR Program. We expect that the program will greatly improve the accuracy of the MSC's weather forecasts and will provide better information to the aviation industry for use in its operations. Obtaining AMDAR data from commercial aircraft is the most cost-beneficial use of technology to sustain the Canadian Upper Air Program.
Environment Minister David Anderson and Captain Grant Warner, Air Canada Jazz, sign the AMDAR partnership agreement, August 2002
Fifteen countries and three international organizations were represented at the Fifth Meeting of the WMO AMDAR Panel, held in Toronto in October 2002. The MSC was recognized for its work with regional airlines, a sector that holds the greatest potential for expanding the AMDAR program in many parts of the world.
ref: http://www.ec.gc.ca/press/2002/020806_b_e.htm
Action Plan 2000 on Climate Change financed the upgrade of eight GCOS Surface Network (GSN) sites and the installation of seven new sites north of 60 degrees. To achieve adequate global coverage, the GCOS goal is to have a monitoring station in each 5x5 degree grid for the world. Canada's regional coverage does not meet this standard as there are large geographical gaps in the north that hamper the MSC's ability to understand environmental change and its implications. We are upgrading our existing GSN stations, which primarily provide temperature and total precipitation data sets, to include measurement of wind speed and direction, humidity, rate-of-rainfall, snow cover and radiation. These enhanced data sets are needed to effectively document and understand climatic processes.
AP2000 installation at Arviat, Nunavut
The MSC and Environment Canada have established a substantial air quality monitoring network that is delivered in partnership with the provinces and territories. The key elements of the monitoring infrastructure are the National Air Pollution Surveillance (NAPS) network with 239 sites and the Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CAPMoN). In 2002, the Minister committed $29 million over four years to expand the NAPS and CAPMoN networks by 20 sites and upgrade monitoring equipment. The goal is to ensure that Canada has the monitoring capability to report on Canada Wide Standards and ozone annex commitments, support the MSC's National Air Quality Prediction Program and collect data that will guide future actions on emissions reduction.
Another significant accomplishment is the Border Air Quality Initiative, signed in January 2003 by Canada and the U.S., which announced the next stage of cooperative projects to improve air quality and address transboundary air pollution. Environment Canada will coordinate Canada's efforts, with significant contribution from the MSC.
The MSC is leading a provincially-funded expansion to Ontario's existing hydrometric network. The project involves adding approximately 200 stations to the hydrometric program over a three-year period. The first phase of this expansion, completed in 2002-2003, added 60 stations to the network.
One of the MSC's key goals is to safeguard Canadians against imminent high impact weather and environmental hazards, including reducing the impact of weather and related hazards on health, safety and the economy. The capacity of the MSC will be improved by increasing the lead time and accuracy of MSC warnings and watches. As a result of the MSC transition, use and understanding of how to react to these warnings and watches will be further enhanced by a group of meteorologists who will work specifically on preparing citizens and local emergency preparedness organizations to react when severe weather occurs. In addition to providing over 14,000 severe weather warnings annually, the following are examples of specific work undertaken by the MSC during 2002-2003 to safeguard the health and safety of Canadians.
In October 2002, the MSC implemented the Weather Warning "Battleboard" software on its "weatheroffice" website. The software allows users to determine, from one website, official MSC weather warning status throughout Canada, in both official languages. The project was a cooperative effort involving various MSC divisions.
MSC - Prairie and Northern Region has conducted winter and summer severe weather weeks since 1998. During these weeks, Warning Preparedness Meteorologists (WPMs) work in partnership with local media to heighten awareness of severe weather among emergency managers, schools and the public. In 2002-2003, the WPMs generated over 2,800 contacts with media, businesses, various levels of government and the public. They also provided severe weather awareness training to more than 3,000 people.
Our Atlantic Region also held similar events in 2002- 2003. Awareness and preparedness messages were delivered through media interviews, public service announcements, and presentations by MSC staff and via the regional websites. We held the official opening of the Holyrood Doppler radar (near St. John's) installation during the winter campaign.
Emergency upper air system launch
The MSC received $1 million from the Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Research Technical Initiatives (CRTI) fund managed by the Department of National Defence. The funds were used to purchase six new generation portable upper air radiosonde monitoring systems for emergency response to potential terrorist incidents and other environmental disasters involving the release of hazardous substances into the atmosphere. The instruments have the potential to provide valuable data on the movement of clouds of deadly material, helping guide evacuations in terror emergencies. While the instruments would not necessarily detect the actual weapons material, they would measure air temperature, pressure, humidity and wind speed in the area of the attack. The MSC could then plot a plume trajectory, showing where the material was headed.
In May 2002, MSC - Atlantic Region worked with the Nova Scotian government's Emergency Measures Organization in designing an exercise to test the province's emergency communications capability. The CENTWARN (Central Warning) system was practised with provincial agencies, power and communication industries, radio stations and amateur radio operators. The intent of the exercise was to establish an emergency communications system in the event of an incident causing widespread provincial power outages and communications failure. The MSC's involvement included devising a realistic weather event that could be used to produce such a scenario.
The MSC was involved with SARScene 2002 (Search and Rescue Scene), an annual conference attended by search and rescue volunteers from all around the world. The conference, held in Halifax, featured presentations that focused on forecasting hurricanes "Canadian Style" and information on the forecasting challenges of transitioning storms in northern latitudes.
After flooding in the Saguenay Valley in 1996 and the ice storm in southwestern Quebec in 1998, the Quebec Government's Department of Public Security recognized the importance of weather services for crisis management. As a result, a new agreement was negotiated between the Government's emergency preparedness branch and our Quebec Region.
In 2002, the province established the Centre de veille de la sécurité civile (emergency monitoring centre) in Quebec City. In addition to personalized services provided to emergency organizations, MSC severe weather experts can be quickly deployed to the Centre. While there, they have access to most of their work tools (products, technology, services, communication links) so they can provide advice to emergency authorities and provincial and municipal agencies to aid in making decisions that will minimize the impact of severe weather events.
The Green LaneTM,
Environment Canada's World Wide Web Site.