CGSM is a coordinated observation, data assimilation, and modeling program. Our observational program employs an integrated continent-scale array of radio, magnetic, and optical instruments. Following a significant expansion utilizing state-of-the-art technology, CGSM instrumentation will represent an internationally unique facility with which to pursue fundamentally new solar-terrestrial science. Owing to Canada's geographic position of having the largest readily accessible landmass under the auroral and polar regions, and its history as a leader in solar-terrestrial science, CGSM will enable Canadian scientists to lead international efforts to answer fundamental questions in solar-terrestrial physics. In return, we will be afforded a leadership role in International Living With a Star (ILWS), a major multi-agency, multi-spacecraft, solar-terrestrial applied and fundamental science program. The CGSM program will also train highly qualified scientists, engineers, and information technologists, and will include an extensive outreach program promoting the public understanding of science and attracting the next generation of young Canadians to a career in science and technology.

The overarching scientific goal of CGSM is to understand the transport of mass and energy across multiple scales throughout the entire solar-terrestrial system. CGSM will enable Canadian scientists to address grand challenge questions at the forefront of space physics research. The primary CGSM scientific objective is to elucidate the fundamental processes that cause and control convection, magnetotail instabilities, auroral particle acceleration, and the energization, transport, and loss of magnetospheric particles. CGSM results will enable significant advances to be made in developing and improving space weather prediction and empirical space environment models, and will provide valuable deliverables for the Canadian space industry. CGSM science will be central to understanding the exogenic contribution to terrestrial climate change, particularly during the current period of rapid changes to the magnetic environments of both the Sun and the Earth.