Project: International weather kiosk at Whitehorse Airport

Yukon Territory, Canada

As a two-year demonstration project to promote international   technology transfer to enhance aviation safety, the Institute of the North has installed the first international weather kiosk at the Flight Service Station in the Whitehorse Airport, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.

The kiosk provides pilots flying into Alaska from Canada with easy access to current Alaska weather information and forecast data, augmenting the personalized weather briefings already provided by NAV CANADA personnel.  A Memorandum of Understanding between the institute and NAV CANADA provided the terms for the demonstration project; staff from the Anchorage-based institute trained with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to learn the skills needed to effect the installation.   

Pilots need real-time weather information to make go/no go decisions when flying.  In Alaska, this need has led the FAA to install a network of 63 weather cameras throughout the state – in addition to the Institute of the North’s demonstration project weather camera at the Fraser, British Columbia border crossing – all linked at a common website available on the Internet.

Although NAV CANADA has a series of similar kiosks throughout Canada, the kiosk at Whitehorse, this is the first weather kiosk in Yukon Territory.

Funding for the demonstration project comes from a congressional appropriation through the U.S. Department of Transportation and the FAA to the Institute of the North.