Antarctic Connection by Optus
The U.S. Antarctic Program, administered by the National Science Foundation, will be using Australia’s Optus D1 satellite to keep their facilities around McMurdo Sound connected, using the earth station on Black Island, by becoming part of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) network
NPOESS will use polar-orbiting satellites to observe Earth from space. The satellites will collect and disseminate data on Earth’s weather, atmosphere, oceans, land, and near-space environment. The polar orbiting satellites are able to monitor the entire planet and will bring improved data and imagery that will allow better weather forecasts, severe-weather monitoring and detection of climate change.
The raw data collected by the NPOESS satellites is then modelled at the U.S. based weather data centres and distributed to a global user population which includes bodies such as bureaus of meteorology.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) manages and funds the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP), which coordinates all U.S. research on the southernmost continent. McMurdo is one of three year-round stations NSF maintains in Antarctica, the others being Amundsen-Scott, at the geographic South Pole, and Palmer, on the Antarctic Peninsula. The National Science Foundation and NPOESS are jointly collaborating on the development of McMurdo as one of the NPOESS weather downlink stations and intend to share the satellite service provided by Optus.
Optus has been working closely with Raytheon Company in the provision of the SafetyNet™ system which is a network linking 15 satellite antennas to the weather data centres. Data collected by the NPOESS satellites is capable of being downloaded to any of the receptor sites installed at key locations around the globe. Each of the sites, with the exception of McMurdo Station, is connected via a fibre cable network to the system data centres. The data collected in McMurdo will be transferred via the Optus D1 satellite to the fibre network in Sydney, Australia.
"We believe the D1 satellite coverage will make a real difference to the McMurdo Sound facility. Optus Satellite will be delivering a unique communications solution to meet our customers’ specific requirements. It also further cements our position as the premium supplier of satellite services in our chosen markets," said Mr. Sheridan.
The NSF Black Island satellite earth station facility, located 20 km distant from McMurdo on a desolate, wind-swept island, will establish the link with Optus D1. In addition to supporting NPOESS data transmissions, NSF will more than triple its current data communications capability for the USAP, a significant benefit to the science research program, as well as to the health and safety of more than a thousand people.
Optus D1 was the satellite launched last year that developed problems during in-orbit testing and it’s home to lots of interesting programming, such as Maori TV. Optus D2, incidently, is set to launch on Friday (5 October 2007) via Arianespace. More on that tomorrow.
Got to admire the people who spend up to six months at McMurdo — it’s like another planet.
Very cool film by Antzartica on YouTube:
Time-lapse video filmed in Antarctica, in and around McMurdo Station and Scott Base.
Each year the sun is below the horizon for 4 months in the middle of winter, and above the horizon for 4 months in summer. During the couple of months in between we have more-or-less normal days.
Includes shots of auroras and the very rare polar stratospheric nacreous clouds, which form when ozone depleting gases crystallize in the upper atmosphere in the intense cold.
Summer population is about 1200 people, winter about 200.
This is just a small sample of an ongoing project to collect time-lapse imagery of Antarctica. I have taken over 1,000,000 individual photos and worn out a number of cameras that make up the collection of footage I have gathered so far over the last 5 years.
