How Does the Cospas-Sarsat System Work?
How Does the Cospas-Sarsat System Work?
August 12, 2011
The Cospas-Sarsat System provides distress alert and location information to search and rescue (SAR) services throughout the world for maritime, aviation and land users in distress.
The System is comprised of:
Satellites in low-altitude Earth orbit (LEOSAR) and geostationary orbit (GEOSAR) that process and / or relay signals transmitted by distress beacons;
Ground receiving stations called local user terminals (LUTs) which process the satellite signals to locate the beacon;
Mission control centers (MCCs) that provide the distress alert information to SAR authorities.
The Cospas-Sarsat System detects distress beacons that operate at 406 MHz Satellite processing of old analogue technology beacons that transmit at 121.5 MHz ended on 1 February 2009. Full Article Here