H R SMITH GROUP
SATELLITE AIDED SEARCH & RESCUE
Barry Thrower
Over the past two decades, there has been a substantial increase in the use of satellite technology and services to enhance the world-wide flow of information and electronic data. Today, a wide range of different satellite constellations offer global communications capable of supporting military, commercial and private needs, including voice and data; navigation; weather forecasting; and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) applications. These capabilities are provided either by constellations of multiple low earth orbiting satellites or by more distant configurations capable of providing continuous whole earth cover with as few as three operational satellites.
The use of satellites to enhance the effectiveness of Search and Rescue (SAR) operations has perhaps had the most significant impact in the field of personal safety and survival. Traditionally, SAR operations were mostly conducted using line-of-sight communications and homing systems which imposed significant operational constraints, particularly when faced with locating individuals in remote areas of the globe. The use of satellites to provide rapid global alerting and locating led to a transformation in search and rescue capability. Moreover, the proliferation of other satellite services, including GPS (Global Positioning System) and SATCOM (Satellite Communications), has provided further improvements in the effectiveness of SAR operations, and in the general safety of individuals in hazardous environments.
To download the full paper CLICK HERE (.PDF)
