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Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC)

Objective

To contribute to the safety and well-being of all Canadians by providing high-quality environmental information and advice and by promoting human behaviour that respects the present and future conditions of the atmosphere and hydrosphere.

Description

The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) provides services in the areas of weather, climate, air quality, ice and hydrology. It also carries out research in the atmospheric sciences to improve understanding of the atmosphere and to help Canadians understand how their activities affect the atmosphere. Meteorological Service of Canada promotes sustainable development and provides sustainable benefits to Canadians in these ways:

• for Canadians' safety and well-being, by observing, researching, interpreting and predicting the conditions of the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, including sea state and ice, and by providing related scientific information, understanding and advice;
• by fostering actions, behaviours and decisions that help safeguard the environment and/or allow Canadians to adapt to their environment; and
• by contributing to the economic prosperity of Canada.

Meteorological Service of Canada's goal is to enable Canadians to make informed decisions regarding their health, their safety, the environment and sustainable development by providing them with products and services to help them make wise decisions. This is done through actions and processes founded on science. First, MSC must identify where and how humans and the environment interact to understand the processes at play. This understanding is then turned into products and services that focus mainly on how the future atmospheric environment will affect Canadians. Finally, services are delivered to Canadians as advice or input to policy to help them achieve sustainable benefits by adapting their lifestyle, decisions or activities to the impacts the environment has on them or for the benefit of the environment.

The Meteorological Service of Canada Activity consists of the following four sub-activities:

1. Meteorological and Hydrological Warnings: This sub-activity aims to reduce the impact, on life and property, of natural or human-induced meteorological or hydrological hazards and emergencies. This is done by providing, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, weather warnings, forecasts and information on atmospheric, hydrological, sea-state and ice conditions for Canada, and the adjacent oceans within the 370-kilometre economic zone. These are provided in enough detail, and in sufficient time, to allow Canadians to take steps to protect their life, their property and the environment, and to carry out their activities more easily.

   Clients include the public, the media, other government departments, water management agencies, industries such as transportation and fishing, and agencies responding to environmental disasters like an oil spill at sea. Partners include the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) an agency of the United Nations thousands of volunteer severe weather watchers, the media and educational organizations.

2. Meteorological and Hydrological Services: The objective of this sub-activity is to provide information and advice on the past, present and future states of the atmosphere and hydrosphere, for the sustained social and economic benefit of all Canadians and to encourage changes, beneficial to the environment, in human activities, behaviour, decisions and policies. This activity also includes administering a number of federal-provincial agreements, negotiated under the Canada Water Act, which deal mainly with water quantity and quality surveying activities.

3. Atmospheric Science: This sub-activity promotes the development of the scientific knowledge needed to respond to regional, national and global issues such as climate change, smog, ozone depletion, acid rain, and hazardous air pollutants, and it directly supports MSC's other sub-activities. Its objective is to improve the understanding of the atmosphere and of the impact of human activities on the atmosphere, in order to ultimately influence social, environ- mental and economic decisions. Atmospheric Science works towards its goal by researching air quality-related matters; by reducing scientific uncertainties related to climate change and variability; and by developing new science, technology and techniques pertaining to atmospheric pollution and to the efficiency and effectiveness of operational services.

   Science activities are carried out in cooperation with universities, professional societies, other departments, research organizations in other countries and international organizations like the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Atmospheric Science works with Canadian universities by supporting research projects and industrial chairs in meteorology and climatology.

4. Administration: This sub-activity directs the MSC Activity and provides some specialized services to other sub-activities. Its goal is to ensure that the MSC has the plans, policies and procedures required for its effectiveness and efficiency and to maintain Canada's responsibilities to the WMO.