High-altitude Aerosols, Water vapour and Clouds Mission Advisory Group Terms of reference

Space Utilization Development

1. Introduction

The High-altitude Aerosols, Water vapour and Clouds (HAWC) Mission Advisory Group (MAG) will play an important role in development of the HAWC Mission. Consisting of internationally recognized experts, the HAWC MAG will engage with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and HAWC instrument and scientific leads (academia and Other Government Departments (OGD)) to provide independent feedback and input throughout the mission lifetime on topics ranging from mission objectives and data product definitions to data calibration and validation, operations, and data usability. The composition and emphasis of the HAWC MAG will evolve in line with the development phases of the HAWC Mission.

2. Mandate

The MAG is an external consultative group that will provide independent feedback and recommendations during the development and operations of the HAWC Mission. The group will not represent the CSA nor the Government of Canada (GC) in any public capacity. It will provide input in the following areas:

• 2.1 Mission planning
  • Mission objectives and scientific goals and flow down to requirements.
  • Overall synergy approach with upcoming or existing international missions.
  • Opportunities to expand the HAWC mission concept beyond its original scientific objectives and address additional applications.
• 2.2 Requirements
  • All levels of requirements (User, Mission, System etc.) and compatibility with mission objectives.
• 2.3 Data and operations
  • Data products requirements, specifications, and product quality indicators.
  • Retrieval and data processing algorithms and documentation, up to and including L2.
  • Science operations, space to ground segment interfaces, data analysis flow, data archiving.
• 2.4 Science
  • Advancement of the scientific readiness level of the HAWC Mission.
  • Calibration and validation (cal/val) activities.
  • Identifying higher-level products (L3 and more) relevant to the user community.
• 2.5 Mobilization
  • Engagement with the international user community.
  • Opportunities for collaborations/partnerships with international space agencies.
  • Increasing mission visibility through scientific publications and presentations.

The HAWC MAG will assess the impact and efficacy of CSA HAWC activities as they relate to the mission objectives and will provide feedback to the CSA when requested.

The HAWC MAG reports to the CSA HAWC Mission Manager (avenir-hawc-science@asc-csa.gc.ca).

The Terms of Reference (ToR) will be reviewed by the CSA HAWC Mission Manager on a yearly basis and may be changed as the needs for specific input evolve.

3. Membership

• 3.1 Composition

  The HAWC MAG is formulated to obtain broad representation from the Canadian and international atmospheric science and remote sensing community with specific application to the HAWC Mission. The membership consists of the following groups of members:

  • External Members

    External members will be appointed by the CSA HAWC Mission Manager on the basis of their expertise, experience, and interest through an open-call application process. There are seven (7) to nine (9) External members.

  • Internal/Canadian Members

    The CSA HAWC Mission Manager will appoint the internal/Canadian MAG members based on the nominations of the HAWC Science and Applications community in the following categories:

    • Five (5) Members from the Academia:
      • Three (3) instrument co-leads (one (1) for each of the HAWC instruments: Thin Ice Clouds in Far InfraRed Experiment (TICFIRE), Advanced Land Imager (ALI) and Spatial Heterodyne Observations of Water (SHOW).
      • One (1) calibration/validation co-lead.
      • One (1) applications co-lead.
    • Three (3) members from the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC):
      • One (1) climate modelling co-lead.
      • One (1) weather prediction co-lead.
      • One (1) air quality co-lead.
    • One (1) member from the National Research Council of Canada (NRC):
      • One (1) sub-orbital co-lead.
  • CSA Members

    In addition to HAWC Mission Manager, the CSA will generally be represented by three (3) or more members (nominally, three (3) Mission Scientists for TICFIRE, HAWCsat and Science and Applications respectively) with the main objective of supporting the discussions relative to the MAG charge. The CSA members are considered as observers and are not eligible to vote/recommend.

  • Additional Members

    CSA reserves the right to appoint or invite to individual meetings any additional members with expertise or experience not readily available within MAG.

    External and Additional members cannot be a member of the Contractor or sub-Contractor teams for the industrial study activities addressing the implementation of the mission. CSA-HAWC-PGM-0001 Issue 1 3

• 3.2 Appointment

  External members will be appointed by the CSA HAWC Mission Manager on the basis of their expertise, experience, and interest in relation to the mandate of the HAWC MAG through an open-call application process. The CSA HAWC Mission Manager has the final authority in the appointment of all members.

  All members are required to pass a security check and sign a non-disclosure agreement before being appointed. The security check is required by the CSA in order to be able to share protected government information with members and to enable members to attend meetings held at CSA headquarters.

  All Members are required to avoid any inappropriate sharing or disclosure of information and, also, avoid using membership on the MAG in a way that could give rise to an actual, apparent or potential conflict of interest. As such, all Members are required to commit to the requirements outlined in Annexes A and B on Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest.

• 3.3 Tenure

  External members serve for a three (3)-year term with a possibility of renewal. An appropriate number of members will be appointed, renewed, or rotated annually to maintain a representative composition of the HAWC MAG while minimizing loss of experience and continuity.

  Additional members may serve for as long as the CSA requires their specific expertise and experience to be available to the HAWC MAG.

• 3.4 Executive

  The HAWC MAG executive consists of two (2) co-Chairs and one (1) Executive Secretary:

  • CSA co-Chair

    The MAG is chaired by the CSA HAWC Mission Manager, or another CSA member appointed by the CSA HAWC Mission Manager. The CSA co-Chair develops meeting agenda jointly with the Internal and CSA members and is responsible for the logistical arrangement of meetings held at the CSA as well as meetings held by teleconference/videoconference.

  • External co-Chair

    The MAG external co-chair is nominated by the External members for a period of three (3) years. The external co-chair accepts the MAG charge, works jointly with the CSA co-chair on reaching the consensus within the group and provides the recommendations on behalf of all MAG members.

  • Secretary

    Appointed by the CSA HAWC Mission Manager from the CSA members. Records the meeting attendance, prepares the minutes of the meetings, and maintains permanent records of the HAWC MAG's activities.

4. Meetings

Meetings will normally take place between once and twice per year. In the case of two (2) meetings, it is anticipated that one (1) meeting will be held in a hybrid format with as much of in-person attendance as possible and the second meeting will be held entirely on-line to lower the travelling barrier and encourage the diversity of MAG members. The dates are selected to best align with the CSA's annual planning cycle and HAWC milestones.

Communications are carried out by email and teleconferences (e.g. Teams). The CSA HAWC Mission Manager is responsible for the logistical arrangements.

The meeting agendas are developed jointly by the CSA HAWC Mission Manager in consultation with the internal members. The agenda and review materials are made available no later than twenty (20) business days prior to the meeting.

The minutes of the meetings are prepared by the Secretary. The minutes are made available to HAWC MAG members no later than ten (10) business days after the meeting.

5. Compensation

No compensation is provided to the members for their work with the HAWC MAG. Members may request travel support for face-to-face meetings. Any travel support will follow the guidelines set forth by the Treasury Board Directive on Travel, Hospitality, Conference, and Event Expenditures. The members of OGDs of Canada may not request travel support from the HAWC MAG.

6. Reporting and communications

Results of the meetings will include:

1. The final agenda, attendance list, and minutes of the meeting.
2. A record of opinions or recommendations submitted to the CSA HAWC Mission Manager in response to the MAG charge by the External co-chair in consultation with all MAG members.

7. Records

In addition to the minutes of meetings, the Secretary generates and maintains records documenting the activities of the HAWC MAG, including copies of presentations, reports produced for or by the HAWC MAG and records of the membership.

8. Approval

The terms of reference are approved by the undersigned:

The original version was signed by Martin Bergeron, Acting Director General, Space Utilization, Canadian Space Agency, on October 2, 2025