May 15, 2024
From freezing rain storms and snowstorms to wind shear and thunderstorms, when flying through Canada’s airspace pilots can encounter a wide variety of weather systems and events. While it is impossible to predict mother nature’s exact moves with perfect accuracy, the decision whether or not an aircraft should take to the skies and the safest and most efficient routes to take requires careful planning and consideration by a large network of aviation industry professionals.
Helping to ensure that everyone involved in that decision-making process has a common understanding of weather terms significant to the aviation industry, Canada's air navigation service provider, in partnership with experts from across Canada's aviation community, created a new and free online resource called the NAV CANADA Aviation Meteorology Reference. In addition to providing users with meteorological explanations curated for the aviation industry, each weather term ties back to the resultant impacts experienced by various operational users.
.jpg)
“We explain the science behind the weather, tie it back to historical events through the use of past forecast products, what ended up being observed, and discuss potential impacts on everything from a Cessna to a Boeing 777 and beyond,” explains Sophie Splawinski, NAV CANADA’s Manager of Network Aviation Weather and project lead. "Our industry is built upon highly specialized, but often compartmentalized expertise. Breaking down these barriers and providing a common understanding of weather and how it can affect us all differently will increase safety, both on the ground and in the air, and elevate our ability to work together more efficiently.”
Erin Pierce, co-lead on the Weather Applications team, National Operations Centre manager and former chief dispatcher at Jazz AviationOpen a new window says this tool was born out of a need identified through conversations with pilots, flight dispatchers, and air navigation service professionals. “We realized there isn’t a great deal of industry cross-training happening between weather forecasters and the people who are making decisions based on those forecasts. Our project aims to bridge that gap by connecting subject matter experts from a variety of fields to elevate everyone’s knowledge organically,” adds Pierce.
.jpeg)
With a focus on delivering the best possible product, the project team collaborated with industry experts who work on the frontlines of aviation industry operations. Weather content was developed by meteorologists within the Meteorological Service of Canada. These experts are responsible for issuing a variety of aviation products that are used daily by aviation industry professionals, many of which are available on NAV CANADA’s Collaborative Flight Planning Services website.
In parallel, the Aviation Meteorology Reference’s aviation content comes directly from the experts who work in the field. Contributors include both large and small commercial carriers, general aviation pilots, certified flight instructors, airport authorities, air navigation service professionals within both instrument flight rules (IFR) and visual flight rules (VFR) roles, and flight service specialists. The website is the first resource of its kind to merge both operational and meteorological information together in one place.
Satellite imagery captured on November 5, 2022, of a low-pressure system (cyclone/storm) moving through Ontario and Quebec. The associated warm front brought snow and freezing precipitation to northern Ontario and Central Quebec, while strong winds along the cold front impacted operations at Toronto Pearson International Airport and led to air traffic delays.
“Our country is vast and experiences a massive range of high-impact weather throughout the year,” says Jessica Howell, Senior Program Meteorologist with the Meteorological Service of CanadaOpen a new window. “As we’ve witnessed through severe weather events like Hurricane Fiona, the southern Ontario and Quebec derecho, heat domes, and ice storms, weather and our changing climate can have significant and long-term impacts on Canadians’ safety and their communities. The more we can do to understand and educate each other about weather and climate, the better prepared we’ll be to mitigate their current and evolving impacts.”
The Aviation Meteorology Reference is one product that has been recognized by the industry as having applicability across the entire community. The Reference has received pre-approval to be used within Transport Canada's Annual Pilot Training Program under CAR STD 421.05(2)(c), is planned to be included in on-boarding, annual recurrent training, and classroom environments by flight schools, flight dispatch schools, commercial airline pilots and dispatchers, and beyond. Internally to NAV CANADA the Aviation Meteorology Reference will be a supplemental resource to all operational streams, including ATC, FSS and operational management personnel, as well as a source for general knowledge to the company as a whole. This exemplifies the level of success achieved with all four of NAV CANADA's pillars at the core: safety, expertise, partnerships, and innovation.
The project team is also looking to continue building content in the future, in continued collaboration with the aviation industry. As such, subject matter experts interested in joining are asked to reach out to the team at WAT@navcanada.ca.