Program: Sarsat

Search And Rescue Satellite Aided Tracked

International cooperation program with the United States, Canada, France and since 1979 the CIS which made its Cospas system compatible. It derives from the Argos environnement monitoring system.

Mission: search and rescue of persons and boats in distress. The service started on 1 Sep 1982. In 1995 28 earth stations and 15 control centers in 16 countries were operational.

The system uses reception beacons operating at 121.5 MHz, 243 MHz and at 406 MHz. When a distress signal is received 1544.5 MHz can be heard (mostly RHCP). Polar orbiting satellites can detect and localize beacons whereas geostationary satellites can't localize them. Thus beacons to work with geostationary birds have to include a GPS receptor.

In 2009, the 121.5 and 243 MHz signals were depreciated and replaced by the 406 MHz signal, detected by satellite.

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Satellites carrying a Sarsat-Cospas payload

83082 NOAA 08 (EOL)
84123 NOAA 09
87022 Goes 07
88089 NOAA 11
89050 Nadezhda 1
90017 Nadezhda 2
91019 Nadezhda 3
92041 Insat 2A
93048 Insat 2B
94022 Goes 08
94041 Nadezhda 4
94082 Luch 0
94089 NOAA 14
95025 Goes 09
97019 Goes 10
98030 NOAA 15
98072 Nadezhda 5
00022 Goes 11
00033 Nadezhda 6
00055 NOAA 16
01031 Goes 12
02032 NOAA 17
02040 Meteosat 8
02046 Nadezhda 7
03013 Insat 3A
05018 NOAA 18 (second generation)
06018 Goes 13
06044 Metop A
09039 Sterkh 1
09049 Sterkh 2
11001 Electro L1
11009 Cosmos 2471
11074 Luch 5A
12055 Galileo IOV FM4
12055 Galileo IOV FM3
23016 Electro L4

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External resources

http://www.cospas-sarsat.org/overview/

http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/SARSAT/homepage.html
http://www.cls.fr/html/argos/welcome_en.html

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