Table of Contents

Polar Communication and Weather mission (PCW)

Mission objectives

The PCW mission aims to support Canadian sovereignty and security, to improve quality of life and to facilitate economic development and world-class scientific research in the Arctic by providing reliable 24/7 high data rate (HDR) communications services in order to:

• enable Canadian Forces, Canadian Coast Guard, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Nav Canada, Transport Canada, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Environment Canada activities in high Arctic;
  
  
• connect northern communities to the broadband information backbone infrastructure;
  
  
• facilitate exploration and exploitation of natural resources;
  
  
• enhance efficiency of the research in the Arctic;
  
  
• ensure that Canadians are benefiting from increased air and marine traffic in the Polar region.

PCW also aims to monitor Arctic weather and climate change for the benefits of Canadians and the Global community in order to:

• significantly improve the accuracy of weather forecasting, including severe weather event warnings;
  
  
• improve the understanding of global climate change and the ability to model and predict phenomena associated with it;
  
  
• provide unique high quality operational data acquired over the entire polar region, which is currently not available from any source.