Department of Aeronautical and Atmospheric Science

The Department of Aeronautical and Atmospheric Science (DAAS; French: Département des sciences aéronautes et atmosphériques, DSAA) is an executive department answerable to the Cabinet of Canada via the Prime Minister, chaired by the Minister of Aeronautical and Atmospheric Science, who is appointed by the President of Canada on advice of the Prime Minister.

The DAAS is responsible for monitoring the atmospheric conditions of the country, including but not limited to weather patterns, pollution and air quality, and climate change-associated changes and anomalies, and acts as the main federal weather authority and scientific advisory to the Cabinet of Canada and the Canadian Presidium. The DAAS senior leadership and much of its program heads are tenured professors in their area of expertise at one or more universities, for the most part Canadian universities.

The DAAS is also the parent agency of CANCOSMOS, the Canadian state-owned space agency, the second-largest in the world by number of employees, number of operational spacecraft, and frequency of missions. In addition to regular or semi-regular manned missions to the ISS, the Moon and Mars (first time in 1988, 1990 and 2020, respectively), CANCOSMOS operates a sophisticated network of communications and geological survey satellites, "Vogayer"-type unmanned probe spacecraft exploring the outer solar system and beyond, as well as a pioneer space colony program currently hosting 77,630 colonists.

The DAAS has its main offices and some of its major terrestrial research laboratories at its headquarters in Alta Vista, Ottawa, and operates several civilian scientific sites and research institutions across Canada, as well as three cosmodromes/spaceports, the largest of which is the Garneau Cosmodrome in Magdalen County, Quebec. The department currently employs 22,359 people, approximately a quarter of whom handle administrative affairs and the remaining three quarters of whom are highly educated civil servants whose knowledge and expertise is the backbone of the DAAS.

The incumbent Minister of Aeronautical and Atmospheric Science is Dr. Manuel Arteaga, in office since September 2017.