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Satellite images of marine wind in Canada's coastal zones

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October 2010

Understanding and Predicting Marine Wind in
Canada's Coastal Zones With RADARSAT-2

Understanding and predicting weather, and particularly winds, in Canada's coastal zones is critical to ensuring economic wellbeing as well as safety and security of Canadians. Economic activity is increasing on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, as well as on the Great Lakes. Furthermore it is expected that growth in shipping, commerce and natural resources exploration will occur in the Arctic as ice continues to recede due to climate change. Timely information on winds over sea, at scales that only SAR satellites can provide, is key to provision of improved marine forecasts as well as forecasts for adjacent coastal areas. Benefits accrue to several sectors, including shipping, fishing, energy, and recreation, all of which are extremely susceptible to changing weather conditions on local scales.

The Environment Act confers on Environment Canada (EC) the responsibility to provide environmental information for the benefit of Canadians, including forecasts and warnings concerning their safety, security, and economic well-being. Many services provided by EC require detailed knowledge of the coastal marine environment. Those that depend directly on knowledge of the surface wind field include marine forecasting and warning, forecasting the movement of sea and lake ice, predicting storm surges and the evolution of pollution episodes, as well as understanding and predicting the processes affecting marine ecosystems and fish populations.

Through the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Government Related Initiatives Program (GRIP), Environment Canada (EC) is developing a project titled "The National SAR Wind Project for High Resolution Marine Wind". This project utilizes SAR satellite space-based monitoring, such as RADARSAT-1, RADARSAT-2 and ENVISAT ASAR data, for improving wind analysis and short-range prediction over large marine areas, and especially in the coastal zones. In partnership with EC Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) National Laboratories, Storm Prediction Centres, the Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC), the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the Department of National Defence (DND) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), EC is implementing a national quasi-operational prototype of the SAR Wind system that is integrating up to 1600 SAR images per month.

Use of RADARSAT-2 SAR Winds information for Marine Forecasting: Wind speed in the Queen Charlotte Island, British Columbia, Canada. This is an example of the SAR dataset providing new insights to meteorologists, analogous to what was experienced with the advent of infrared and visual satellite imagery 3 decades ago. Here we clearly see the strength and extent of a barrier jet along the British Columbia coast.

RADARSAT-2 Data and Products © MacDONALD, DETTWILER AND ASSOCIATES LTD (2010) – All Rights Reserved. RADARSAT is an official mark of the Canadian Space Agency.

The project will validate cutting edge SAR technologies, develop new information products and applications to support decision-making and marine forecasting infrastructures, and evaluate the needs for the Canadian Government – critical for the development of a full operational SAR system.

At the end of the project, recommendations to EC Management will be provided on future operationalization based on users feedback and cost-benefit analysis. This will include assessment of optimal image ordering strategy, system architecture for operational implementation, and recommendations for enhancements. This project will integrate and advance the efforts within EC to employ SAR marine wind information for use by operational marine forecasters and other meteorologists.

This project built on the accomplishments and success of the CSA Earth Observation Applications Development (EOADP) MENTOR project.

Examples of products available from the SAR Wind Web Portal

RADARSAT-2 Data and Products © MacDONALD, DETTWILER AND ASSOCIATES LTD (2010) – All Rights Reserved. RADARSAT is an official mark of the Canadian Space Agency.

SAR Wind products developed and used during the Gulf of Mexico oil spills and Hurricane Earl: these two 2010 events have demonstrated that SAR Wind information could be useful not only for monitoring "normal" meteorological condition in Canada coastal waters, but also for extreme meteorological and ecological phenomena in any place in the Northern Hemisphere and for any special operations.

RADARSAT-2 Data and Products © MacDONALD, DETTWILER AND ASSOCIATES LTD (2010) – All Rights Reserved. RADARSAT is an official mark of the Canadian Space Agency.

Hurricane Earl Wind speed: anatomy of the hurricane wind structure based on RADARSAT-2 imagery

RADARSAT-2 Data and Products © MacDONALD, DETTWILER AND ASSOCIATES LTD (2010) – All Rights Reserved. RADARSAT is an official mark of the Canadian Space Agency.