- Email: [email protected]
Eumetsat takes over responsibility from ESA for meteorological satellites
2.17. NW
COAST EARTH STATION FOR SAUDI ARABIA”O’
A new Coast Earth Station -at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia -began operations with the Inmarsat satellite network on 23 December 1986. It provides telecommunications links between ships and rigs equipped with Inmarsat satellite terminals and the national and international telephone, telex and data networks. The station is owned and operated by the Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones, the organization nominated by Saudi Arabia to represent its investment in Inmarsat as the country’s signatory. The introduction of the Jeddah station and an arrangement with Kuwait, will enable Gulf Co-operative Council countries and other users to obtain access to Inmarsat services in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions. The Jeddah coast earth station will provide telephone, telex, facsimile and data communications services to the maritime community through Inmarsat’s satellite capacity positioned over the Indian Ocean Region. The Kuwaiti coast earth station, at Urn-Al-Aish, operates to Inmarsat’s Atlantic Ocean Region satellite. “We see the need to provide increasingly competitive services to the expanding user market in the Middle East”, Mr. Zohair Moussalem, Director General of Long-Distance ~ommu~cations at the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones, said today. “Looking to the future, we shall also make the necessary modifications to our coast earth station to enable us to provide a full range of aeronautical satellite communications services to assist in air traffic control, airline operations control and for passenger use: So far, 51 Inmarsat terminals have been commissioned under Saudi Arabian Registration. These include ships as well as land-based units and an aeronautical Standard-A. There are now 17 coast earth stations providing the vital link between users of Inmarsat mobile co~unications services and the global telecommunications networks. A further 18 stations are planned.
2.18. EUMETSAT TAKES OVER RESPONSIBILITY FROM ESA FOR METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITES’=”
A co-operative agreement between ESA and Eumetsat was signed by Prof. R. Lust, Director General of ESA and Mr. J. Morgan, Director of Eumetsat on 12 January 1987 in Paris. Under this agreement the European Intergovernmental Organization, Eumetsat, which represents the national meteorolo~c~ services of the 16 European states@‘) and which has agreed to (lY)Extract from Inmarsat News Release NR87/1/2946B of 5 January 1987. (*‘QJointESA/Eumetsat Press Release No. 2 of 12 January 1987. (*QBelgium, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, ItaIy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
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continue operating European meteorological satellites, will assume responsibility of the Meteosat Operational Satellites programme. This programme had been developed by ESA and is due to operate until the end of 1995 with the launching of three new satellites over the next four years. These satellites will relay the two pre-operational Meteosat satellites which were launched in 1977 and 1981 respectively. The second one, with an expected lifetime of three years is still functioning with exceptional reliability five and a half years after its launch. Whilst the construction, launch, control in orbit and data processing of the satellites will continue to be carried out by the European Space Agency, Eumetsat will look after the funding of the programme and all external relations. The Eumetsat Convention entered into force on 19 June 1986 and its Headquarters are situated in Darmstadt, FRG, where is also the European Space Agency’s Operations Centre (ESOC). ESOC’s main activities consist of monitoring and controlling European satellites in orbit. Furthermore, extensive ground-based activities are performed mainly related to image preprocessing and extraction of meteorological data. These are disseminated to the users together with the images via the Meteosat satellite. The Meteosat operational programme represents a financial envelope of about 444 Million of Accounting Units (MAU)(22) at 1986 price level. Meteosat: Operational Programme
Meteosat is in orbit at an altitude of 35 800 km with an orbital period of 24 hours. Its primary position is above the equator on the Greenwich meridian. Details of the operational Meteosat satellite are: Rotation stabilized satellite: 100 t-pm Weight: 320 kg at the beginning of life in orbit (including 39 kg of hydrazine) Diameter: 2.10 m Height: 3.20 m Power: 200 W after 5 years Housekeeping telemetry: S-band, 325.5 bit/set Telecommand: S-band Reliability: 0.67 over 5 years Lifetime: 5 years for non-renewable resources (power and propellant) The main payload on board the satellite is a three-channel high resolution radiometer. This instrument allows imaging of the Earth with a resolution at the sub-satellite point of 5 km in the infrared and water vapour bands and 2.5 km in the visible band. Earth images are generated every half hour. (=)l AU-O.96161
68
US $.
The spacecraft has two dedicated dissemination channels operating at 1691 MHz and 1694.5 MHz. The main use of these channels is to relay processed image data via the satellite to the user community. A data collection facility on board the satellite allows the collection of environmental data from the data collecting platforms. In all 66 reporting channels are available on the satellite, operating in the frequency band near 402 MHz. A new mission which will be available on the operational satellite is the Meteorological Data Distribution (MDD) mission. This can support the transmission via the satellite of both coded digital facsimile data (e.g. weather charts) and meteorological observation data in alphanumeric form, including data from data collection platforms.
69
COAST EARTH STATION FOR SAUDI ARABIA”O’
A new Coast Earth Station -at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia -began operations with the Inmarsat satellite network on 23 December 1986. It provides telecommunications links between ships and rigs equipped with Inmarsat satellite terminals and the national and international telephone, telex and data networks. The station is owned and operated by the Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones, the organization nominated by Saudi Arabia to represent its investment in Inmarsat as the country’s signatory. The introduction of the Jeddah station and an arrangement with Kuwait, will enable Gulf Co-operative Council countries and other users to obtain access to Inmarsat services in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions. The Jeddah coast earth station will provide telephone, telex, facsimile and data communications services to the maritime community through Inmarsat’s satellite capacity positioned over the Indian Ocean Region. The Kuwaiti coast earth station, at Urn-Al-Aish, operates to Inmarsat’s Atlantic Ocean Region satellite. “We see the need to provide increasingly competitive services to the expanding user market in the Middle East”, Mr. Zohair Moussalem, Director General of Long-Distance ~ommu~cations at the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones, said today. “Looking to the future, we shall also make the necessary modifications to our coast earth station to enable us to provide a full range of aeronautical satellite communications services to assist in air traffic control, airline operations control and for passenger use: So far, 51 Inmarsat terminals have been commissioned under Saudi Arabian Registration. These include ships as well as land-based units and an aeronautical Standard-A. There are now 17 coast earth stations providing the vital link between users of Inmarsat mobile co~unications services and the global telecommunications networks. A further 18 stations are planned.
2.18. EUMETSAT TAKES OVER RESPONSIBILITY FROM ESA FOR METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITES’=”
A co-operative agreement between ESA and Eumetsat was signed by Prof. R. Lust, Director General of ESA and Mr. J. Morgan, Director of Eumetsat on 12 January 1987 in Paris. Under this agreement the European Intergovernmental Organization, Eumetsat, which represents the national meteorolo~c~ services of the 16 European states@‘) and which has agreed to (lY)Extract from Inmarsat News Release NR87/1/2946B of 5 January 1987. (*‘QJointESA/Eumetsat Press Release No. 2 of 12 January 1987. (*QBelgium, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, ItaIy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
67
continue operating European meteorological satellites, will assume responsibility of the Meteosat Operational Satellites programme. This programme had been developed by ESA and is due to operate until the end of 1995 with the launching of three new satellites over the next four years. These satellites will relay the two pre-operational Meteosat satellites which were launched in 1977 and 1981 respectively. The second one, with an expected lifetime of three years is still functioning with exceptional reliability five and a half years after its launch. Whilst the construction, launch, control in orbit and data processing of the satellites will continue to be carried out by the European Space Agency, Eumetsat will look after the funding of the programme and all external relations. The Eumetsat Convention entered into force on 19 June 1986 and its Headquarters are situated in Darmstadt, FRG, where is also the European Space Agency’s Operations Centre (ESOC). ESOC’s main activities consist of monitoring and controlling European satellites in orbit. Furthermore, extensive ground-based activities are performed mainly related to image preprocessing and extraction of meteorological data. These are disseminated to the users together with the images via the Meteosat satellite. The Meteosat operational programme represents a financial envelope of about 444 Million of Accounting Units (MAU)(22) at 1986 price level. Meteosat: Operational Programme
Meteosat is in orbit at an altitude of 35 800 km with an orbital period of 24 hours. Its primary position is above the equator on the Greenwich meridian. Details of the operational Meteosat satellite are: Rotation stabilized satellite: 100 t-pm Weight: 320 kg at the beginning of life in orbit (including 39 kg of hydrazine) Diameter: 2.10 m Height: 3.20 m Power: 200 W after 5 years Housekeeping telemetry: S-band, 325.5 bit/set Telecommand: S-band Reliability: 0.67 over 5 years Lifetime: 5 years for non-renewable resources (power and propellant) The main payload on board the satellite is a three-channel high resolution radiometer. This instrument allows imaging of the Earth with a resolution at the sub-satellite point of 5 km in the infrared and water vapour bands and 2.5 km in the visible band. Earth images are generated every half hour. (=)l AU-O.96161
68
US $.
The spacecraft has two dedicated dissemination channels operating at 1691 MHz and 1694.5 MHz. The main use of these channels is to relay processed image data via the satellite to the user community. A data collection facility on board the satellite allows the collection of environmental data from the data collecting platforms. In all 66 reporting channels are available on the satellite, operating in the frequency band near 402 MHz. A new mission which will be available on the operational satellite is the Meteorological Data Distribution (MDD) mission. This can support the transmission via the satellite of both coded digital facsimile data (e.g. weather charts) and meteorological observation data in alphanumeric form, including data from data collection platforms.
69