OTTAWA — One the biggest and heaviest commercial satellites put into orbit by Ottawa-based satellite operator Telesat has turned its back on the Earth, leaving Canada's air traffic controllers without Arctic radar and communication.

According to Nav Canada spokesman Ron Singer, several important systems in the North were lost after Telesat lost contact with the communications satellite Anik F2 at 6:30 a.m. Thursday.

Radar above the 54th parallel was put off-line and the normal communications systems between aircraft and the ground stopped working.

"We were able to use backup systems, which include satellite phones — obviously not on the same satellite — or high frequency radio, where available," Singer said.

Because of the loss of radar, air traffic controllers had a lower level of control over aircraft and were forced to space them 10 minutes apart, instead of the normal much tighter variable vertical and horizontal separation. The change in aircraft spacing is standard whenever radar coverage is lost. According to Nav Canada, several flights were also diverted south of the 54th parallel.

"From time to time we could lose radar in a given area, but not usually this big. But we have procedures and systems in place for such an occurrence," Singer said.

According to a spokesman for Telesat, the satellite ran into as yet unknown difficulties and shut itself down.

"Essentially what happened is the satellite had an issue and it put it self into safe mode," spokesman John Flaherty said. "When it has a technical issue like that it shuts itself down and points itself toward the sun, to make sure it's powered. As soon as it points away from the Earth the services are lost."

Flaherty said Telesat regained contact with the powered-down spacecraft soon after it shut down and the company was soon able to begin the restart process.

The cause of the disruption was yet to be known as of Thursday evening. Flaherty said Telesat was working to get Anik F2 back online before the work of figuring out what went wrong takes place.

"Right now we're focusing on restoring the spacecraft to normal operations, once that's done we'll then work with the spacecraft's manufacturer to determine the root cause," he said.

Of note in the RAC Bulletin and the media story is the use of Satellite phones on a different satellite and HF RADIO to supplement the lost communications.  This is a story that needs to be referred to whenever there is a threat to Amateur Radio spectrum or radio usage.

It is a reminder that our hobby exists for the purpose of backing up normal communications.  It is also a reminder that we, as amateurs, need to either join in on the effort to assist, or at the very least, respect the emergency frequencies established for the extent of the emergency.

UPDATE: cause of the issue has been found, as reported on the Net News Ledger:

THUNDER BAY – The problems that his the Telesat Anik F2 satellite on Thursday have been corrected. Telesat states that the anomaly that caused the Anik F2 to stop working was caused by a software error.

Services for customers were restored late last evening and over night. Satellite anomalies like the one that affected Telesat’s Anik F2 yesterday are highly unusual. This anomaly happened during a routine maneuver which triggered the satellite to place itself into a safe mode, shutting itself down and pointing itself at the sun to ensure it remained powered.

The software error that led to the anomaly appears to have been caused by a software update that was recently provided by the satellite manufacturer. That particular software update was not re-loaded onto the satellite.

 The fallout of this event is the RCMP and communities north of the 54th parallel are looking for backups to be put in place for the next time this happens.

“Communications, in this day and age, is an essential service,” she said. “It's not just a question of being able to check in with family and friends. It’s part of business. It's also part of emergency response systems.”

The RCMP lost contact with its Nunavut detachments, but used CBC radio to ask them to call headquarters with satellite phones.

“We are not looking at changing anything in particular right now, other than we are trying to beef up our sat phones, [and] get more, better technology out to the guys in the communities so they can make contact with us in the event that this happens again,” said Sgt. Kevin Lewis of Nunavut RCMP.