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Northern Watch Options analysis to select a southern test site for above water sensors D. Brookes DRDC Ottawa J.L. Forand DRDC Valcartier

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Defence R&D Canada – Ottawa Technical Memorandum

DRDC Ottawa TM 2013-141 December 2013

Northern Watch Options analysis to select a southern test site for above water sensors

D. Brookes DRDC Ottawa J.L. Forand DRDC Valcartier

Defence Research and Development Canada – Ottawa Technical Memorandum DRDC Ottawa TM 2013-141 December 2013

Principal Author

Original signed by Dan Brookes

Dan Brookes

Defence Scientist

Approved by

Original signed by Rahim Jassemi

Rahim Jassemi

Acting Head, Space and ISR Applications Section

Approved for release by

Original signed by Chris McMillan

Chris McMillan

Chair, Document Review Panel

© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of National Defence, 2013

© Sa Majesté la Reine (en droit du Canada), telle que représentée par le ministre de la Défense nationale, 2013

DRDC Ottawa TM 2013-141 i

Abstract ��..

This document describes an evaluation process to determine the most suitable southern location, amongst several East Coast candidates, for testing a suite of above water sensors (AWS) for the Northern Watch Technology Demonstration Program (TDP) project. The chosen site could be used for testing the AWS, as stand-alone sensors or as part of an integrated suite, before deploying them to the Arctic. It could also be used for testing the AWS between arctic deployments. The evaluation was performed with the assistance of the Canadian Forces (CF), using their own Geographic Information System (GIS) tools, as well as by Defence R&D Canada (DRDC) using a combination of their own GIS tools, radar propagation prediction software (developed in-house, at DRDC), on-site inspections, and a literature search. It was decided that a ski resort named Le Massif, about 70km NE of Quebec City, along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, would be the best choice. This decision was based on the available information and applying such metrics as site accessibility, availability and timeliness for emergency medical response, availability of accommodation for personnel during trials, density of surface vessel traffic, potential environmental assessment issues and suitability of terrain.

Résumé �.....

Le présent document décrit un processus d�évaluation visant à déterminer l�emplacement le mieux adapté au sud, parmi plusieurs candidats de la côte Est, pour mettre à l�essai un ensemble de capteurs de surface (CS) dans le cadre du projet du Programme de démonstration de technologies (PDT) de surveillance du Nord. L�emplacement choisi pourrait servir à mettre à l�essai les CS, en tant que capteurs autonomes ou qu�éléments d�un ensemble intégré, avant leur déploiement dans l�Arctique. Il pourrait aussi servir à mettre à l�essai les CS entre les déploiements dans l�Arctique. De plus, l�évaluation a été réalisée avec l�aide des Forces canadiennes (FC), au moyen de leurs outils du système d�information géographique (SIG), et de R & D pour la défense Canada (RDDC), au moyen d�une combinaison de leurs outils de SIG, d�un logiciel de prédiction de la propagation radar (conçu à l�interne, à RDDC), d�inspections sur place et d�une recherche documentaire. On a décidé que le meilleur choix serait la station de ski du Massif, située à environ 70 km au nord-est de la ville de Québec, le long de la rive nord du fleuve Saint-Laurent. Cette décision repose sur les renseignements disponibles et l�application de paramètres, comme l�accessibilité du site, la disponibilité et l�obtention en temps voulu des secours médicaux d�urgence, la disponibilité de l�hébergement pour le personnel pendant les essais, la densité de la circulation des navires de surface, les problèmes possibles associés à l�évaluation environnementale et la convenance du terrain.

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Executive summary

Northern Watch: Options Analysis to Select a Southern Test Site for Above Water Sensors

D. Brookes; J.L. Forand; DRDC Ottawa TM 2013-141; Defence R&D Canada � Ottawa; December 2013.

Introduction or background: In August 2008, the Northern Watch Technology Demonstration Program (TDP) project embarked upon its first attempt at Arctic Field Trials as part of a spiral development plan to build an integrated suite of Above Water (AW) and Underwater (UW) sensors. The primary objective of the sensor suite was to demonstrate an ability to monitor marine surface, and sub-surface vessel traffic at an acknowledged choke point overlooking Barrow Strait. The original plan called for a number of field trials alternating between the arctic site and southern sites during which the capabilities of each individual sensor would be characterized as fully as possible, then integrated and field tested in an iterative fashion. The sensors and self-reporting systems in the suite (radar, radar warning receivers, electro-optic/infrared imaging system, UW arrays of acoustic, electric and magnetic sensors plus an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver) were originally chosen on the basis that they were relatively inexpensive and complimentary, capable of providing detection and tracking ability with the potential for target classification and identification. The arctic site that was chosen for these field trials was the Gascoyne Inlet (GI)/Cape Liddon area at the western end of Lancaster Sound. This site was chosen because of its maritime choke-point location, terrain characteristics (e.g. high altitude for AW sensors) and pre-existing infrastructure.

Although Cape Liddon would have been useful for arctic in-situ testing of the AW sensors, significant weather challenges were encountered in 2008 that precluded their deployment at that time and indicated that future trials might be just as difficult. Given the considerable cost of doing arctic trials, with the possibility of minimal payback, a decision was made by the authors to investigate alternative testing sites in the South. In the South the logistics would be much less challenging (leading to a significant cost savings), there could be a much greater density of shipping traffic to use as targets of opportunity, and personnel safety concerns could be minimized.

Results: A number of East Coast locations overlooking Cabot Strait and the Gulf of St. Lawrence were investigated for suitability as southern AWS test sites using a combination of Geographic Information System (GIS) tools, radar propagation prediction software, on-site inspection, and literature searches. The metrics used to assess the merits of each site included: site accessibility, availability and timeliness of emergency medical response, availability of accommodation for personnel during trials, density of surface vessel traffic, potential environmental assessment issues and suitability of terrain. Of the many sites that were examined in the areas of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Port aux Basque, Newfoundland, and Quebec City, Quebec (i.e. Le Massif Ski Resort), the latter seemed to be the best choice, based on accessibility, availability of local resources, and the fact that there was a pre-existing and amicable relationship between the ski resort and DND.

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Significance: Since the Quebec site is relatively close to DRDC Valcartier, and less than a seven hour drive from DRDC Ottawa, one or two weeks of trials could probably be performed for less than $25k. Similar trials performed at the Naval Electronic System Test Range Atlantic (NESTRA) outside Halifax in December 2008 cost approximately $23k for travel, accommodation, and equipment rental for six days of effort. Sensor testing at this site might be more representative of the arctic test site than any testing performed at NESTRA because of the much greater altitudes that would be available, as well as the possible presence of marine ice.

Future plans: The next logical step would be to actually organize and perform sensor system trials at the Le Massif ski resort site. This would preferably be done during late spring at the beginning of the St. Lawrence shipping season when there may still be some ice in the channel.

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Sommaire .....

Northern Watch: Options Analysis to Select a Southern Test Site for Above Water Sensors

D. Brookes; J.L. Forand; DRDC Ottawa TM 2013-141; R & D pour la défense Canada � Ottawa; Décembre 2013.

Introduction ou contexte: En août 2008, le projet du Programme de démonstration de technologies (PDT) de surveillance du Nord a entrepris une première série d�essais sur le terrain dans l�Arctique dans le cadre d�un plan de développement en spirale visant à construire un ensemble intégré de capteurs de surface (CS) et de capteurs sous-marin (CSM). L�ensemble de capteurs vise avant tout à démontrer une capacité de surveillance de la circulation maritime des navires de surface et des sous-marins à un point de passage obligé connu surplombant le détroit de Barrows. Le plan initial prévoyait un certain nombre d�essais sur le terrain réalisés en alternance entre le site dans l�Arctique et les sites au sud, essais pendant lesquels les capacités de chaque capteur individuel seraient caractérisées le plus possible, puis intégrées et testées sur le terrain de manière itérative. Les capteurs et les systèmes de signalement automatiques dans l�ensemble (radar, récepteurs d�alerte radar, système d�imagerie électro-optique ou infrarouge, réseaux sous-marins de capteurs acoustiques, électriques et magnétiques, en plus d�un récepteur du Système d�identification automatique [SIA]) ont été sélectionnés au départ en raison de leur prix relativement bas et de leur complémentarité, ainsi que de leur capacité de détection et de poursuite qui permet la classification et l�identification des cibles. L�emplacement sélectionné dans l�Arctique pour réaliser les essais sur le terrain est la région de Gascoyne Inlet (GI) et de cap Liddon, située à l�extrémité ouest du détroit de Lancaster. Ce site a été choisi en raison de l�emplacement de son point de passage obligé maritime, des caractéristiques du terrain (comme haute altitude pour les capteurs de surface) et de l�infrastructure déjà en place.

Bien que cap Liddon ait été utile pour réaliser les essais sur place des capteurs de surface dans l�Arctique, on a rencontré des conditions météorologiques très difficiles en 2008, conditions qui ont empêché le déploiement des capteurs à l�époque et qui pourraient rendre tout aussi difficile la réalisation d�essais futurs. Compte tenu du coût considérable associé aux essais dans l�Arctique, et de la possibilité de résultats minimes, les auteurs ont décidé d�examiner d�autres sites d�essai au sud. Dans cette région, la logistique constituerait un défi beaucoup moindre (entraînant ainsi des économies importantes), une densité de la circulation maritime beaucoup plus grande pourrait être utilisée comme objectif inopiné, et les préoccupations relatives à la sécurité du personnel seraient réduites.

Résultats: On a étudié la convenance comme sites d�essai des CS au sud d�un certain nombre d�emplacements sur la côte Est, surplombant le détroit de Cabot et le golfe du Saint-Laurent, au moyen d�une combinaison d�outils du système d�information géographique (SIG), d�un logiciel de prédiction de la propagation radar, d�inspections sur place et d�une recherche documentaire. Les paramètres utilisés pour évaluer les avantages de chaque site comprennent : l�accessibilité du site, la disponibilité et l�obtention en temps voulu des secours médicaux d�urgence, la disponibilité de l�hébergement pour le personnel pendant les essais, la densité de la circulation des navires de surface, les problèmes possibles associés à l�évaluation environnementale et la convenance du terrain. Parmi les nombreux sites examinés dans les régions de l�île du Cap-

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Breton, de la Nouvelle-Écosse, de Port aux Basques, de Terre-Neuve, de la ville de Québec et de Québec (la station de ski du Massif), la dernière région semblait être le meilleur choix, en raison de l�accessibilité, de la disponibilité des ressources locales et de la relation amicale déjà existante entre la station de ski et le MDN.

Importance: Étant donné que le site de la région de Québec est situé relativement prêt de RDDC Valcartier et à moins de sept heures de route de RDDC Ottawa, on pourrait sans doute réaliser une ou deux semaines d�essais pour moins de 25 000 $. Des essais similaires réalisés au Centre d�essai des systèmes électroniques maritimes (NESTRA), à l�extérieur de Halifax, en décembre 2008, ont coûté environ 23 000 $ en frais de déplacement, d�hébergement et de location de matériel pour six jours de travail. Les essais de capteurs au site de la station de ski représenteraient mieux les essais dans l�Arctique que ceux effectués à NESTRA, en raison des altitudes beaucoup plus élevées qui y sont disponibles, ainsi que de la présence possible de glaces marines.

Perspectives: La prochaine étape logique consisterait à organiser et à effectuer de véritables essais du système de capteurs au site de la station de ski du Massif. De préférence, ces essais seraient réalisés à la fin du printemps, au début de la saison de navigation du Saint-Laurent, pendant qu�il reste encore des glaces dans le chenal.

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Table of contents

Abstract ��.. ................................................................................................................................. iRésumé �..... ................................................................................................................................... iExecutive summary ........................................................................................................................ iiiSommaire ..... ................................................................................................................................... vTable of contents ........................................................................................................................... viiList of figures ............................................................................................................................... viiiList of tables ................................................................................................................................. xivAcknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... xv1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 12 Site Requirements ..................................................................................................................... 43 Short-list of AWS Southern Testing Sites ................................................................................ 64 Cabot Strait Area ...................................................................................................................... 7

4.1 Shipping Statistics for the Gulf of St. Lawrence Area .................................................. 74.2 Preliminary Radar Site Evaluation by the CF ............................................................. 114.3 Cape Breton, Nova Scotia ........................................................................................... 19

4.3.1 Cape Smokey ................................................................................................ 204.3.2 Meat Cove ..................................................................................................... 294.3.3 White Point ................................................................................................... 344.3.4 Cape North/Money Point .............................................................................. 384.3.5 Other Considerations ..................................................................................... 50

4.3.5.1 Bird Sanctuaries .......................................................................... 504.3.5.2 Medical Facilities ....................................................................... 51

4.4 Table Mountain, Newfoundland .................................................................................. 545 Le Massif, QC ......................................................................................................................... 616 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 66References ..... ............................................................................................................................... 69Annex A .. SPOT Personal Tracker ............................................................................................... 71Annex B .. Photographic Survey of Table Mountain ..................................................................... 73List of symbols/abbreviations/acronyms/initialisms .................................................................... 79

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List of figures

Figure 1: Gulf of St. Lawrence Shipping Area, from a �Maritime Innovations� report [2] ............ 8

Figure 2: Screen capture from ShipPlotter software used for real-time and playback display of ship self-reports via AIS; this data was recorded during a 40 minute fly-over of the area with an airborne AIS receiver at a rough altitude of 6km ASL. .................... 11

Figure 3: A typical marine navigation chart of the Canada�s East Coast, focussing on the major shipping lanes of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but highlighting most of the areas that exceed 200m ASL (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ..................................... 12

Figure 4: Assumed radar coverage areas based on potential sites in New Brunswick. The shading in the area indicated by the red ellipse in the top left implies marginal coverage of any shipping lanes, assuming a detection range of 160km (100miles). For a 100 km LOS, the implication would be no significant coverage of the shipping lanes in that area (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ......................................... 13

Figure 5: Assumed radar coverage areas based on potential sites in Nova Scotia including Cape Breton Island. The red ellipse shows that the potential radar coverage would include 4 major shipping lanes through the Cabot Strait (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ................................................................................................................... 13

Figure 6: Assumed radar coverage based on potential sites in Newfoundland. As in the previous figure, the red ellipse implies that this coverage would include the 4 major shipping lanes through Cabot Strait (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ................ 14

Figure 7: Marine navigation chart highlighting the four shipping lanes through the Cabot Strait (note: Shipping Lane 3 is actually 2 lanes, one on either side of the �lane� highlighted with solid red ellipses) (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ........................... 14

Figure 8: The green highlighting of the solid yellow ellipses in Shipping Lane 1 indicate how much of the shipping lane would be visible from multiple radar sites distributed around the areas on Cape Breton highlighted in green within the red ellipse (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). .................................................................................... 15

Figure 9: Visibility of Shipping Lane 2 from the highlighted areas of Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland within the red ellipses (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ....................... 15

Figure 10: Visibility of Shipping Lane 3 from the highlighted areas of Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland within the red ellipses (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ....................... 16

Figure 11: GIS map indicating the accessibility (e.g. roads, trails and highways) of areas on Cape Breton Island overlooking the Cabot Strait (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ...... 16

Figure 12: GIS map indicating the accessibility (e.g. trails, roads, and highways) of areas on the SW corner of Newfoundland overlooking the Cabot Strait (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ................................................................................................................... 17

Figure 13: GIS map highlighting areas with less than a 10% slope on Cape Breton and Newfoundland overlooking the Cabot Strait (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ............. 17

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Figure 14: Potential sites on either Cape Breton or Newfoundland that are capable of �seeing� Shipping Lane 1 and meet all other requirements. ....................................... 18

Figure 15: Potential sites on either Cape Breton or Newfoundland that are capable of �seeing� Shipping Lane 2 and meet all other requirements (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ..... 18

Figure 16: Potential sites on either Cape Breton or Newfoundland that are capable of �seeing� Shipping Lane 3 and meet all other requirements (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman). ..... 19

Figure 17: Mosaic of NRCan Topographic maps for the Cape Breton Highlands area including the Meat Cove, White Point, and Cape North areas. The latter includes the Money Point sites. ................................................................................................. 20

Figure 18: This is a tree dimensional perspective (using Google Earth) of the east coast of Cape Breton Island showing the location of Cape Smokey, located about 20 km south of Ingonish Beach along the Cabot Trail. .......................................................... 21

Figure 19: NRCan topographic map of the site of interest on Cape Smokey, just south of Ingonish Beach. The inset shows the location of the Cape Smokey Picnic Park and the altitude of the nearby reference marker�on the main road�of 264.7m ASL. .... 22

Figure 20: Cape Smokey-260m ASL. The scenes to the right were taken by a dashboard mounted camera as the author approached the site from the south along the Cabot Trail. (Photos by D. Brookes) ..................................................................................... 22

Figure 21: Entrance to Cape Smokey Picnic Park 260m ASL. (Photos by D. Brookes) .............. 23

Figure 22: View of Cabot Strait from Cape Smokey Picnic Park (Note: the FOV of the Strait is much better about 30m in front of the parked car).(Photos by D. Brookes) ........... 24

Figure 23: AIS tracks of three vessels observed over a 2hr period from Cape Smokey in Sept. 2008. Vessels included two ferries, M.V. Caribou and Leif Ericson, as well as one bulk cargo carrier, Bulk Avenir. .................................................................................. 24

Figure 24: Photos from Jane�s Merchant Ships (online) representative of the three ships tracked via AIS (see Figure 23) during the 2 hour observation period at Cape Smokey in Sept. 2008. The photo of the Bulk Avenir on the left is by Iain G B Lovie [4], the photo of the M.V. Caribou is by Kevin Byron[5], and the photo of M.V. Stena Traveller (sister ship of the M.V. Leif Ericson (formerly Stena Challenger) is by Maritime Photographic [6]. ............................................................. 25

Figure 25: Photograph of the Bulk Avenir cargo vessel taken by the author (D. Brookes) on 22 Sept. 2008 with a Kodak C643 digital camera. The inset is an expanded view of the ship. ................................................................................................................... 25

Figure 26: Photograph of the Bulk Avenir cargo vessel taken by the author (D. Brookes) on 22 Sept. 2008 with a Kodak C643 digital camera using a set of binoculars as a telephoto lens. The inset is an expanded view of the ship .......................................... 26

Figure 27: Photograph of the ferry M.V. Caribou taken by the author (D. Brookes) on 22 Sept. 2008 with a Kodak C643 digital camera. The inset is an expanded view of the ship. ....................................................................................................................... 26

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Figure 28: Photograph of the ferry M.V. Caribou taken by the author (D. Brookes) on 22 Sept. 2008 camera using a set of binoculars as a telephoto lens. The inset is an expanded view of the ship. .......................................................................................... 27

Figure 29: Predicted radar coverage from Cape Smokey at roughly 260m ASL, AOI Range of 100km. The line of sight and FOV will only intercept the (extrapolated) shipping lanes closest to Cape Breton Island, but should easily see a portion of the Ferry lanes between Sydney and Newfoundland. ................................................................. 28

Figure 30: Photo (by D. Brookes).of the76m long CFAV Quest .................................................. 28

Figure 31: Topographic map showing the locations of two potential AWS testing sites near Meat Cove. The axes were overlaid to make it easier to indicate the GPS coordinates of the two sites. ........................................................................................ 30

Figure 32: Exterior views of the Ocean View Lodge rental chalet plus surrounding area. The note is an invitation to �look around� and provides accommodation rates plus rental contacts. ............................................................................................................. 31

Figure 33: Meat Cove Rental Cabin-Interior (first floor); living room on the left and kitchen on the right. ................................................................................................................. 31

Figure 34: Cabot Strait FOV from Meat Cove cabin parking lot. ................................................. 32

Figure 35: Various views of the second Meat Cove site. The picture on the left shows a three dimensional Google Earth map of the site, and the two images on the right show the location as viewed from the hill just west of Meat Cove. The expanded view shows the location of the rental cabin ......................................................................... 32

Figure 36: View of Bay St. Lawrence Harbour showing fishing vessels up to 20m in length. ..... 33

Figure 37: Predicted radar coverage from Meat Cove 2 site at about 100m ASL using SIESTA. The AOI (shaded white) was set to a range of 100km, with range rings at every10km. The LOS from this vantage point will only include the two shipping lanes closest to Cape Breton Island. ............................................................................ 34

Figure 38: Topographic maps of the White Point area. The red dot on Scotch Head at 46.87244 N, 60.36214 W is the location that was investigated as a potential AW sensor site. ................................................................................................................... 35

Figure 39: Two Google Earth perspectives of the White Point Site. The top picture is a plan view with North-up and the bottom view is a 3-D view looking due south. ............... 36

Figure 40: White Point clearing (ownership unknown) at about 100m ASL. The clearing is easily accessible from the main road with sufficient open space to locate all AW sensors which should ideally be on raised platforms. ................................................. 37

Figure 41: Predicted radar coverage from the White Point clearing at about 100m ASL, and AOI Range of 100km. The FOV and LOS range will only include the two shipping lanes closest to Cape Breton Island. ............................................................. 37

Figure 42: This picture shows a three dimensional view (courtesy of Google Earth) of the Cape North/Money Point area from above and looking toward the southeast. It points out the 3 potential AW sensor sites, their proximity to the harbour at Bay

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St. Lawrence, and the location of the access road (yellow curve) for the communications towers. .............................................................................................. 39

Figure 43: NRCan topographic map showing the locations (red dots enclosed in a red ellipse) of several communications towers located along the service road (orange) on Cape North. .......................................................................................................................... 40

Figure 44: Google Earth map of the five communication tower locations. The insets are photos of two towers taken by the author. The bounding boxes in the map are oriented with the normal to upper long edge of each rectangle pointed in roughly the direction that the picture was taken. ...................................................................... 40

Figure 45: Various views of the access road up to the �parking spot� (right) showing how rough (but passable) the road was to that point. Since these pictures were taken in mid-May, there may not have been the opportunity (or necessity) to fix the after-effects of spring runoff. ............................................................................................... 41

Figure 46: Progress reports from the SPOT Personal Tracker used during the hike along the Cape North/Money Point access road on 14 May 2009. The location of the parked car is shown as well as the location where the photos for Figure 50 were taken (Bay St. Lawrence 1). .................................................................................................. 42

Figure 47: Various locations along the access road, north of the communications towers. The 2 60 cm tall backpack in (a) was used to show the significant depth of the road depression at that point, roughly 40 cm. In (c) the road surface has been completely washed away. ............................................................................................ 43

Figure 48: Photos of the Com 41 tower indicated in the MNR topographic map. The expanded picture shown in the upper right corner indicates the potential for a fairly wide FOV of Cabot Strait from this vantage point, but on the other side of tower from the photographer. The photo at the centre, bottom is a view of the tower from the main access road, looking south. (Photos by D. Brookes) ................. 44

Figure 49: Various perspectives of the Com 37 site. The centre photo indicates the potential for a reasonably good FOV of the Cabot Strait area, and the enlarged portion shows a view of St. Paul Island, 27.7 km distant. (Photos by D. Brookes) ................ 45

Figure 50: Three perspectives from the Money Point 3 site overlooking Bay St. Lawrence which can be seen in the middle of the centre photograph. As shown earlier, this site is about 280 m ASL. (Photos by D. Brookes) ...................................................... 46

Figure 51: Screen capture of the GPS viewer for the WAAS enabled GPS receiver used during the inspection. This screen capture is for the Money Point 3 site overlooking Bay St. Lawrence and a portion of the Cabot Strait. ............................... 47

Figure 52: View of the Money Point lighthouse from Cabot Strait. The service road (shown in the topo map) originally used to get access to the lighthouse has degraded significantly from infrequent use and maintenance since the lighthouse was automated by the Coast Guard. ................................................................................... 47

Figure 53: Predicted radar coverage from Money Point 1 at about 360m ASL. There are gaps in the field of view due to terrain shadowing, but it does stretch across most of the Cabot Strait, and includes all of the shipping lanes. ................................................... 48

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Figure 54: Predicted radar coverage for Money Point 2 at about 425 m ASL and overlooking most of the Cabot Strait shipping lanes. The radar�s LOS extends to the limit of the 100km AOI range set for the analysis and includes all 4 shipping lanes in the Cabot Strait. ................................................................................................................. 49

Figure 55: Predicted radar coverage from Money Point 3 at about 280 m ASL, overlooking Bay St. Lawrence. The radar�s LOS range and FOV will include part of the two Cabot Strait shipping lanes closest to Cape Breton Island, and some of the Ferry routes between Sydney and Newfoundland. ............................................................... 49

Figure 56: Important bird areas in northern Cape Breton; the light blue circles denote the locations of Meat Cove, White Point, and Cape Smokey, which lie outside these areas............................................................................................................................. 51

Figure 57: The closest hospital facilities in the area are at Buchanan Memorial hospital located 36 km from Bay St. Lawrence (BSL), 48 km from Meat Cove (MC), 37 km from Cape Smokey (CS), but only 8 km from White Point [8]. ........................... 52

Figure 58: EMC response time statistics for Nova Scotia in 2008/2009[9]. ................................. 52

Figure 59: EHS (ground ambulance) Fleet Centres and Bases located in Cape Breton according to the June 2007 �Report of the Auditor General-June� [10]. .................... 53

Figure 60: Various Google Earth 3D perspectives of the Cabot Strait shipping lanes, emphasizing the Table Mountain, Newfoundland perspective. The white lines in the strait indicate constrained shipping lanes, and the green arrows represent the direction of ship traffic in those lanes. ........................................................................ 55

Figure 61: Important Bird Areas on the SW corner of Newfoundland. The red square indicating the Table Mountain site falls outside of either sensitive area. The distance from any potential radar site to the north-western edge of NF038 would be about 3 km. ............................................................................................................. 56

Figure 62: NRCan topographic map of the Table Mountain area. The solid red lines represent Highway #1 (see also Figure 63) and the dashed line intersecting it just east of Sugar Loaf mountain is the access road to the top of the hill. The contours in this map are given in feet above sea level. ......................................................................... 57

Figure 63: 3D view of Table Mountain area using Google Earth. Superimposed on the image are a number of location/time reports provided by a SPOT Personal Tracker carried by the author on the hike up the access road. .................................................. 58

Figure 64: Comparison of a 3D Google Earth view to actual photographs taken at the parking lot identified with a large red �P� in the Figure 63 at Latitude 44.7081 N, Longitude 59.3078 W. The bottom picture was taken at 14:48GMT. The rough FOV is outlined in red in Figure 65. ........................................................................... 58

Figure 65: Pictorial timeline of the hike to the summit of Table Mountain on 1 May 2009. Detailed pictures are shown in Annex B. The picture at 16:58 GMT was taken from a bridge along the road overlooking a mountain stream..................................... 59

Figure 66: Predicted radar coverage from Table Mountain assuming an altitude of 35.5m above ground level (AGL) or approximately 484m ASL. .......................................... 60

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Figure 67: Predicted radar coverage from Table Mountain, assuming an altitude of 5m AGL which corresponds to approximately 453m ASL. ....................................................... 60

Figure 68: Google Earth 3D views of, and from near, the summit of le Massif, looking NE along the St. Lawrence River. The plan view in the upper right is an expanded view of the area bounded by the red rectangle in the plan view shown in the upper left. .............................................................................................................................. 62

Figure 69: Map generated from GE indicating the relative location of each IBA (red triangles labelled QCxxx) with respect to the Le Massif site. The inset shows a similar map from the IBA web site indicating the geographic boundaries of some of the bird sites. ............................................................................................................................. 64

Figure 70: Radar Coverage from Le Massif ski resort, assuming a radar location of latitude=42.27131 N, longitude=70.59865 W at an altitude of 677m ASL. The farthest that can potentially be seen by the radar is about 115km for a 75dBsm target. ........................................................................................................................... 65

Figure 73: The SPOT Personal Tracker device ............................................................................. 71

Figure 74: Specifications brochure for the SPOT Personal Tracker ............................................. 72

Figure 75: Picture taken near the beginning of access road looking forward at 15:53 GMT. ....... 73

Figure 76: Picture of the access road, looking forward, at 16:07 GMT ........................................ 73

Figure 77: Picture of the access road, looking forward, at 16:37 GMT ........................................ 74

Figure 78: Pictures of the access road looking forward (on left) and looking back (on right) taken at 16:40 GMT. Sugar Loaf Mountain can be seen in the photograph on the right. ............................................................................................................................ 74

Figure 79: Pictures of the access road looking forward (on left), and looking back (on right), taken at 17:08 GMT. ................................................................................................... 75

Figure 80: Picture of the access road looking down-hill, taken at 17:23 GMT ............................. 75

Figure 81: Picture of the access road near the beginning of the summit, looking forward, taken at 17:43 GMT. ................................................................................................... 76

Figure 82: Picture of the access road looking forward taken shortly after the last figure, at 17:49 GMT. The inset shows a communications tower visible in the distance, at the centre of the photograph.. The approximate site of the tower is Latitude 47.6867 N, Longitude 59.2729 W. ........................................................................... 76

Figure 83: Picture taken at 18:10 GMT, about 350m from the access road in an open scrub area at a rough position of Lat. 47.6808 N, Long. 59.2630 W. The com tower and dishes in the background (inset) is located at approximately Latitude 47.6816N, Longitude 59.2749 W. .......................................................................................... 77

Figure 84: Picture taken at 18:10 GMT, about 350m from the access road in an open scrub area at a rough position of Lat. 47.6808 N, Long. 59.2630 W. The communications(?) tower in the background (inset) is located at roughly Lat. 47.6727 N N, Long. 59.27094 W corresponding with the location shown in the MNR topo map in Figure 62. ...................................................................................... 77

xiv DRDC Ottawa TM 2013-141

List of tables

Table 1: Foreign Vessel Traffic through Cabot Strait [2] ............................................................... 8

Table 2: Vessel Sizes for Dry Bulk Cargo [2] ................................................................................ 9

Table 3: Shipping Statistics for Canadian Domestic Passages [2] ................................................ 10

Table 4: The following is a list of two potential AWS testing sites near Meat Cove, Nova Scotia. The locations were determined with a Global Positioning System (GPS) that used the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) to enhance the accuracy. The Positional Dilution of Precision (PDOP) for each measurement is shown in the last column to the right. ......................................................................................... 30

Table 5: Communication Tower Locations. .................................................................................. 39

Table 6: GPS Record of hike progress using the SPOT tracking device. ...................................... 42

Table 7: Approximate ground ambulance travel times to hospital. The times assume an average speed of 80kph, and do not include the treatment time at the accident site or any latency associated with leaving the base. ......................................................... 53

Table 8: Locations of potentially sensitive bird areas surrounding Le Massif ski resort. ............. 63

Table 9: Overview of site selection criteria for all sites under consideration ................................ 67

DRDC Ottawa TM 2013-141 xv

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Sergeant David Chapman of the Canadian Forces (CF) for performing a preliminary analysis of suitable radar testing sites in the Cabot Strait area. This independent analysis was performed using standard Geographic Information System (GIS) tools and utilities. Thanks should also be extended to Mr. David Schlingmeier of DRDC Ottawa for facilitating CF analysis. This analysis confirmed many of the initial assumptions made by the Northern Watch Science Team as to feasible southern Above Water Sensor testing sites. The authors would also like to thank Dr. A. Thomson, whose development of the initial (RF) SIESTA software, and subsequent modification for the Northern Watch TDP project, made it possible to carry out this detailed analysis. Finally, the authors would like to thank Dr Tim Hammond, and supporting staff at DRDC Atlantic who provided Mr. Brookes with the loan of an AI3000 AIS receiver and power supply; without this equipment, the data on AIS reception at Cape Smokey, could not have been collected.

xvi DRDC Ottawa TM 2013-141


DRDC Ottawa TM 2013-141 1

1 Introduction

In August 2008, the Northern Watch project embarked upon its first attempt at Arctic Field Trials. This first set of trials was part of an overall spiral development plan to build an integrated suite of Above Water (AW) and Underwater (UW) sensors for monitoring Marine Vessel Traffic at an acknowledged choke point on the upper leg of the Northwest Passage (NWP). The original plan called for a number of field trials in the Arctic and in the South during which the capabilities of each individual sensor would be characterized as fully as possible, then integrated and field tested in an iterative fashion. The main focus at the outset of the project was to demonstrate a capability to persistently monitor surface vessel traffic and provide the information to southern Operations Centres where it could be incorporated into the Recognized Maritime Picture (RMP). The sensors in the suite (radar, radar warning receivers (RWR), electro-optic/infra-red (EO/IR) imaging system, and an array of UW acoustic, electric and magnetic sensors) were originally chosen on the basis that they were relatively inexpensive and complimentary, capable of providing detection and tracking ability, and with the potential for target classification and identification. The site that was chosen for these field trials was the Gascoyne Inlet (GI)/Cape Liddon area overlooking Barrow Strait at the western end of Lancaster Sound. This site was chosen because of its location, characteristics, and pre-existing infrastructure, as outlined in the following list:

Location:

a. The site is a Choke point on Barrow Strait; and

b. It is the northern leg of the NWP.

Characteristics:

a. Cape Liddon is up to 320m above sea level (ASL) and can provide a long line-of-sight (LOS) plus a wide field of view (FOV) for AWS monitoring of surface vessels; and

b. Gascoyne Inlet provides a potentially safe harbour for ships participating in any cooperative exercises and a relatively safe �anchor� point for the cables attached to the UWS arrays deployed in Barrow Strait.

Pre-existing Infrastructure:

a. During previous underwater testing, a hole was drilled from a shore based location (Gascoyne Base-camp) through rocky debris and bedrock into the middle of Gascoyne Inlet to allow UW sensor cables to remain all year while minimizing the change of being ripped away by ice break-up or subsequent ice-flows in spring; and

b. The base-camp had a number of pre-existing cabins for accommodation, kitchen facilities, a latrine, a diesel generator, and for storage.

Prior to the first Arctic Field Trials, the plan called for the construction of some additional infrastructure to be installed at both the GI base-camp and on top of Cape Liddon, including the following:

2 DRDC Ottawa TM 2013-141

i. Additional accommodation cabins at the GI base-camp; and

ii. A science cabin on top of Cape Liddon to house the AWS sensor electronics, aswell as the scientists responsible for monitoring the equipment during field trials.

Unfortunately, due to some logistical problems and scheduling issues, coupled with extremely bad weather during the entire two week period of the trials, some important objectives were not met, including the following:

i. Although the pre-fabricated building panels of the science cabin for the top of CapeLiddon were transported to the remote AWS site, building completion wasimpossible due to hazardously high winds during the first week, and extremelypoor visibility from fog and low cloud ceiling in the second week. Both sets ofcircumstances prevented transport of personnel and equipment to, and from, theAWS site.

ii. The aforementioned high winds, fog, and low cloud ceiling prevented air liftsupport of materials and personnel during the first two weeks of the trials, thuspresenting a potential health and safety risk in the event of serious injuries orillness requiring emergency medical evacuation (med-evac).

Until some of these risks could be eliminated or sufficiently mitigated for future exercises, it was strongly suggested by some of the project management that the NW Project Science Team should seriously consider performing as much of the field testing as possible at one or more southerly locations.

The purpose of this report is to examine the feasibility of several potential sites for testing the AW sensors in the South where logistics are much less challenging than the arctic location. Although the study was carried out primarily from the radar system�s perspective�e.g. using the Radio Frequency (RF) portion of the Scenario (formerly �Shipborne�) Integrated Environment System for Tactics and Awareness (SIESTA) which is described in the User Manual [1]� all of the relevant conclusions can be applied to the other AWS as a rough indication of baseline capability.

The report is arranged as follows: Section 2 outlines the major requirements for the site selection; Section 3 provides the short-list of potential sites that were to be evaluated along with a brief description of why they were selected for a more in-depth study; Section 4 provides a more in-depth description of each site along with a detailed analysis of its characteristics.

The detailed analysis of each site is performed based on the following information:

i. A preliminary assessment of potential radar sites by Sgt D. Chapman of theCanadian Forces (CF) for the Gulf o St. Lawrence-Cabot Strait area;

ii. On-site inspections made by various members of the Science Team:

iii. Available open-source information; and

iv. Evaluation of the potential radar coverage from each site according to predictionsusing RF SIESTA (henceforth simply referred to as �SIESTA�) and based on theassumption of using a 25kW peak-power Rutter 100S6 X-Band marinenavigation radar.


The radar coverage predictions by SIESTA were based on the assumption of a relatively simple observation environment and generalized ground cover typical of each site. The ground cover was selected from a pop-up menu of default options (i.e. Mixed Intermediate: spruce, fir, hemlock, maple, aspen, birch), not on actual ground cover maps available from Natural Resources Canada1

(NRCan) that can also be ingested into the software. A number of caveats must be considered before making conclusions based on these coverage plots; for example:

1. SIESTA was originally created for evaluating point targets whereas this version tries to take into account the distributed nature of ships as targets (hence the usual evidence of multipath nulls associated with reflections from point targets, like missiles, may be less obvious). In all the cases shown in this report, the target vessel was assumed to have a vertical target extent of 20m.

2. The terrain elevation data�from lower resolution 1:250000 scale Canadian Digital Elevation Data (CDED)�only had a resolution of about 100m; therefore some shadowing may not be accurately represented.

3. SIESTA doesn�t currently account for the Rutter 100S6 X-band radar system�s ability for non-coherent multi-scan integration to enhance slow moving targets against sea clutter; therefore coverage ranges may be underestimated.

4. SIESTA coverage plots show a cut-off at 75 dBsm (the approximate maximum RCS of the Canadian Forces Auxiliary Vessel (CFAV) Quest, viewed at broadside) so the maximum detection ranges for larger ships are not shown.

5. The operational parameters for the Rutter 100S6 X-band radar have only assumed a simple propagation environment; more complex cases will generate different results, e.g.:

a. Increasing precipitation rates will reduce the coverage range;

b. The radar antenna pattern is reasonably approximated by a sin(x)/x pattern;

c. All examples assumed a sea state of 3 (it could be greater, or smaller);

d. All scenarios assumed a single default wind direction that under real conditions could change and influence the sea clutter characteristics;

1 NRCan was formerly known as the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).


2 Site Requirements

Each potential southern AWS testing site needed to meet appropriate minimum requirements based on the following list of criteria:

1. Geographic Location:

a) The site should allow for testing of sensors that closely mimics the site atGascoyne Inlet/Cape Liddon, or other potential choke points in the NWP;

b) The site should be overlooking a major maritime shipping route; this wouldallow the sensor teams to evaluate their system(s) against a wide range of(non-cooperative) target vessels of opportunity;

c) The site should overlook the shipping route from an altitude of 100m orhigher, with a preference to locations near 300m ASL which is theapproximate height of the optimal AWS location on Cape Liddon. Meetingthis benchmark will provide long Lines-of-Site (LOS) to fully test the AWSat altitude; and

d) The site should provide a wide FOV for as many of the sensors as possible

2. Health & Safety:

a) Accessibility: The proposed site should be safely accessible by land (road) orair (e.g. helicopter); and

b) Health Care Availability/Proximity: Ideally, the site should be less than 30min. from the nearest health-care facilities (e.g. hospital or clinic).

3. Availability :

a) The site should be available for extended periods of time, preferably 5 ormore contiguous days, and fully available for each 24 hr period.

4. Environmental Assessment (EA) Factors:

a) Ideally the site should not be located near any known animal or birdsanctuaries that might cause it to fail an EA; and

b) The site location should be sufficiently distant from any population centres tofacilitate passing an EA; for example the site should be farther than theExtended Nominal Ocular Hazard Distance (ENOHD) of the CanadianArctic Night and Day Imaging Sensor System�s (CANDISS) active laserimager.

5. Infrastructure:

a) Sufficient electrical power should be easily available and accessible;

b) Shelter for personnel should be readily available; and


c) Retail facilities (e.g. hardware stores) should be in close enough proximity to supply equipment and replacement materiel if required;

6. Accommodation:

a) Proximity to easily accessible housing, e.g. hotels, motels, cottages etc. would be an asset.

7. Potential Cost:

a) The overall cost of each set of trials should be kept as low as possible, roughly on the order of $20-$30k. This was the approximate cost of similar trials executed by the AWS Science Team on 7-12 Dec. 2008 at the Naval Electronic Systems Test Range Atlantic (NESTRA).


3 Short-list of AWS Southern Testing Sites

Although the NESTRA site meets many of the criteria listed in Section 2, it does not meet the crucial requirement of altitudes greater than 100m ASL since its height is less than 30m ASL (not including sensor platforms or towers). This site remains potentially useful as a site for testing sensor integration, but does not provide for a sufficiently long LOS for characterizing each sensor�s capabilities. In the final tally, only 2 general areas were considered:

1) Cabot Strait Area: The strait is a major shipping route connecting the Atlantic tothe Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence Seaway. It passes between thenorthern tip of Cape Breton Island (south side) and the SW corner of Newfoundlandnear Port aux Basques (north side). Both sides overlooking the strait provide severalpotential sites for testing the AWS. On the northern side, looking south over thestrait, is the Table Mountain area northwest of Port aux Basques which rises to about400 m ASL. The south side of the strait, looking north from the tip of Cape BretonIsland, provides several potential sites with varying altitudes, degrees of accessibility,and local infrastructure; specifically:

a. Money Point;

b. Meat Cove;

c. Cape Smokey; and

d. White Cove.

2) Le Massif, a ski resort area approximately 70km NE of Quebec city, overlooks themouth of the St. Lawrence from the north bank. This location provides the potentialfor sites at multiple altitudes up to 690m ASL. Given its proximity to Quebec City, itis anticipated to meet most of the requirements listed in Section 2.

These sites will be examined in more detail in the sections that follow.


4 Cabot Strait Area

As mentioned in the last section, there were a number of potential sites overlooking Cabot Strait that represent potentially excellent locations for evaluating surveillance sensors against targets of opportunity (i.e. vessels following the shipping lanes). Local fishing villages in these areas also represent potential sources of small vessels of opportunity, or for leasing fishing boats as cooperative vessels. Each one of these sites will be described in some detail according to the guidelines outlined earlier in Section 2. Whenever possible, preference was given to sites already owned by either Federal or Provincial governments or sites where a pre-existing agreement exists between the property owners and the Government of Canada (GOC). Where this preference exists it is assumed that there might be fewer obstacles to overcome with respect to access, or the requirements for EAs. A good example would be lighthouses owned and operated by the Canadian Coast Guard.

4.1 Shipping Statistics for the Gulf of St. Lawrence Area

In order to estimate the types and transit rate (i.e. number of ships per day) of ships that would be expected to pass through Cabot Strait, open sources of shipping statistics were sought on the internet. One excellent source was found at the website for the �Bureau d�audiences publiques sur l�environment� or BAPE (www.bape.gouv.qc.ca). That site contained a report [2] entitled �Maritime Shipping Surveys� that was performed by Maritime Innovations for Sandwell Engineering Inc. The report contained shipping statistics for foreign and domestic shipping through several areas of the East Coast. The area that this report is concerned with, i.e. the Gulf of St. Lawrence, was designated as Area 2 in their report.

Figure 1 illustrates the Gulf of St. Lawrence area that is accessible to marine traffic from the Atlantic Ocean through the Cabot Strait or through the Strait of Belle Ile. The great majority of traffic transits through the former, rather than the latter. Therefore, a reasonable assumption, for the purposes of this report, is that all of the traffic passes through Cabot Strait. Table 1 and Table 2 list typical foreign shipping traffic statistics for Area 2 based on information from 2003. According to [2] the shipping statistics shown in these tables were obtained from the Canadian Coast Guard�s Marine Communications and Traffic Service (MCTS). The directions shown in each column of the tables were obtained from the ship�s reported place of origin, its destination, and the directions of the boundary limits on entry into the specific area-of-interest (AOI) in the following ways:

1. If the latitude of the destination was greater than the latitude of the place of origin then the direction of travel was given as North (N), otherwise it was South (S), unless the two latitudes were the same;

2. If the longitude of the destination is greater than the longitude of the origin then the direction is given as West (W), otherwise it was East (E), unless the two longitudes were the same;

3. The directions of the above two conditions were concatenated to give the final overall direction; or


4. Passages with a direction of �None� were by foreign vessels such as tankers, tugs, specialpurpose or support vessels usually for oil and gas exploration with the same origin anddestination, or for passages to and from port or anchorage areas.

Figure 1: Gulf of St. Lawrence Shipping Area, from a �Maritime Innovations� report [2]

Table 1: Foreign Vessel Traffic through Cabot Strait [2]

Type/Direction SE NW SW NE None Total Mean/day*

Dry Bulk 752 567 214 225 1 1759 6.6

General Cargo 297 143 205 236 2 883 3.3

Container 237 107 200 72 616 2.30

Tanker 204 131 83 35 453 1.7

Chemical 100 61 38 15 214 0.8

Passenger 49 40 27 19 135 0.5

Ro-Ro 29 13 14 21 77 0.25

OBO 13 12 2 6 33 0.12

Yacht 12 6 7 1 30 0.12

Tug 5 3 4 5 15 0.06

Special Purpose 4 1 2 1 8


Type/Direction SE NW SW NE None Total Mean/day*

LNG 1 1 2 3

Dredge 1 1 1

Fishing 1 1

Total 1704 1086 792 642 4 4228 15.78

*Average is based on 268 day shipping season 1 Apr -24 Dec. Red shaded portion broken down in Table 2

Table 2: Vessel Sizes for Dry Bulk Cargo [2]

DWT Class (1k)/Direction SE NW SW NE None Total Mean/day*

Total 752 567 225 214 1 1759 6.56


Table 3: Shipping Statistics for Canadian Domestic Passages [2]

N-E S-W N-W S-E None N Total Mean /day

Ferry 311 311 40 30 173 836 3.1 Tug 140 144 173 175 6 638 2.4Dry Bulk 158 135 72 54 3 422 1.6 Special purpose 72 76 72 90 43 1 354 1.3 Tanker 114 83 49 62 4 312 1.2 Container 58 93 42 2 1 196 0.7 Passenger 52 59 31 35 2 179 0.7 General cargo 57 61 27 29 174 0.7 Chemical 25 33 20 35 113 0.4 Ro-Ro 49 48 2 99 0.4 Fishing 44 41 3 7 95 0.4 Barge 4 2 1 54 61 0.3 Yacht 3 5 2 4 1 15 0.1 Hovercraft 1 1 1 3 0 OBO 1 1 2 0 Military 2 2 0 Total 1,091 1,090 536 525 287 1 3,530 13.2

Based on the statistics from Table 1 and Table 3 the average transit rate of ships of any size through the Cabot Strait could be as high as 29 ships per day during the shipping season. This number is supported by ship self-reports (locations shown in Figure 2) that were recorded on 20 Oct. 2005 from an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver mounted on a Convair 580 aircraft. According to the Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS) convention, ocean-going ships over 300 tons are required to carry such AIS transceivers to voluntarily and continuously report their location to other ships in the area as a ship anti-collision measure.

Figure 2 shows a snapshot from ShipPlotter2 [3] software of the data that were collected when the aircraft followed a route roughly indicated by the blue arrow while flying at altitudes of about 6 km over a 40 minute period. The position of the Convair—at the time represented by the screen capture—is indicated by the small blue circle near Prince Edward Island. At that point it was in

2 ShipPlotter is a very useful low cost display tool, primarily intended for hobbyists, to plot ship locations that are reported via the Universal Automatic Identification System (AIS). AIS is a ship anti-collision system mandated by the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention to be carried on all passenger vessels and all sea going vessels over 300 tons. The software obtains the positional information from self-reporting ships in one of two ways: 1) by parsing NMEA 0183-fast formatted serial output from commercial AIS receivers, or 2) by using a personal computer's sound card to decode the digital audio signals of ship's AIS broadcasts output from a suitable VHF band radio receiver tuned to one of the two AIS channels (161.975 (Marine channel 87 AIS) and 162.025 (ch. 88 AIS) MHz). More information on the program can be found at [3].


the process of making a landing approach. There are about 26 ships within the red ellipse shown in Figure 2 which have either transited the Strait, or might have been expected to do so after the aircraft landed.

Figure 2: Screen capture from ShipPlotter software used for real-time and playback display of ship self-reports via AIS; this data was recorded during a 40 minute fly-over of the area with an airborne AIS receiver at a rough altitude of 6km ASL.

4.2 Preliminary Radar Site Evaluation by the CF

Based on this estimate of shipping traffic through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, some assistance was requested from the CF to perform a preliminary assessment of potential radar sites in that area. They graciously accepted the task, which they carried out according to the following guidelines:

1. The altitude of the site should be greater than or equal to 200 m ASL;

2. The site should have a good view of a major shipping lane;

3. The site must be accessible via road i.e. a dirt road is acceptable and 4 lane highway is not essential; and

4. The radar has a nominal range of 100 km.

Although the last assumption was misinterpreted to be 100 miles rather than 100 km, the resulting analysis was still quite useful. However, it must be noted that the radar coverage areas estimated by the CF do not include any consideration of the effects of target size, or terrain obstructions (including the LOS to the horizon) that could physically limit the radar coverage; this requires the more advanced radar prediction tools such as SIESTA, which are described later.


The results of this independent analysis, performed using standard GIS tools and utilities, confirmed many of the assumptions and conclusions reached by DRDC scientists. This analysis, performed by Sergeant David Chapman of the CF, is presented in the following Figures 3 through 16.

Figure 3 shows a typical marine navigation chart of Canada’s East Coast, focusing on the major shipping lanes of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but highlighting most of the areas that exceed 200 m ASL, which are shaded in red. Figures 4, 5, and 6 show the same areas but with estimated radar coverage from selected areas, i.e. New Brunswick (NB), Nova Scotia (NS), and Newfoundland (NL) respectively, and indicating which shipping lanes they may overlap. Figures 7 to 10 show standard navigational charts that identify the major shipping lanes of Cabot Strait. They also associate which lanes might be visible to a radar system located at elevated sites with the same shading. Figure 11 and Figure 12 indicate the potential access to these sites via land transport; all of the known trails, roads and highways are identified. Figure 13 is a map highlighting areas with a slope of less than 10%, since slope is a major consideration with regard to establishing a safe and stable base for surveillance. Figures 14, 15, and 16 highlight the potential radar site locations in the Cabot Strait area, with associated shipping lanes, that appear to meet the requirements of accessibility by land transport, elevations above 200m ASL, and slope of 10% or less.

Figure 3: A typical marine navigation chart of the Canada’s East Coast, focussing on the major shipping lanes of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but highlighting most of the areas that exceed 200m ASL (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).


Figure 4: Assumed radar coverage areas based on potential sites in New Brunswick. The shading in the area indicated by the red ellipse in the top left implies marginal coverage of any shipping lanes, assuming a detection range of 160km (100miles). For a 100 km LOS, the implication would be no significant coverage of the shipping lanes in that area (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).

Figure 5: Assumed radar coverage areas based on potential sites in Nova Scotia including Cape Breton Island. The red ellipse shows that the potential radar coverage would include 4 major shipping lanes through the Cabot Strait (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).


Figure 6: Assumed radar coverage based on potential sites in Newfoundland. As in the previous figure, the red ellipse implies that this coverage would include the 4 major shipping lanes through Cabot Strait (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).

Figure 7: Marine navigation chart highlighting the four shipping lanes through the Cabot Strait (note: Shipping Lane 3 is actually 2 lanes, one on either side of the �lane� highlighted with solid red ellipses) (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).


Figure 8: The green highlighting of the solid yellow ellipses in Shipping Lane 1 indicate how much of the shipping lane would be visible from multiple radar sites distributed around the areas on Cape Breton highlighted in green within the red ellipse (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).

Figure 9: Visibility of Shipping Lane 2 from the highlighted areas of Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland within the red ellipses (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).


Figure 10: Visibility of Shipping Lane 3 from the highlighted areas of Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland within the red ellipses (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).

Figure 11: GIS map indicating the accessibility (e.g. roads, trails and highways) of areas on Cape Breton Island overlooking the Cabot Strait (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).


Figure 12: GIS map indicating the accessibility (e.g. trails, roads, and highways) of areas on the SW corner of Newfoundland overlooking the Cabot Strait (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).

Figure 13: GIS map highlighting areas with less than a 10% slope on Cape Breton and Newfoundland overlooking the Cabot Strait (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).


Figure 14: Potential sites on either Cape Breton or Newfoundland that are capable of �seeing� Shipping Lane 1 and meet all other requirements.

Figure 15: Potential sites on either Cape Breton or Newfoundland that are capable of �seeing� Shipping Lane 2 and meet all other requirements (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).


Figure 16: Potential sites on either Cape Breton or Newfoundland that are capable of �seeing� Shipping Lane 3 and meet all other requirements (courtesy of Sgt D. Chapman).

Although the preliminary CF analysis indicated where potential radar sites might be located on either side of Cabot Strait, this information still required additional verification using radar prediction tools of higher fidelity, as well as on-site inspections. Also, the potential site at Le Massif ski resort along the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City was not included in the above analysis, so all of the arguments in favour of (or against) that location will be presented in the subsequent sub-sections.

4.3 Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Inspections of the Cape Breton sites were accomplished over two separate trips to the area by the principal author (D. Brookes). The first trip took place in Sept. 2008, and the second occurred in May 2009. The second trip was needed to investigate potential sites in the Cape North/Money Point area that could not be inspected previously due to lack of time. Figure 17 is a mosaic of several NRCan topographic maps showing the locations of the Meat Cove, Cape North and White Point areas of Cape Breton. The results of each site investigation will be presented in the same order as they were visited.

During the first trip to Cape Breton the Delta Hotel in Sydney was established as a �home-base� from which two road trips were undertaken to inspect various potential radar sites along the north and east coasts of the island. On the first road trip, sites at Cape Smokey and Meat Cove (the most remote) were investigated. Given that the distance between Sydney and Meat Cove is about 188 km, each road trip took six hours or more to complete. On the following day, an additional trip was taken to investigate sites at White Point, just north of Neil�s Harbour. This trip was also to


look for a potential access road from Bay St. Lawrence to the Money Point lighthouse, and to look at Cape Smokey for a second time. During each road trip, whenever time permitted, an AIS receiver was used to see if any ships were transmitting in that area at that time. Unfortunately, because of the length of each return trip, each site inspection was usually limited to just over an hour or less and the likelihood of a ship being in the area at that time was not high. This was supported by the results shown in the next sub-section where only AIS reports from three ships were detected at the Cape Smokey area during a two hour period.

In addition to the AIS receiver, a key piece of equipment was a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver that was enabled with the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) to provide accurate estimates of the geographic locations and altitudes.

Figure 17: Mosaic of NRCan Topographic maps for the Cape Breton Highlands area including the Meat Cove, White Point, and Cape North areas. The latter includes the Money Point sites.

4.3.1 Cape Smokey

Cape Smokey is located along the Cabot Trail on the east coast of Cape Breton Island. As shown in Figure 18 the site is located approximately 20 km south, by road, of the small community of Ingonish Beach. The precise geographic location of the site is latitude 46.59389 N, and longitude 60.38614 W. As can be seen in the accompanying topographic map in Figure 19, as well as Figure 20 to Figure 22, the most accessible location for setting up maritime surveillance is from a

Meat CoveCape North/ Money Point

White Point


�Picnic Park� adjacent to the Cabot Trail and which is part of Cape Smokey Provincial Park. At an altitude of 260 m ASL (confirmed by GPS measurement), this location has a good view overlooking a portion of the Cabot Strait and the Ferry Routes out of Sydney.

Figure 18: This is a tree dimensional perspective (using Google Earth) of the east coast of Cape Breton Island showing the location of Cape Smokey, located about 20 km south of Ingonish Beach along the Cabot Trail (Map Data: Google, Cnes/Spot Image, SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, GEBCO, TerraMetrics)


Figure 19: NRCan topographic map of the site of interest on Cape Smokey, just south of Ingonish Beach. The inset shows the location of the Cape Smokey Picnic Park and the altitude of the nearby reference marker�on the main road�of 264.7m ASL.

Figure 20: Cape Smokey-260m ASL. The scenes to the right were taken by a dashboard mounted camera as the author approached the site from the south along the Cabot Trail. (Photos by D. Brookes)


A sign at the entrance to the Cape Smokey Picnic Park, shown in Figure 21, states that the park is closed after 7 pm every night which might facilitate using this location after hours. This would ensure that there would be no interference from the general public after that time.

During the first trip to Cape Breton in Sept. 2008 to inspect potential sites, this location was visited on two separate occasions. In order to gain an appreciation of the shipping density through the Cabot Strait and the potential ability to see the traffic from the different sites, the author borrowed an AIS receiver and whip antenna from DRDC Atlantic. The receiver and antenna were set up in the �Park near the location of the parked car shown in Figure 22. However, on the first trip to Cape Smokey, there were some technical problems with the serial-to-USB adapter that connected the receiver to the laptop recording system. This problem needed to be rectified before the system could be tested again.

On the following day after repairing the system, a second visit was made to the site and the area was monitored for about 2 hours. During this period tracks from three ships were recorded. Two of the ships, the Motor Vessel (M.V.) Caribou and the M.V. Leif Ericson, were ferries entering and leaving Sydney Harbour, and the third, the Bulk Avenir, was a cargo ship heading toward Sydney from the Cabot Strait shipping lane (i.e. Shipping Lane 1 in Figure 7). The tracks of the three ships shown in Figure 23, indicate that during the observation period the maximum range of the receiver was about 20 Nmi or 37 km (the range rings in the figure start at 5 Nmi and increase in 10 Nmi steps). This result seemed indicative of either unusually poor RF propagation conditions or an AIS receiver with poor sensitivity, since the optical LOS to the horizon at that altitude should have been approximately 60 km. The AIS receiver system that was used on the Convair 580 flight mentioned earlier, gave much better performance. Stock photos of the three vessels are shown in Figure 24 which can be compared to actual photos taken on the trials date (Figure 25 to Figure 26)

Figure 21: Entrance to Cape Smokey Picnic Park 260m ASL. (Photos by D. Brookes)


Figure 22: View of Cabot Strait from Cape Smokey Picnic Park (Note: the FOV of the Strait is much better about 30m in front of the parked car).(Photos by D. Brookes)

Figure 23: AIS tracks of three vessels observed over a 2hr period from Cape Smokey in Sept. 2008. Vessels included two ferries, M.V. Caribou and Leif Ericson, as well as one bulk cargo carrier, Bulk Avenir.


Figure 24: Photos from Jane�s Merchant Ships (online) representative of the three ships tracked via AIS (see Figure 23) during the 2 hour observation period at Cape Smokey in Sept. 2008. The photo of the Bulk Avenir on the left is by Iain G B Lovie [4], the photo of the M.V. Caribou is by Kevin Byron[5], and the photo of M.V. Stena Traveller (sister ship of the M.V. Leif Ericson (formerly Stena Challenger) is by Maritime Photographic [6].

Figure 25: Photograph of the Bulk Avenir cargo vessel taken by the author (D. Brookes) on 22 Sept. 2008 with a Kodak C643 digital camera. The inset is an expanded view of the ship.


Figure 26: Photograph of the Bulk Avenir cargo vessel taken by the author (D. Brookes) on 22 Sept. 2008 with a Kodak C643 digital camera using a set of binoculars as a telephoto lens. The inset is an expanded view of the ship

Figure 27: Photograph of the ferry M.V. Caribou taken by the author (D. Brookes) on 22 Sept. 2008 with a Kodak C643 digital camera. The inset is an expanded view of the ship.


Figure 28: Photograph of the ferry M.V. Caribou taken by the author (D. Brookes) on 22 Sept. 2008 camera using a set of binoculars as a telephoto lens. The inset is an expanded view of the ship.

Figure 29 shows the performance, predicted by SIESTA, of an X-band (9.41 GHz) 25kW peak-power navigation radar system based on its placement at the Cape Smokey Picnic Park location. The results are based on the specifications of a Sperry Marine BridgeMaster E used as the front end transceiver of the Rutter 100S6 radar system (i.e. the radar system purchased for the project). The Cabot Strait shipping lanes are superimposed on the radar map to show the relative overlap and the potential to detect ships. The maximum extent of the radar coverage is based on the minimum detectable Radar Cross Section (RCS) of 75dBsm. This is the maximum RCS, at broadside, of a ship the size of the 76 m long Canadian Forces Auxiliary Vessel (CFAV) Quest depicted in Figure 30.


Figure 29: Predicted radar coverage from Cape Smokey at roughly 260m ASL, AOI Range of 100km. The line of sight and FOV will only intercept the (extrapolated) shipping lanes closest to Cape Breton Island, but should easily see a portion of the Ferry lanes between Sydney and Newfoundland.

Figure 30: Photo (by D. Brookes).of the76m long CFAV Quest


4.3.2 Meat Cove

Meat Cove is a small rural fishing community and the most northerly settlement in Nova Scotia, with a permanent population of about 60 people according to �Community Profiles, Inverness County� [7] . It is located at the end of Meat Cove Road, an unpaved coastal road, about 12.5km West of St. Margaret Village, or 14 km West of Bay St. Lawrence. As shown on the topographic map in Figure 31 two potential observation sites were identified along Meat Cove Road, just east of the hamlet. The GPS locations and altitudes of the two sites are listed in Table 4.

The first site, located near Black Point, is the least attractive since it is just a lookout site from the roadway and is about 20m lower in altitude. The second site is much more attractive, being at a higher altitude and offering significant infrastructure to accommodate both the sensors, and the technical team. This site is located on the grounds of the Ocean View Lodge3, a small rental chalet with a large clearing for parking and sensor set-up. The chalet, shown in Figure 32 (exterior) and Figure 33 (interior), has electricity, 4 bedrooms, 1 ½ bathrooms, a small living room and a kitchen with a stove and fridge. Figure 34 is a panoramic picture of the FOV to the Cabot Strait from the lot in front of the lodge; the quality of the picture was reduced due to nightfall.

Figure 35 shows a photograph of the second Meat Cove site taken from a hill just west of the hamlet. An expanded view of the photograph in the same figure clearly shows the location of the rental cabin.

3 Note: as of Dec. 2010, the rental cottage (Ocean View Lodge) was still available at $200 per day.


Table 4: The following is a list of two potential AWS testing sites near Meat Cove, Nova Scotia. The locations were determined with a Global Positioning System (GPS) that used the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) to enhance the accuracy. The Positional Dilution of Precision (PDOP) for each measurement is shown in the last column to the right.

Site Name Latitude (d-m-s)

Longitude(d-m-s)

Altitude PDOP

Meat Cove 1 47 1� 34.7��N 60 32� 11.1��W 78 m 2.2

Meat Cove 2 47 1� 25.4� N 60 33� 19.8� W 96 m 1.4

Figure 31: Topographic map showing the locations of two potential AWS testing sites near Meat Cove. The axes were overlaid to make it easier to indicate the GPS coordinates of the two sites.


Figure 32: Exterior views of the Ocean View Lodge rental chalet plus surrounding area. The note is an invitation to �look around� and provides accommodation rates plus rental contacts.

Figure 33: Meat Cove Rental Cabin-Interior (first floor); living room on the left and kitchen on the right.


Figure 34: Cabot Strait FOV from Meat Cove cabin parking lot.

Figure 35: Various views of the second Meat Cove site. The picture on the left shows a three dimensional Google Earth map of the site, and the two images on the right show the location as viewed from the hill just west of Meat Cove. The expanded view shows the location of the rental cabin (Map Data: Google, NASA, Tele Atlas, TerraMetrics)


Figure 36: View of Bay St. Lawrence Harbour showing fishing vessels up to 20m in length.

An added benefit to the Meat Cove 2 site is the close proximity of fishing villages at Meat Cove, and Bay St. Lawrence to the east. These two villages represent a potential source of small radar targets as either vessels of opportunity, or possibly as rented assets. One of the key activities supporting the local population is providing tourists with guided whale watching trips. Figure 36 displays some views of the Bay St. Lawrence Harbour area, including some of the vessels.

Figure 37 shows the radar coverage predicted by SIESTA for a 25kW X-Band BridgeMaster E radar system placed at the Meat Cove 2 site at 100m ASL. The AOI (shaded white) was set to a range of 100 km, with range rings at every10 km. The LOS from this vantage point will only include the two shipping lanes (Lanes 1 and 2) closest to Cape Breton Island.


Figure 37: Predicted radar coverage from Meat Cove 2 site at about 100m ASL using SIESTA. The AOI (shaded white) was set to a range of 100km, with range rings at every10km. The LOS from this vantage point will only include the two shipping lanes closest to Cape Breton Island.

4.3.3 White Point

The small coastal fishing community of White Point, N.S. is located on a small peninsula of the same name on the NE coast of Cape Breton Island, between Neil�s Harbour (7.5-9 km) and Dingwall (15 km). The road between Neil�s Harbour and White Point, a combination of New Haven Road and White Point Road, is paved so it provides good access to the location.

The potential radar site that was investigated in this area was found on a short unpaved access road just off of the main road to White Point on a coastal feature identified as Scotch Head. This is shown in the topographic maps of Figure 38. The geographic location of the site, based on a WAAS enabled GPS receiver, was determined to be 46.87244° N, 60.36214° W. Although the map shows the location as being about 80 m ASL, the GPS estimate was between 85 m and 92 m ASL (DOP=0.8, PDOP=0.0). Some additional views are provided by the Google Earth maps shown in Figure 39.


Figure 38: Topographic maps of the White Point area. The red dot on Scotch Head at 46.87244N, 60.36214 W is the location that was investigated as a potential AW sensor site.


Figure 39: Two Google Earth perspectives of the White Point Site. The top picture is a plan view with North-up and the bottom view is a 3-D view looking due south (Map Data: Google, Cnes/Spot Image, Data SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Digital Globe).

Figure 40 presents a few photographs of the surrounding area at the White Point Site showing the actual FOV (from ground level) and the heavy tree coverage in the area. In order for this site to be reasonably effective, some of the sensors would probably need to be mounted on elevated platforms.


Figure 40: White Point clearing (ownership unknown) at about 100m ASL. The clearing is easily accessible from the main road with sufficient open space to locate all AW sensors which should ideally be on raised platforms.

Figure 41 shows the radar coverage predicted by SIESTA for a 25kW X-Band radar system placed at the White Point clearing at about 100m ASL. The AOI range for SIESTA was set to 100 km, with range rings shown every 10 km. The FOV and LOS range of about 55 km will only include the two shipping lanes (Lane 1 and 2) closest to Cape Breton Island.

Figure 41: Predicted radar coverage from the White Point clearing at about 100m ASL, and AOI Range of 100km. The FOV and LOS range will only include the two shipping lanes closest to Cape Breton Island.


4.3.4 Cape North/Money Point

The site survey for this area was not completed until the second trip that took place in May 2009.

Cape North is a peninsula at the northernmost tip of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The hamlet of Bay St. Lawrence, mentioned earlier, lies just to the SW. As will be shown in some of the maps and photographs to follow, the coastal area of the peninsula consists of steep slopes that lead to a plateau of undulating terrain. The nature of the terrain is easily seen in the 3-D Google Earth views shown in Figure 42. The area is covered by a dense, stunted forest consisting mostly of coniferous trees. There is only one rough gravel road that provides access from the main highway to a number of microwave communications towers listed in Table 5 and shown in Figure 43 and Figure 44. The road was formerly used to service the lighthouse at Money Point on the tip of the peninsula, but when the Coast Guard automated the lighthouse, the road fell into disrepair. This portion of the access road is now little better than a hiking trail.

The picture in Figure 42 shows a three dimensional view of the Cape North/Money Point area from above and looking toward the southeast. It points out the three potential AW sensor sites along this peninsula (more if you include the communication tower sites) their proximity to the harbour at Bay St. Lawrence, and the location of the access road (yellow curve) for the communications towers. These sites offer the opportunity for monitoring shipping traffic along the Cabot Strait as well as fishing boats using the Bay St. Lawrence harbour. However, one of the biggest obstacles to using them is probably the quality of the access road�at least as it was seen during the site evaluation in May 2009.

Because the service road was in such poor condition at the time of the site survey, only a portion could be travelled by car, and the rest of the trip had to be made on foot. Photographs of the road conditions�up to the point where the car had to be left behind�are shown in Figure 45. The photographs show how rough (but passable) the road was to that point. Since these pictures were taken in mid-May, there may not have been the opportunity (or necessity) for the users to fix the after-effects of spring runoff. For safety�s sake, as well as to maintain a record of the trips progress, a cell phone, as well as a SPOT tracking device (see Annex B for a description) was used for the rest of the hike. A GPS record of the hike is shown in Table 6 and graphically in Figure 46.

The access road is fairly rough in several areas (Figure 45) before reaching the area with the microwave communications towers. As shown by the photographs in Figure 47, just past (i.e. north of) the towers the road becomes more of a trail that is virtually impassable by normal vehicles except by a good 4 wheel drive vehicle with sufficient ground clearance, or an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV). Figures 44, 48 and 49 provide views of two of the communications sites along the main service road, as well as giving an appreciation of the FOV of the surrounding waters.

Figure 50 contains three photographs from the Money Point 3 location in the depression just a few hundred metres north of the parked car. The photographs give an appreciation of the FOV looking northwest from that location. Figure 51 shows a screen capture of the GPS viewer for the WAAS enabled GPS receiver used during the inspections, while at the Money Point 3 site. Figure 52 shows a view of the Money Point lighthouse from the Cabot Strait, as it appeared in 2008.


Figure 42: This picture shows a three dimensional view using Google Earth (Map Data: Google, NASA, Europa Technologies, Tele Atlas, TerraMetrics) of the Cape North/Money Point area from above and looking toward the southeast. It points out the 3 potential AW sensor sites, their proximity to the harbour at Bay St. Lawrence, and the location of the access road (yellow curve) for the communications towers.

Table 5: Communication Tower Locations.

Site Name Latitude Longitude

Com 37 47.0113° -60.4235°

Com 41 47.0114° -60.4265°

Com 63 47.0108° -60.4278°

Com 61 47.0092° -60.428°

Com 64 47.0101° -60.4247°


Figure 43: NRCan topographic map showing the locations (red dots enclosed in a red ellipse) of several communications towers located along the service road (orange) on Cape North.

Figure 44: Google Earth map of the five communication tower locations. The insets are photos of two towers taken by the author. The bounding boxes in the map are oriented with the normal to upper long edge of each rectangle pointed in roughly the direction that the picture was taken (Map Data: Google, Cnes/Spot Image).


Figure 45: Various views of the access road up to the �parking spot� (right) showing how rough (but passable) the road was to that point. Since these pictures were taken in mid-May, there may not have been the opportunity (or necessity) to fix the after-effects of spring runoff.


Figure 46: Progress reports from the SPOT Personal Tracker used during the hike along the Cape North/Money Point access road on 14 May 2009. The location of the parked car is shown as well as the location where the photos for Figure 50 were taken (Bay St. Lawrence 1) (Map Data: Google, NASA, SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, TerraMetrics and YellowPages.ca).

Table 6: GPS Record of hike progress using the SPOT tracking device.

Location Local Time Latitude (°N) Longitude(°W)

Access Rd Entrance 46.969810° 60.473636°

Parked Car 12:32:18 pm 46.976300° 60.457700°

Spot 1 1:02:06 pm 46.976700° 60.45400

Spot 2 1:45:51 pm 46.99680° 60.43410°

Spot 3 2:05:46 pm 47.008200° 60.423800°

Spot 4 2:52:14 pm 47.015900° 60.410600°


Location Local Time Latitude (°N) Longitude(°W)

Spot 5 3:02:17 pm 47.013100° 60.403900°

Spot 6 4:32:56 pm 47.010900° 60.423500°

Spot 7 4:43:39 pm 47.004700° 60.427300°

Spot 8 4:53:38 pm 46.999100° 60.433200°

Spot 9 5:03:29 pm 46.993800° 60.438600°

Spot 10 5:12:35 pm 46.988000° 60.438900°

Spot 11 5:23:04 pm 46.981400° 60.443600°

Spot 12 6:04:30 pm 46.973000° 60.466900°

Figure 47: Various locations along the access road, north of the communications towers. The 2 60 cm tall backpack in (a) was used to show the significant depth of the road depression at that point, roughly 40 cm. In (c) the road surface has been completely washed away.


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Figure 49: Various perspectives of the Com 37 site. The centre photo indicates the potential for a reasonably good FOV of the Cabot Strait area, and the enlarged portion shows a view of St. Paul Island, 27.7 km distant. (Photos by D. Brookes)


Figure 50: Three perspectives from the Money Point 3 site overlooking Bay St. Lawrence which can be seen in the middle of the centre photograph. As shown earlier, this site is about 280 m ASL. (Photos by D. Brookes)


Figure 51: Screen capture of the GPS viewer for the WAAS enabled GPS receiver used during the inspection. This screen capture is for the Money Point 3 site overlooking Bay St. Lawrence and a portion of the Cabot Strait.

Figure 52: View of the Money Point lighthouse from Cabot Strait. The service road (shown in the topo map) originally used to get access to the lighthouse has degraded significantly from infrequent use and maintenance since the lighthouse was automated by the Coast Guard.


Figures 53, 54 and 55 show the radar coverage predicted by SIESTA for a 25 kW X-Band BridgeMaster E radar system located at Money Point 1, Money Point 2, and Money Point 3 respectively. Money Point 2 which is the site with the highest elevation and best potential FOV is difficult to access by land since the service road is quite degraded in that area. On the other hand, Money Point 3 is located at a point where the access road was still relatively serviceable, and where there was a large open area to locate the sensors.

Figure 53: Predicted radar coverage from Money Point 1 at about 360m ASL. There are gaps in the field of view due to terrain shadowing, but it does stretch across most of the Cabot Strait, and includes all of the shipping lanes.


Figure 54: Predicted radar coverage for Money Point 2 at about 425 m ASL and overlooking most of the Cabot Strait shipping lanes. The radar�s LOS extends to the limit of the 100km AOI range set for the analysis and includes all 4 shipping lanes in the Cabot Strait.

Figure 55: Predicted radar coverage from Money Point 3 at about 280 m ASL, overlooking Bay St. Lawrence. The radar�s LOS range and FOV will include part of the two Cabot Strait shipping lanes closest to Cape Breton Island, and some of the Ferry routes between Sydney and Newfoundland.


4.3.5 Other Considerations

Two additional key issues that must be considered are the possible proximity to bird or animal sanctuaries, and the proximity and availability of health services in the event of a medical emergency.

4.3.5.1 Bird Sanctuaries

According to an on-line source called Bird Studies Canada4 this area, referred to as NS030 (see Figure 56), is the home of a bird species known as Bicknell�s Thrush, which may require protection. If this is the case, then it could hinder the process of gaining the required permissions to set up the AW sensors on any of the identified sites in this area. The fact that microwave relay towers already exist in the area may help the cause for the RF sensors as long as they won�t cause RF interference with the towers.

To quote the same source5 �The Bicknell�s Thrush is threatened by development and human disturbance because of its specialized habitat requirements. Breeding individuals are known to abandon their nests as a result of even the most miniscule disturbance. Forest habitat loss as a result of cell tower or ski hill development, or logging, can have a serious impact on this species. Because the Bicknell�s Thrush is so susceptible to disturbance and habitat alteration, and because very little is known about its population size and distribution, it was recently classified as a �Species of Special Concern� by COSEWIC6.� Additional information on this bird was provided by Environment Canada at www.ns.ec.gc.ca/wildlife/bicknells_thrush/e/index.html (last accessed 25 Oct. 2011). It may be possible to obtain the necessary permissions to pass an EA if the trials set-up is planned for the fall or early spring, outside of the normal breeding season for this bird.

4 www.bsc-eoc.org/site.jsp?siteID=NS0305 www.bsc-eoc.org/volunteer/achelp6Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (www.cosewic.gc.ca)


Figure 56: Important bird areas in northern Cape Breton; the light blue circles denote the locations of Meat Cove, White Point, and Cape Smokey, which lie outside these areas.

4.3.5.2 Medical Facilities

As shown by the map in Figure 57, obtained from the Cape Breton District Health Authority [8], the closest hospital with emergency facilities to any of the Cape Breton test sites is located in Neil�s Harbour at the Buchanan Memorial Hospital. The hospital is located 36 km from Bay St. Lawrence, 48 km from Meat Cove, 37 km from Cape Smokey and only 8 km from White Point. Aside from Neil�s Harbour, the availability of family physicians in any of the areas under consideration is currently unknown; none could be found using the on-line website of the College of Physicians & Physicians of Nova Scotia.

Emergency Health Services in Cape Breton are contracted to a company called Emergency Medical Care (EMC) Inc. Statistics on emergency response times by EMC in Nova Scotia are provided by the 2008/09 Annual Report [9] for Nova Scotia Health in Figure 58; however, these statistics are not broken down according to rural, suburban or urban areas. In Figure 59 a map of the EHS (ambulance) Fleet Centres and Bases obtained from the June 2007 �Report of the Auditor General� [10] shows that the closest ambulance bases to any of the potential sensor sites are located in Neil�s Harbour, and Ingonish.


Figure 57: The closest hospital facilities in the area are at Buchanan Memorial hospital located 36 km from Bay St. Lawrence (BSL), 48 km from Meat Cove (MC), 37 km from Cape Smokey (CS), but only 8 km from White Point [8].

Figure 58: EMC response time statistics for Nova Scotia in 2008/2009[9].


Figure 59: EHS (ground ambulance) Fleet Centres and Bases located in Cape Breton according to the June 2007 �Report of the Auditor General-June� [10].

Based on the information from Figure 59, Table 7 gives the approximate travel time required for a ground ambulance to travel to the accident site, then drive to the hospital, based on an average speed of 80kph. It does not include the setup time before leaving the station, or the time required to treat the patient before placing them in the ambulance. The estimate for Money Point 3 assumes that the access road is reasonably well maintained at the time.

Table 7: Approximate ground ambulance travel times to hospital. The times assume an average speed of 80kph, and do not include the treatment time at the accident site or any latency associated with leaving the base.

Site Distance to Ambulance Base

Distance from Site to Hospital

Estimated Total trip time based on 80kph

Meat Cove 48 48 1 hr 8 min

Money Point 3 36 36 54 min

White Point 8 8 12 min

Cape Smokey 20 37 43 min


4.4 Table Mountain, Newfoundland

As with the Cape North/Money Point survey, the inspection of Table Mountain was performed in May 2009. Table Mountain is a plateau on the SW corner of Newfoundland with an altitude of about 400m ASL and a reasonably good view overlooking the Cabot Strait shipping lanes (see Figure 60). It is located just 15 km NW of the village of Port aux Basques, one terminus of the (Sydney) Nova Scotia to Newfoundland ferry route.

If vehicles and equipment need to be driven from their respective labs (e.g. DRDC Valcartier or Ottawa) one potential route would be to drive to Sydney and then take the ferry across. The ferry crossing is often about seven to eight hours long, not including the time spent queuing up to be loaded onto the vessel. Aside from the cost per person, there is an additional cost associated with each automobile (depending on type) loaded onto the ferry. However, if this site is ever to be used in the future, and the equipment does not need to be shipped via truck for the entire route, a time saving alternative might be to fly equipment and personnel in to Deer Lake, NL, (there are commercial passenger flights to Deer Lake via carriers such as Air Canada), rent the required vehicles there, and drive the rest of the way. The distance from Deer Lake to the site�s location is approximately 250 km which can be driven in less than half the time required for the ferry trip alone, not to mention any additional time required to drive from DRDC Valcartier or DRDC Ottawa to Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Some of the other advantages of the Table Mountain site are the following:

1. It is the site of several communications towers for Marine Communications and TrafficServices (MCTS) otherwise referred to as Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) which belong to theCanadian Coast Guard. This should facilitate the acquisition of any required permits orpassing of any EA.

2. Because of the communications towers, there exists some local infrastructure which is linkedto the public power grid. This infrastructure may be able to provide some shelter to scientistsduring the trials as well as a potential source of electrical power.

3. This site is connected to the main highway (Route #1) via an access road that is used toservice the communications systems.

4. In the event of injury to any of the trials personnel, there are medical facilities in Port auxBasques at the Dr. Charles L. Legrow Health Centre. This facility has a staff of 130 with 44beds and the hospital services include acute and long term care. (More information on thisfacility can be found at the website www.nlhba.nl.ca/PR_Port%aux%Basques.htm.)

5. The village of Port aux Basques has a population of about 4300 and has a service industryadequate to provide all accommodation and dining requirements for trials personnel.

6. There are no known areas of sensitive bird habitat in this location that might be significantlyimpacted by any of our activities. The only know �Important Bird Areas� are shown in Figure61.


Figure 60: Various Google Earth 3D perspectives of the Cabot Strait shipping lanes, emphasizing the Table Mountain, Newfoundland perspective. The white lines in the strait indicate constrained shipping lanes, and the green arrows represent the direction of ship traffic in those lanes.

The main disadvantage of this site is the service road that gives access to the communications towers at the top of the plateau. At the time of the survey, the access road�while reasonably well maintained�was a gravel surface that was fairly narrow and steep without much room to manoeuvre. Also, along some sections there are some quite steep drop-offs close to the road that are not protected by barriers. To give some appreciation of the steepness of the road, in a span of just 2.6 km the altitude changes by about 350 m. This corresponds to an average slope of 8 degrees or a 14% grade. Caution signs are often used on highways where the grade equals or exceeds 10% because it can be a strain on a trucks engine on the way up, or its brakes on the way down. This is especially true if it is a long grade, as in this case. Another important consideration is that the roadway is not cleared of snow that builds up over the winter. At the time of the survey in May of 2009 there were still sections of the roadway near the top of the plateau that were buried in up to several feet of snow, making it impassable by normal vehicle traffic.


Figure 61: Important Bird Areas on the SW corner of Newfoundland. The red square indicating the Table Mountain site falls outside of either sensitive area. The distance from any potential radar site to the north-western edge of NF038 would be about 3 km.

Figure 62 and Figure 63 provide a good impression of the terrain in the Table Mountain area. The first figure is a topographic map of the immediate area, showing the access road from Highway #1 as well as the steep cliffs and the location of one communications tower. The Google Earth map in Figure 63 provides a 3-D perspective of the same area. The pictures in Figure 64 were included to provide the reader with a comparison of the accuracy of the Google Earth 3-D maps to actual photographs from the same perspective. In this case the location and FOV are shown in Figure 65, which also provides a pictorial timeline of the round trip hike from the start of the access road to the top of the plateau and back. The approximate locations of each photograph were based on photographic time-stamps correlated with GPS readings provided by a SPOT tracking device. The SPOT device, in addition to a cell phone, was taken along in case of an emergency. The same photographs as shown in Figure 65, are shown in more detail in Annex C.


Figure 62: NRCan topographic map of the Table Mountain area. The solid red lines represent Highway #1 (see also Figure 63) and the dashed line intersecting it just east of Sugar Loaf mountain is the access road to the top of the hill. The contours in this map are given in feet above sea level.


Figure 63: 3D view of Table Mountain area using Google Earth. Superimposed on the image are a number of location/time reports provided by a SPOT Personal Tracker carried by the author on the hike up the access road (Map Data: Google, TerraMetrics, Tele Atlas, U.S. Navy).

Figure 64: Comparison of a 3D Google Earth view to actual photographs taken at the parking lot identified with a large red �P� in the Figure 63 at Latitude 44.7081 N, Longitude 59.3078 W. The bottom picture was taken at 14:48GMT. The rough FOV is outlined in red in Figure 65 (Map Data: Google, TerraMetrics, Tele Atlas, U.S. Navy).


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Figures 66 and 67 show the radar coverage predicted by SIESTA for a 25 kW X-Band BridgeMaster E radar system located at the same Table Mountain site but at altitudes about 30 m apart. In both cases the LOS range of the radar is about 95 km and the FOV is greater than 180 degrees. Therefore the radar should be able to detect a ship as small as the CFAV Quest (at broadside) in any of the Cabot Strait shipping lanes (Lanes 1, 2 and 3) with the possible exception of Lane 1 when the ship is shadowed by St. Paul Island.

Figure 66: Predicted radar coverage from Table Mountain assuming an altitude of 35.5m above ground level (AGL) or approximately 484m ASL.

Figure 67: Predicted radar coverage from Table Mountain, assuming an altitude of 5m AGL which corresponds to approximately 453m ASL.


5 Le Massif, QC

Le Massif is a ski resort on the north side of the St. Lawrence River near the mouth to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Since this location is only about 70 km NE of Quebec City a survey of this site was performed by Dr. L. Forand of DRDC Valcartier. Due to the site�s location near the mouth of the St. Lawrence it is well situated to observe a large amount of shipping traffic that stops at Quebec�s harbours or heads on to the Great Lakes. A large proportion of the shipping traffic that goes through the Cabot Strait (see Section 2) continues on to, or past, Quebec City. Therefore this area can expect to see a similar number of ships per day. Also, since the summit of the ski resort is about 675m ASL, it provides a long line of sight for the AW sensors so that they are not limited by the distance to the horizon (i.e. the sensor range is limited by its sensitivity). The following are some additional advantages of this location:

1. There already exists a cooperative relationship between the ski resort and DND, which has allowed DND to conduct activities in the area during the off-season;

2. Being so close to Quebec City and Baie Saint Paul provides for sufficient dining and accommodation for trials personnel who are from out-of-town;

3. There is a hospital in Ste. Anne de Beaupre about than 40km away and a medical clinic in Baie St. Paul less than 30 km away;

4. The infrastructure of the ski resort provides for temporary shelter when required, as well as a source of electrical power;

5. The site provides quite adequate road access, and clear views of the river;

Various perspectives (via Google Earth) of the site and its view looking down-river are shown in Figure 68.


Figure 68: Google Earth 3D views of, and from near, the summit of le Massif, looking NE along the St. Lawrence River. The plan view in the upper right is an expanded view of the area bounded by the red rectangle in the plan view shown in the upper left. (Map Data: Google, TerraMetrics, Tele Atlas, USDA Farm Service Agency, Europa Technologies, Digital Globe, GeoEye)

Although there are several Important Bird Areas (IBAs) surrounding the site they are fairly distant, and it is believed that none will provide a barrier to obtaining permissions to use the location. The IBAs are listed in Table 8 along with the names of the birds of interest, and the distance from the Le Massif site. The corresponding areas are shown in Figure 69.


Table 8: Locations of potentially sensitive bird areas surrounding Le Massif ski resort.

IBA Site Name

IBAdesignation

Lat./ Long

Distancefrom Le Massif (km)

Area(km2)

Birds of interest

Cap Tourmente, Saint-Joachim

QC002 47.067°N/ 70.8°W

26 240 Greater Snow Goose

Marais de Gros-Cacouna,Cacouna,

QC043 47.917° N 69.5° W

109.6 20 American Black Duck Barrows Goldeneye Black Bellied Plover Greater Snow Goose Semipalmated Plover Short-billed Dowitcher

Île Blanche Rivière-du-Loup

QC048 47.933° N 69.667° W

102.3 0.08 Black Guillemont Black Crowned Night-Heron Common Eider Double Crested Cormorante Purple Sandpiper

Îles Pèlerins Saint-André-de-Kamouraska

QC049 47.717° N 69.683° W

85.6 1.37 Black Guillemont Black Crowned Night-Heron Common Eider Double Crested Cormorante Purple Sandpiper Razor Bill

Kamouraska,Rivière-du-Loup

QC055 47.567° N 69.867° W

66.0 41 Greater Snow Goose

Batture aux Alouettes and mouth of Saguenay River, Baie-Sainte-Catherine

QC091 48.083° N 69.7° W

113.5 58 American Black Duck Barrow�s Goldeneye Sanderling Red Knot Long-tailed Duck Common Eider Double Crested Cormorante Purple Sandpiper

Baie des Rochers, Saint-Siméon

QC093 47.967° N 69.85° W

80.8 13.9 Barrow�s Goldeneye

La Malbaie�Pointe-au-Pic

QC094 47.65° N 70.15° W

54.8 TBD Black Guillemont Barrow�s Goldeneye

L�Islet,Notre-Dame-de-bonsecours-de-l�Islet

QC097 47.133° N 70.367° W

22.7 TBD Greater Snow Goose

Battures aux Loups Marins L�Islet-sur-Mer

QC100 47.233° N 70.433° W

12.9 5.5 Black-crowned Night Heron Greater Snow Goose Semipalmated Plover Semipalmated Sandpiper


IBA Site Name

IBAdesignation

Lat./ Long

Distancefrom Le Massif (km)

Area(km2)

Birds of interest

Cap Saint-Ignace QC102 47.033° N 70.467° W

27.6 TBD Greater Snow Goose

Saint-Vallier QC105 46.883° N 70.85° W

46 4.05 Common Eider Greater Snow Goose

Battures de Beauport and chenal de l�île d�Orléans, Beauport

QC107 46.883° N 71.15° W

59 27 American Black Duck Greater Snow Goose Semipalmated Sandpiper

Charlevois, Notre Dame Des Monts

QC153 47.67°N/70.67°W

45.7 TBD Bicknell�s Thrush

Figure 69: Map generated from GE indicating the relative location of each IBA (red triangles labelled QCxxx) with respect to the Le Massif site. The inset shows a similar map from the IBA web site indicating the geographic boundaries of some of the bird sites (Map Data: Google, TerraMetrics, Tele Atlas, USDA Farm Service Agency, Europa Technologies, Digital Globe)


Figure 70: Radar Coverage from Le Massif ski resort, assuming a radar location of latitude=42.27131 N, longitude=70.59865 W at an altitude of 677m ASL. The farthest that can potentially be seen by the radar is about 115km for a 75dBsm target.


6 Conclusions

Table 9 contains a list of all of the potential AWS sites that were considered worth investigating in detail. It also lists a number of quantitative and qualitative metrics that were used to decide which sites were the best candidates for testing the suite of AW sensors in the South. The metrics were primarily based on radar system performance provided by the SIESTA prediction software. It was also based on the assumption that fields of view for both RWR and optical imaging sensors would be similar to the (RF) radar system performance. Based primarily on the accessibility (within a half day�s driving distance of Ottawa), the proximity to local infrastructure, accommodations and medical facilities, Le Massif is the first choice, even though it doesn�t provide a fully open ocean view for the radar or other sensors. The next best locations are, in decreasing importance, Table Mountain, Meat Cove, Cape Smokey, and Money Point 3.


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References .....

[1] Szeker, R.G., RF SIESTA Software User Manual-Version V09-4, Contract Report, DRDC Ottawa CR 2009-138, September 2009, 48 pages

[2] Maritime Innovations (for Sandwell Engineering Inc.), �Cacouna Energy, Gros Cacouna LNG Terminal, Marine Traffic Surveys�,8 April 2005, 103 pages- www.bape.gouv.qc.ca/sections/mandats/cacouna/documents/DA9.pdf

[3] Ship Plotter- www.shipplotter.com (last accessed: 12 July 2011), http://www.coaa.co.uk/shipplotter.htm

[4] Jane�s Merchant Ships, Last Update:12 March 2013, Bulk Avenir, https://janes.ihs.com/CustomPages/Janes/DisplayPage.aspx?DocType=Reference&ItemId=+++1409427&Pubabbrev=JMS

[5] Jane�s Merchant Ships, Last Update:13 October2010, Caribou, https://janes.ihs.com/CustomPages/Janes/DisplayPage.aspx?DocType=Reference&ItemId=+++1407328&Pubabbrev=JMS

[6] Jane�s Merchant Ships, Last Update:29 March 2012, Leif Ericson, https://janes.ihs.com/CustomPages/Janes/DisplayPage.aspx?DocType=Reference&ItemId=+++1407486&Pubabbrev=JMS

[7] Unknown Author, Community Profiles Inverness County 2003, 13 Sept. 2006, 54 pages www.invernesscounty.ca/Inverness%County%Community%Profiles%for%Website.pdf

[8] Cape Breton District Health Authority, Documents-District Info and Demographics: Map of District (last update: 19 Dec. 2008), http://www.cbdha.nshealth.ca/IC2/Intranet/documents/detail_view.cfm?MenuID=6&ID=25 (last accessed: Sept. 2010)

[9] Nova Scotia Health-EHS Emergency Health Services Annual Report 2008/09, 8 pages; http://www.gov.ns.ca/health/ehs/documents.asp (last accessed: 12 July 2011)

[10] Report of the Auditor General-June 2007-Chapter 3: Emergency Health Services, June 2007, 25 pages


Annex A SPOT Personal Tracker

The SPOT Personal Tracker is a tracking device that can be used in remote areas to track a person’s location and store a record of that track on-line at the FINDMESPOT website (www.findmespot.ca). The track information can also be downloaded from the site in a variety of formats (e.g. CSV, XLS, or KML file formats) so that it can be input into, and displayed with, personal mapping software. The device can also be used in the event of an emergency, via the “911” button, to summon Search and Rescue. A picture of the SPOT Personal Tracker is shown in Figure 71.

Figure 71: The SPOT Personal Tracker device

A copy of the specifications brochure for the device from the SPOT website is reproduced below in Figure 72.


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Annex B Photographic Survey of Table Mountain

This Annex is a pictorial record of the on-site survey of Table Mountain. Each photograph is in sequence, and time-stamped. The survey and photography was performed by the author (D. Brookes).

Figure 73: Picture taken near the beginning of access road looking forward at 15:53 GMT.

Figure 74: Picture of the access road, looking forward, at 16:07 GMT


Figure 75: Picture of the access road, looking forward, at 16:37 GMT

Figure 76: Pictures of the access road looking forward (on left) and looking back (on right) taken at 16:40 GMT. Sugar Loaf Mountain can be seen in the photograph on the right.


Figure 77: Pictures of the access road looking forward (on left), and looking back (on right), taken at 17:08 GMT.

Figure 78: Picture of the access road looking down-hill, taken at 17:23 GMT


Figure 79: Picture of the access road near the beginning of the summit, looking forward, taken at 17:43 GMT.

Figure 80: Picture of the access road looking forward taken shortly after the last figure, at 17:49 GMT. The inset shows a communications tower visible in the distance, at the centre of the photograph.. The approximate site of the tower is Latitude 47.6867 N, Longitude 59.2729 W.


Figure 81: Picture taken at 18:10 GMT, about 350m from the access road in an open scrub area at a rough position of Lat. 47.6808 N, Long. 59.2630 W. The com tower and dishes in the background (inset) is located at approximately Latitude 47.6816 N, Longitude 59.2749 W.

Figure 82: Picture taken at 18:10 GMT, about 350m from the access road in an open scrub area at a rough position of Lat. 47.6808 N, Long. 59.2630 W. The communications(?) tower in the background (inset) is located at roughly Lat. 47.6727 N N, Long. 59.27094 W corresponding with the location shown in the MNR topo map in Figure 62.


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List of symbols/abbreviations/acronyms/initialisms

AGL Above Ground Level

AOI Area of Interest

ASL Above Sea Level

ATV All-Terrain Vehicle

CANDISS Canadian Arctic Night and Day Imaging Sensor System

CF Canadian Forces

CCG Canadian Coast Guard

CFAV Canadian Forces Auxiliary Vessel

Cnes Centre National d�Etudes Spatiales,

CS Cabot Strait or Cape Smokey depending on the context

dB Decibels

dBsm dB relative to one square meter (sm)

DND Department of National Defence

DOP Dilution of Precision

DRDC Defence Research & Development Canada

DRDKIM Director Research and Development Knowledge & Information Management

EA Environmental Assessment

EOHD Extended Nominal Ocular Hazard Distance

FOV Field of View

GI Gascoyne Inlet

GEBCO General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans

GPS Global Positioning (Satellite) System

LOS Line of Sight

MCTS Marine Communications and Traffic Service

MRT Medical Response Time

MV Motorized Vessel

NGA National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Nmi Nautical mile

PDOP Positional Dilution of Precision

R&D Research & Development


RCS Radar Cross Section

RF Radio Frequency

SIESTA Scenario/ Shipboard Integrated Environment Software for Tactics & Awareness

SIO Scripps Institution of Oceanography

DOCUMENT CONTROL DATA (Security markings for the title, abstract and indexing annotation must be entered when the document is Classified or Designated)

1. ORIGINATOR (The name and address of the organization preparing the document.Organizations for whom the document was prepared, e.g. Centre sponsoring a contractor's report, or tasking agency, are entered in section 8.)

Defence Research and Development Canada – Ottawa3701 Carling AvenueOttawa, Ontario K1A 0Z4

2a. SECURITY MARKING (Overall security marking of the document including special supplemental markings if applicable.)

UNCLASSIFIED

2b. CONTROLLED GOODS

(NON-CONTROLLED GOODS) DMC A REVIEW: GCEC JUNE 2010

3. TITLE (The complete document title as indicated on the title page. Its classification should be indicated by the appropriate abbreviation (S, C or U) in parentheses after the title.)

Northern Watch : Options analysis to select a southern test site for above water sensors

4. AUTHORS (last name, followed by initials – ranks, titles, etc. not to be used)

Brookes, D.; Forand, J.L.

5. DATE OF PUBLICATION (Month and year of publication of document.)

December 2013

6a. NO. OF PAGES (Total containing information, including Annexes, Appendices, etc.)

104

6b. NO. OF REFS (Total cited in document.)

10 7. DESCRIPTIVE NOTES (The category of the document, e.g. technical report, technical note or memorandum. If appropriate, enter the type of report,

e.g. interim, progress, summary, annual or final. Give the inclusive dates when a specific reporting period is covered.)

Technical Memorandum

8. SPONSORING ACTIVITY (The name of the department project office or laboratory sponsoring the research and development – include address.)

Defence Research and Development Canada – Ottawa3701 Carling AvenueOttawa, Ontario K1A 0Z4

9a. PROJECT OR GRANT NO. (If appropriate, the applicable research and development project or grant number under which the document was written. Please specify whether project or grant.)

Northern Watch Technology Demonstration Project 15je01

9b. CONTRACT NO. (If appropriate, the applicable number under which the document was written.)

10a. ORIGINATOR'S DOCUMENT NUMBER (The official document number by which the document is identified by the originating activity. This number must be unique to this document.)

DRDC Ottawa TM 2013-141

10b. OTHER DOCUMENT NO(s). (Any other numbers which may be assigned this document either by the originator or by the sponsor.)

11. DOCUMENT AVAILABILITY (Any limitations on further dissemination of the document, other than those imposed by security classification.)

Unlimited

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Unlimited

13. ABSTRACT (A brief and factual summary of the document. It may also appear elsewhere in the body of the document itself. It is highly desirablethat the abstract of classified documents be unclassified. Each paragraph of the abstract shall begin with an indication of the security classification of the information in the paragraph (unless the document itself is unclassified) represented as (S), (C), (R), or (U). It is not necessary to include here abstracts in both official languages unless the text is bilingual.)

This document describes an evaluation process to determine the most suitable southern location, amongst several East Coast candidates, for testing a suite of above water sensors (AWS) for the Northern Watch Technology Demonstration Program (TDP) project. The chosen site could be used for testing the AWS, as stand-alone sensors or as part of an integrated suite, before deploying them to the Arctic. It could also be used for testing the AWS between arctic deployments. The evaluation was performed with the assistance of the Canadian Forces (CF), using their own Geographic Information System (GIS) tools, as well as by Defence R&D Canada (DRDC) using a combination of their own GIS tools, radar propagation prediction software (developed in-house, at DRDC), on-site inspections, and a literature search. It was decided that a ski resort named Le Massif, about 70km NE of Quebec City, along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, would be the best choice. This decision was based on the available information and applying such metrics as site accessibility, availability and timeliness for emergency medical response, availability of accommodation for personnel during trials, density of surface vessel traffic, potential environmental assessment issues and suitability of terrain.

Le présent document décrit un processus d’évaluation visant à déterminer l’emplacement le mieux adapté au sud, parmi plusieurs candidats de la côte Est, pour mettre à l’essai un ensemble de capteurs de surface (CS) dans le cadre du projet du Programme de démonstration de technologies (PDT) de surveillance du Nord. L’emplacement choisi pourrait servir à mettre à l’essai les CS, en tant que capteurs autonomes ou qu’éléments d’un ensemble intégré, avant leur déploiement dans l’Arctique. Il pourrait aussi servir à mettre à l’essai les CS entre les déploiements dans l’Arctique. De plus, l’évaluation a été réalisée avec l’aide des Forces canadiennes (FC), au moyen de leurs outils du système d’information géographique (SIG), et de R & D pour la défense Canada (RDDC), au moyen d’une combinaison de leurs outils de SIG, d’un logiciel de prédiction de la propagation radar (conçu à l’interne, à RDDC), d’inspections sur place et d’une recherche documentaire. On a décidé que le meilleur choix serait la station de ski du Massif, située à environ 70 km au nord-est de la ville de Québec, le long de la rive nord du fleuve Saint-Laurent. Cette décision repose sur les renseignements disponibles et l’application de paramètres, comme l’accessibilité du site, la disponibilité et l’obtention en temps voulu des secours médicaux d’urgence, la disponibilité de l’hébergement pour le personnel pendant les essais, la densité de la circulation des navires de surface, les problèmes possibles associés à l’évaluation environnementale et la convenance du terrain.

14. KEYWORDS, DESCRIPTORS or IDENTIFIERS (Technically meaningful terms or short phrases that characterize a document and could behelpful in cataloguing the document. They should be selected so that no security classification is required. Identifiers, such as equipment model designation, trade name, military project code name, geographic location may also be included. If possible keywords should be selected from a published thesaurus, e.g. Thesaurus of Engineering and Scientific Terms (TEST) and that thesaurus identified. If it is not possible to select indexing terms which are Unclassified, the classification of each should be indicated as with the title.)

Northern Watch; radar; CANDISS; Above Water Sensors; AWS; Underwater Sensors; UWS; ELINT; Cabot Strait; SIESTA; propagation; WAAS; GPD; Wide Area Augmentation System; Global Star; Inmarsat; Iridium; Telesat