In the U.S., all of these forecast tools such as raw Radar data and custom Radar software are freely available to the public for personal or commercial use.
In Canada, many of these important tools are unavailable to the public.
This is a problem.
There are many elevations of Radar and special analysis software that are only made available to Environment Canada through the use of their custom Radar software and private servers.
We found this write-up:
https://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/141722.pdf
It states:
"The Canadian forecaster’s primary analysis and display tool for Radar data is the Unified Radar Processing (URP) software. URP produces basic conventional and velocity-based products. Each Radar uses a 5-minute 24 elevation conventional scan strategy producing detailed volumetric data. This is followed by a 5-minute four elevation doppler scan.
A more sophisticated suite of products is produced by an MSC-designed system known internationally as CARDS (Canadian Radar Decision Support system). These products are designed detect and track thunderstorm cells, and to help assess their
severity (Joe, et al, 2002)."
All of the above, along with raw Radar data and any future or other software should be freely available to the public.
Only one elevation of the doppler, reflectivity scan is available on Environment Canada's website in a low-resolution, poorly coloured version.
The other 23 elevations, velocity Radar, storm tracking MSC software and URP software is only available to Environment Canada forecasters.
All of these tools would be incredibly useful to the weather community of Canada and yet, they're ridiculously expensive or unavailable.
Environment Canada does a great job and we have huge respect for their Meteorologists.
We simply feel it's every Canadian's right to freely access this data and software for personal and commercial use.
This would inevitably lead to the development of better Canadian weather apps and superior algorithms for tracking Tornadoes and severe weather.
At its cheapest, raw Canadian Radar data is $12,999 a year from the University of Oklahoma.
It should be free.
Who's with us?
http://CanadaTornado.com
Updates
Reached 500 supporters
October 6, 2014
September 15, 2014
Reaching this point has been exhausting but watching the support grow gives me a reason to keep fighting. It is clear that I am not the only one frustrated by being kept in the dark about our own weather data. We have a long way to go before things change but I promise to keep pushing.
Reached 100 supporters
July 20, 2014
11 Comments
lets make everyone weather Savy. There are more educated weather watchers in the general public that could help warn of severe circumstances.
Weather safety should be open to everyone. Hope this actually happens soon.
Yes please!! We need better data for storm chasing here in Ontario. Keep up the great work guys.
Its ridiculous that we dont have access to this stuff already. Its our tax dollars paying for it anyway.
Why is the US so far ahead of us on this? Makes no sense to hide the raw data.
It's for the safety of people come on!!! Let ot out!!
I really feel this is a very important tool Canada should have.
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In the U.S., all of these forecast tools such as raw Radar data and custom Radar software are freely available to the public for personal or commercial use.
In Canada, many of these important tools are unavailable to the public.
This is a problem.
There are many elevations of Radar and special analysis software that are only made available to Environment Canada through the use of their custom Radar software and private servers.
We found this write-up:
https://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/141722.pdf
It states:
"The Canadian forecaster’s primary analysis and display tool for Radar data is the Unified Radar Processing (URP) software. URP produces basic conventional and velocity-based products. Each Radar uses a 5-minute 24 elevation conventional scan strategy producing detailed volumetric data. This is followed by a 5-minute four elevation doppler scan.
A more sophisticated suite of products is produced by an MSC-designed system known internationally as CARDS (Canadian Radar Decision Support system). These products are designed detect and track thunderstorm cells, and to help assess their
severity (Joe, et al, 2002)."
All of the above, along with raw Radar data and any future or other software should be freely available to the public.
Only one elevation of the doppler, reflectivity scan is available on Environment Canada's website in a low-resolution, poorly coloured version.
The other 23 elevations, velocity Radar, storm tracking MSC software and URP software is only available to Environment Canada forecasters.
All of these tools would be incredibly useful to the weather community of Canada and yet, they're ridiculously expensive or unavailable.
Environment Canada does a great job and we have huge respect for their Meteorologists.
We simply feel it's every Canadian's right to freely access this data and software for personal and commercial use.
This would inevitably lead to the development of better Canadian weather apps and superior algorithms for tracking Tornadoes and severe weather.
At its cheapest, raw Canadian Radar data is $12,999 a year from the University of Oklahoma.
It should be free.
Who's with us?
http://CanadaTornado.com
Updates
Reached 500 supporters
October 6, 2014
September 15, 2014
Reaching this point has been exhausting but watching the support grow gives me a reason to keep fighting. It is clear that I am not the only one frustrated by being kept in the dark about our own weather data. We have a long way to go before things change but I promise to keep pushing.
Reached 100 supporters
July 20, 2014
11 Comments
Thank you for bringing this to our attention...and for your regular warnings and watches. All very much appreciated
lets make everyone weather Savy. There are more educated weather watchers in the general public that could help warn of severe circumstances.
Weather safety should be open to everyone. Hope this actually happens soon.
Yes please!! We need better data for storm chasing here in Ontario. Keep up the great work guys.
Its ridiculous that we dont have access to this stuff already. Its our tax dollars paying for it anyway.
Why is the US so far ahead of us on this? Makes no sense to hide the raw data.
It's for the safety of people come on!!! Let ot out!!
I really feel this is a very important tool Canada should have.
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Thank you for bringing this to our attention...and for your regular warnings and watches. All very much appreciated