406 MHz COSPAS/SARSAT distress beacon signals relayed by geosynchronous satellites - Present status and future developments
- Paper ID
IAF-88-459
- author
- company
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales
- country
France
- year
1988
- abstract
To introduce a major new feature-near instant alerting-in the the COSPAS/SARSAT system, a NASA initiated experiment consists in relaying the distress signals via geosynchronous spacecraft. Under CNES contract, ATES, a french company, developped a highly sophisticated digital signal processor. This station installed at Lannion (Brittany) processes the COSPAS/SARSAT 406 MHz beacon signals relayed by the NOAA GOES-7 geostationary satellite. Various tests have been made with beacon simulators and standard COSPAS/SARSAT 406 MHz beacons. The obtained results show that comfortable margins are reached in the main part of the satellite field coverage. The post GOES-7 period is already fixed up and 6 new geosynchronous satellites will provide an extended and more efficient world coverage