Providing Meteorological Services to the Canadian Armed Forces

Providing Meteorological Services to the Canadian Armed Forces through Network-based Services 18 Aug 2014 Martha Anderson Director, Meteorology and Oceanography UNCLASSIFIED

Overview q The CF Weather and Oceanographic Service q Network-based weather services: § Interactive delivery § Self-serve

Canadian Forces Weather & Oceanographic Service MISSION STATEMENT The Canadian Forces Weather & Oceanographic Service (CFWOS) provides specialized meteorological & oceanographic (METOC) information for strategic, operational and tactical advantage on a global scale. VISION To be an integral component of CF Command & Control (C 2) and Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) initiatives, providing leading edge global METOC services to decision makers and operators.

Military Met. Oc Support Principles Ø “one operation, one forecast” Ø Environment Canada, host nation or coalition lead nation forecasts to be used wherever possible Ø CF Weather Office web site provides common suite of information

Components of METOC Support for Operations / Exercises 1. Climate data for planning 2. Daily support in-theatre 3. • • • weather observations Weather forecasts and warnings Information on impact of environment on capabilities Advice to intelligence and targeting Other environmental information (floods, forest fires, space weather) Delivery / Dissemination Remote weather briefing or on-site

CFWOS Services: Forecasting and Briefing Haiti Gulf of Aden

CFWOS Transformation Project Ø Joint Met Centre – CFB Gagetown, NB • Met Tech teams prepare for deployment • On-the-job training for briefing and forecasting • Centralized briefing • Centralized forecast production • Development work on products, techniques and tools Ø Met. Oc Centres – Halifax, NS and Esquimalt, BC • Briefing and forecasting, for fleet and regional commanders • Oceanographic programme

Joint Met Center: Building Extension Completed 2013

Remote Brief Capability Ø Connects weather expert to users on three internal networks (unclassified and classified) Ø deliver interactive information via videoconference, web cams, webinars, teleconference, and chat.

Remote Briefing Capability

EC FORECASTS GLOBAL INFO

Ongoing Intranet Service Initiatives Ø Google Earth Met. Oc layers

Download Capabilities

Ongoing Intranet Service Initiatives Ø Met. Oc NWP datasets for classified decision support systems Ø NITES 2 Redesign (N 2 R) workstation from USN, to serve fields to the Global Command Control System map, plus other METOC applications

Under Consideration … Ø OGC web services Ø Met. Oc. Ice Data Warehouse Ø Connect DND users to CMC Geo. Met Ø Ensemble Prediction System probability products Ø Improved Impact Matrix presentation

ARMY / AIR NATO WEATHER IMPACT CHART Area of Interest CFB KINGSTON Valid Period (Next 48 hours) 130800 Z APR 12 to 140800 Z APR 12 Impacted Resources 0800 -1200 -1600 -2000 -0000 -0400 -0800 Air Defense C C Para Drop W W W Air (Fixed) TB TB TB NBC Chemical W W W Intelligence C C C Vehicular Movement Dismounted Movement Artillery Air (Helo) Tact Airlift (Fixed) Weather Keys V-Visibility T – Temperature C – Ceilings P – Precipitation W – Wind W/C – Windchill SD – Snow Depth I – Icing TB – Turbulence NO IMPACT Moderate Impact Effectiveness reduced to 25% – 75% Severe Impact Effectiveness reduced to 0 -25%

User Perceptions and Practices Ø Generation gap on interactive and self. Intranet service adaptation levels Ø “pretty = accurate” even if the source is less credible

Questions? Martha Anderson Director Meteorology and Oceanography Martha. Anderson@forces. gc. ca 613 -996 -3648