CFS Alert
Encyclopedia
Canadian Forces Station Alert, also CFS Alert, is a Canadian Forces
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...

 signals intelligence intercept facility located in Alert
Alert, Nunavut
Alert, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada, is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world, from the North Pole. It takes its name from HMS Alert, which wintered east of the present station, off what is now Cape Sheridan, in 1875–1876.Alert was reported to have five permanent...

, Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...

 on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island
Ellesmere Island
Ellesmere Island is part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Lying within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, it is considered part of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, with Cape Columbia being the most northerly point of land in Canada...

, at 82°30′N 62°19′W.

Located in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, it is the northernmost
Northernmost settlements
Some of the northernmost settlements in the world are:-Larger cities north of the Arctic circle:-See also:*Southernmost settlements*Extreme points of Earth*The world's most northern bagpipe orchestra, city, capital, zoo etc....

 permanently inhabited place in the world. It takes its name from HMS Alert
HMS Alert (1856)
HMS Alert was a 17-gun wooden screw sloop of the Cruizer class of the Royal Navy, launched in 1856 and broken up in 1894. She was the eleventh ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name , and was noted for her Arctic exploration work; in 1876 she reached a record latitude of 82°N.-Construction:The...

, which wintered 10 km (6.2 mi) east of the present station off what is now Cape Sheridan
Cape Sheridan
Cape Sheridan is on the northeastern coast of Ellesmere Island, Canada situated on the Lincoln Sea in the Arctic Ocean, on the mouth of Sheridan River, west bank...

, Nunavut in 1875-1876.

Motto:
  • Inuit Nunangata Ungata (Inuktitut
    Inuktitut
    Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian Inuit language is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada...

    , "The People of the Land Beyond the Land Beyond")


Crest:
  • The main feature of the Alert crest is the head of a muskox, a suitably northern animal. Behind the muskox is a background of black and yellow, signifying the periods of total darkness and total sunlight experienced at Alert. Below are two peaks denoting the two mountains to the south, Crystal Mountain and Mount Pullen, between which the sun rises in March. Behind them are the white peaks of the Western Mountains. Below the peaks, a blue band between two white wavy lines signifies the Lincoln Sea
    Lincoln Sea
    Lincoln Sea is a body of water in the Arctic Ocean, stretching from Cape Columbia, Canada, in the west to Cape Morris Jesup, Greenland, in the east. The northern limit is defined as the great circle line between those two headlands. It is covered with sea ice throughout the year, the thickest sea...

     and the water and ice pack surrounding Ellesmere Island. The crest is encircled by a wreath of gold maple leaves
    Maple leaf
    The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree, and is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada.-Use in Canada:At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the settlements of New France had attained a population of about 18,000...

     and with the royal crown
    St. Edward's Crown
    St Edward's Crown was one of the English Crown Jewels and remains one of the senior British Crown Jewels, being the official coronation crown used in the coronation of first English, then British, and finally Commonwealth realms monarchs...

     of Queen Elizabeth II, Sovereign of Canada, on top. On a banner below the crest is the motto "Inuit Nunangata Ungata"

Weather Station

Alert (then part of the Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...

) was first inhabited by employees of the Canadian Department of Transport and the United States Weather Bureau in 1950 when the Joint Arctic Weather Station (JAWS) was established. An airfield and small building were built to service various weather monitoring equipment.

This weather station remains in operation to this day, however operations were subsequently handed over to employees of the Canadian Department of the Environment via the Meteorological Service of Canada
Meteorological Service of Canada
The Meteorological Service of Canada , also known as "The Canadian Weather Service", is a division of Environment Canada, which primarily provides public meteorological information and weather forecasts and warnings of severe weather and other environmental hazards...

.

In April 1971 a party of federal and NWT government officials were in Alert trying to reach the North Pole. The North Pole had been the embarkation points for many North Pole expeditions that relied on weather information supplied by JAWS. The 1971 expedition was led by NWT Commissioner Stuart Hodgson and included in his party were representatives of the Prime Minister's office, the Canadian Armed Forces, the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development as well as a large media group including Pat Carney of Gemini Productions, Ed Ogle of Time Magazine, Val Wake of CBC News and a Californian television crew. While waiting in Alert for a weather window to fly into the Pole the party's television crew spent a lot of time filming at the weather station. The military was not too happy about the film crew working on the station but the JAWS site was seen as being a sort of no-man's land. The Commissioner's party made two attempts to reach the Pole and failed. Some of the incidents surrounding this event are recounted in Val Wake's memoir My Voyage around Spray with Apologies to Captain Joshua Slocum.

Alert Wireless Station

The Canadian military was interested in the establishment of JAWS at Alert for several reasons. The JAWS facility extended Canadian sovereignty over a large uninhabited area which Canada claimed as its sovereign territory.

During the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, Alert was strategically important because of its proximity to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

; Alert was the closest point in North America to the northwestern area of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. In fact, Alert is closer to Moscow (c. 2,500 mi.) than it is to Ottawa (c. 2,580 mi.). Thus, the possibility of utilizing the site for the purpose of intercepting radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 signals was deemed to warrant a military presence.

In 1956, the Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
The history of the Royal Canadian Air Force begins in 1920, when the air force was created as the Canadian Air Force . In 1924 the CAF was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force and granted royal sanction by King George V. The RCAF existed as an independent service until 1968...

 (RCAF), which was expanding its presence throughout the high Arctic with the construction of the Distant Early Warning Line
Distant Early Warning Line
The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland...

 radar network, established a building uphill from the DOT's JAWS station to house "High Arctic Long Range Communications Research", or signals intelligence operations.

In 1957, the Alert Wireless Station was conceived as an intercept facility to be jointly staffed by personnel from the Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

 and the RCAF. Five additional buildings were constructed: a mess, 3 barracks/accommodations buildings, and a power house and vehicle maintenance building, in addition to the existing operations building, built in 1956. The operations building housed the radio intercept and cryptographic equipment. Up to 24 men would be posted to Alert at any one time. Alert was considered (and remains to this day) a hardship assignment, with no spouses being permitted. Until 1980 only men were permitted to deploy to Alert.

CFS Alert

The February 1, 1968 unification of the RCN
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

, RCAF
Royal Canadian Air Force
The history of the Royal Canadian Air Force begins in 1920, when the air force was created as the Canadian Air Force . In 1924 the CAF was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force and granted royal sanction by King George V. The RCAF existed as an independent service until 1968...

 and Canadian Army to form the Canadian Forces
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...

 saw the Alert Wireless Station change its name to Canadian Forces Station Alert (CFS Alert). Its personnel were no longer drawn from only the air force or navy, but primarily from the Canadian Forces Communications Command.

At its peak, CFS Alert had upwards of 215 personnel posted at any one time. The station became a key asset in the global ECHELON
ECHELON
ECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UK–USA Security Agreement...

 network of the US-UK-ANZAC intelligence sharing alliance, with Alert being privy to many secret Soviet communications regarding land-based and sea-based ICBM test launches and many operational military deployments.

Budget cuts to the Department of National Defence
Department of National Defence (Canada)
The Department of National Defence , frequently referred to by its acronym DND, is the department within the government of Canada with responsibility for all matters concerning the defence of Canada...

 and Canadian Forces in 1994, and modernization of communications equipment, saw CFS Alert downsized to approximately 74 personnel by 1997-1998 when most radio-intercept operations were remotely controlled by personnel at CFS Leitrim
CFS Leitrim
Canadian Forces Station Leitrim, also referred to as CFS Leitrim, is an important Canadian Forces Station located in the neighbourhood of Leitrim near Ottawa, Ontario...

. Remaining personnel are responsible for airfield operations, construction/engineering, food service, and logistical/administrative support. Only six personnel are now responsible for actual operations and control of the facility was passed to DND's Information Management Group following the disbanding of CF Communications Command with force restructuring and cutbacks in the mid-1990s. Several of these personnel are likely also attached to DND's Communications Security Establishment
Communications Security Establishment
The Communications Security Establishment Canada is the Canadian government's national cryptologic agency. Administered under the Department of National Defence , it is charged with the duty of keeping track of foreign signals intelligence , and protecting Canadian government electronic...

.

With Canada's commitment to the global war on terrorism following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Washington, DC, CFS Alert has received renewed and increased funding to expand its SIGINT
SIGINT
Signals intelligence is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether between people , whether involving electronic signals not directly used in communication , or combinations of the two...

 capabilities. However, as of April 13, 2006 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

 was reporting that the heating costs for the station had risen, in consequence of which the military were proposing to cut back on support trade positions by using private contractors http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/04/13/north-alert-military060413.html.

Air Command
Canadian Forces Air Command
The Royal Canadian Air Force , formerly Canadian Forces Air Command, is one of three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

 officially took responsibility for CFS Alert from Canadian Forces Information Operations Group (CFIOG) 1 April 2009. "The numbers of personnel in Alert continues to dwindle and most of the support staff will eventually be contracted. In order to ensure that the artifacts in Alert that are deemed "museum pieces" are handled appropriately, a team of two will be flown to Alert to accession the surviving artifacts."http://jproc.ca/rrp/alert.html

Aircraft crashes

The military has constructed several roads in the area to permit patrolling, as well as for logistics purposes from shore locations near anchorages east of the station, as well as to the airfield. Since Alert has not been accessible by icebreakers due to the very heavy ice conditions in the Lincoln Sea, resupply is provided by the Royal Canadian Air Force
Canadian Forces Air Command
The Royal Canadian Air Force , formerly Canadian Forces Air Command, is one of three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

 transport aircraft which land at the adjacent airfield
Alert Airport
Alert Airport is the world's northernmost permanent airport, located at Alert, Nunavut, Canada, approximately south of the true North Pole. It is operated by the Canadian Department of National Defence and is part of Canadian Forces Station Alert....

.

Alert is in total darkness from October 14 to March 1 every year and its weather conditions and isolation provides a significant challenge to pilots. This has led to some well-known crashes:
  • In summer of 1950 an RCAF Lancaster
    Avro Lancaster
    The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...

     crashed during the establishment of the JAWS weather station when the parachute
    Parachute
    A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...

     for resupplies being airdrop
    Airdrop
    An airdrop is a type of airlift, developed during World War II to resupply otherwise inaccessible troops, who themselves may have been airborne forces. In some cases, it is used to refer to the airborne assault itself. Early airdrops were conducted by dropping or pushing padded bundles from...

    ped became entangled on the tail of the aircraft. All 9 crewmembers were killed and are buried west of the airstrip.
  • A C-130 Hercules
    C-130 Hercules
    The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation, and cargo transport...

    , part of Operation Boxtop 22, crashed about 30 km (18.6 mi) short of the runway
    Runway
    According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

     on October 30, 1991, killing 5 of the 18 passengers and crew. The pilot apparently was flying by sight rather than relying on instruments. Subsequent rescue efforts by personnel from CFS Alert, USAF
    United States Air Force
    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

     personnel from Thule Air Base
    Thule Air Base
    Thule Air Base or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Air Force's northernmost base, located north of the Arctic Circle and from the North Pole on the northwest side of the island of Greenland. It is approximately east of the North Magnetic Pole.-Overview:Thule Air Base is the...

     700 km south, and CF personnel from bases in southern Canada, were hampered by a blizzard and local terrain. The crash investigation recommended all C-130s be retrofitted with ground proximity detectors. The crash and rescue efforts were the basis of a film called Ordeal In The Arctic
    Ordeal In The Arctic
    Ordeal in the Arctic is a made-for-television movie, written by Paul F. Edwards and directed by Mark Sobel.The film is an adaptation of Robert Mason Lee's non-fiction book Death and Deliverance which is based on the 1991 plane crash of a Canadian Forces CC-130 Hercules en route to CFS Alert on...

    (1993).

Climate

Alert has a polar climate
Polar climate
Regions with a polar climate are characterized by a lack of warm summers . Regions with polar climate cover over 20% of the Earth. The sun shines 24 hours in the summer, and barely ever shines at all in the winter...

. This means it is very cold and, on average, has snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...

 cover for 10 months of the year. The warmest month, July, has an average temperature of just 3.3 °C (37.9 °F). The climate type also means that Alert is very dry, averaging only 153.8 mm (6.1 in) of precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...

 per year. Most of the precipitation is snow and occurs during the months of July, August and September. On average there is 16.1 mm (0.633858267716536 in) of rain which occurs between June and September. Alert sees very little snowfall during the rest of the year. September is usually the month with the heaviest snowfall. February is the coldest month of the year. Snowfall can occur during any month of the year. Alert experiences polar night
Polar night
The polar night occurs when the night lasts for more than 24 hours. This occurs only inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midnight sun, occurs when the sun stays above the horizon for more than 24 hours.-Description:...

 from the middle of October, with twilight
Twilight
Twilight is the time between dawn and sunrise or between sunset and dusk, during which sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere illuminates the lower atmosphere, and the surface of the earth is neither completely lit nor completely dark. The sun itself is not directly visible because it is below...

 lasting until the end of the month, until the end of February, with twilight starting about the middle of the month. From the first week of April until the first week of September Alert sees the midnight sun
Midnight sun
The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon occurring in summer months at latitudes north and nearby to the south of the Arctic Circle, and south and nearby to the north of the Antarctic Circle where the sun remains visible at the local midnight. Given fair weather, the sun is visible for a continuous...

.

Sports

In early April 2006 the Roly McLenahan Torch that was used to light the flame at Whitehorse
Whitehorse, Yukon
Whitehorse is Yukon's capital and largest city . It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1476 on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas occupy both shores of the Yukon River, which originates in British Columbia and meets the Bering Sea in...

, Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....

 for the Canada Winter Games
Canada Games
The Canada Games is a high-level multi-sport event with a National Artists Program held every two years in Canada, alternating between the Canada Winter Games and the Canada Summer Games. Athletes are strictly amateur only, and represent their province or territory.The Games were first held in 1967...

 passed through Alert. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2006/06/c2837.html. While the Canada Games torch was supposed to pass over the North Pole, bad weather prevented a Canadian military Twin Otter from making the trip. The torch did not travel outside of Alert that weekend (April 9–12).

On November 8, 2009, the 2010 Winter Olympics Torch Relay arrived at Alert via airplane from Thompson, Manitoba
Thompson, Manitoba
Thompson is a city in northern Manitoba. As the "Hub of the North" it serves as the regional trade and service centre of northern Manitoba. Thompson is located north of the Canada – United States border, north of the provincial capital of Winnipeg, and is northeast of Flin Flon...

, reaching its most northerly point on land. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/olympic_torch_relay_heads_to_v.html#photo32 The next day it travelled to Iqaluit.

See also

  • Alert Airport
    Alert Airport
    Alert Airport is the world's northernmost permanent airport, located at Alert, Nunavut, Canada, approximately south of the true North Pole. It is operated by the Canadian Department of National Defence and is part of Canadian Forces Station Alert....

  • Nanisivik Naval Facility
    Nanisivik Naval Facility
    The Nanisivik Naval Facility is a Canadian Forces naval facility which is to be constructed on Baffin Island, Nunavut. The station will be built at the former lead-zinc mine site near the former company town of Nanisivik.-History:...

    1100 km south

External links

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