As you know, Anik F2 is an equatorial system that sits out at geosynchronous orbit. It sits above a particular position of the earth and rotates around the earth at the same speed of the earth and stays there. It has a footprint into Canada and barely makes 60 degrees north. So there is the recognition that for all the mining and exploration going on up north and all the flying happening up north because of the mining exploration, there is a hole in the communications and weather services provided by the north.
At the Canadian Space Agency we were asked to take a look at a long-term plan for how we would approach the priorities of government. So we did that. We did a long consultation process, and the number one activity that came back was to provide social and economic development for the north. For us, that meant this PolarSat satellite system.
It's a system in a patented orbit that Canada owns—if this is the earth, with the north pole here and the south pole there, it hangs at 44,000 kilometres out, over the north, and as it skirts around the south, it hangs, again, over the north. It has a 12-hour period, so you need two of them to get complete communication coverage of the north.
By bringing this system in, you will equalize the service, from a communications point of view, for all Canadians. You'll have the latest and greatest technology supporting your Internet, supporting your aircraft, supporting your weather services, etc. That's the communications aspect of this system.
It also provides weather. There is no weather north of 60 right now. Now there is an interesting phenomenon—the tropopause up north is about 20,000 feet, wherein most of our weather is below the tropopause. The tropopause at the equator is 50,000 feet. So if we provide weather, you'll get the same information that you see on your CTV or CBC every evening, except it will include the north. If we provide that weather, we are actually able to improve the models in the south as well.
This proposal is to bring communications and weather infrastructure to the north. We also have an air quality experiment that we probably will fly on it. That hasn't been quite decided.
This is a major proposal. It's at the proposal stage. We've finished phase A of the design. I have been asked to come to cabinet to describe the long-term space plan, and I am hoping they ask me about the social and economic development of the north, where PolarSat would be the number one item.