North of the border—The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) Reference Climate Network

Within Environment Canada (EC), the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) is charged with the responsibility of monitoring weather and climate. As a result, the responsibility for the Reference Climate Stations (RCS) Network (CDN-CRN), the Cooperative Climate Network (CDN - Cooperative Observer Network), and the Surface Weather (SWX) Network (supports forecasting) lie within one division, the Surface Weather Climate Marine (SWCM) Networks Division.

Under the theme, integrated instrumentation and networks for climate studies I will describe the Canadian RCS Network. The description will include; network design, network coverage, numbers of stations, relation to the GSN, station variability, the standard RCS datalogger configuration, and reporting protocols. I will also include a brief reference to the MSC Surface Weather (SWX) Network which uses the same “standard configuration” as the RCS Network, for all modernized (automated) stations. Our use of identical configurations for both networks has many advantages, including the effective enlargement of both networks

I have submitted a separate abstract on the Canadian Cooperative Climate Network (T&P).