Table of Contents

Polar Communication and Weather mission (PCW)

Mission overview

Telecommunication services are the backbone of a modern society. Currently, most of the telecommunication needs in remote areas are served by the geostationary communications satellites (GEO). These satellites are placed into the equatorial plane at the altitude of 36000 km. The GEO satellites offer today a variety of communications and entertainment services to the Canadians wherever they live.  However, due to the orbit geometry, there are parts of the Canadian territory that cannot be covered at all by the GEO satellites.  Also there are some limitations to what GEO satellites can offer in the High Arctic, particularly for mobile services such as ships, planes and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). That leaves a part of the Canadian territory in the Arctic region without access to secure, highly reliable and high capacity telecommunication solutions.

Coverage zone

Meteorological:
50^o north latitude (in red)

Communications:
72^o north latitude (in blue).

(Credit: Canadian Space Agency)

It is the role of government to ensure accurate short term weather and long term climate forecasts. These forecasts are important to the functioning of the economy and to the safety and quality of life of Canadians. At present, the data for the Numerical Weather Prediction models is collected by GEO and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) polar orbiting satellites operated by other nations (GOES and POES (NOAA); MSG and MetOp (EUMETSAT)). GEO satellites provide an image of the Earth disc every 15 minutes, from 60° South to 60° North at 0.5-2.0 km spatial resolution. That is a "golden standard" in modern state-of-the-art meteorology. However, the spatial resolution rapidly degrades above 60°, due to the Earth curvature, leaving Polar Regions without coverage from GEO. LEO polar orbiting satellites are capable of providing much better spatial resolution over high latitudes, but on a narrow swath. Thus, they are unable to cover the whole circumpolar area at once, and it might take up to 6 hours before the satellite is able to image the same target area. In summary, currently, there is no source of meteorological data over the Arctic with sufficient temporal and spatial resolution to be used in weather prediction. That not only makes weather forecasting in the Arctic extremely difficult, but also has a detrimental effect on accuracy of weather forecasting in Canada, North America and globally, as the processes in the Arctic have a significant effect on global weather.

Global climate change and renewed worldwide interest in the vast natural resources in the Arctic represent new challenges and opportunities for Canada. To profit from the natural resources in the North and to respond to the challenges of sovereignty and security in this region, Canada needs better communications, weather prediction, and climate and environment monitoring capabilities in the North.

To resolve these issues and to seize the opportunities the North presents, the Canadian Space Agency, in partnership with Environment Canada, the Department of National Defence, and supported by other Government Departments completed in September 2008 a Phase 0 study for the Polar Communications and Weather (PCW) project. The outcomes of this study proved that a system of two satellites forming the Polar Communication and Weather Mission, also known as PolarSat mission, could provide broadband continuous 24/7 communications services throughout all of the Arctic and improve climate change monitoring and weather forecasting. In July 2009, CSA and its Government partners awarded a contract to the Canadian industrial consortium led by MDA of Richmond, BC to conduct a 12 month Phase A Mission Analysis and Concept Definition study.