CONTACT: Patricia Viets FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3/19/96
Polar-orbiting satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently helped rescue an entire community in Alaska.
On March 9 the isolated village of Point Hope, 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle, lost all power and communications capabilities. Without power, the town of about 600 people had no heat to fight off the -30 degrees cold. Without telephone or radio contact to the outside world, the town had no way to call for help. The town, however, did have several Personal Locator Beacons, which they activated. Signals from the beacons were picked up by the satellites and relayed to the U.S. Mission Control Center in Suitland, Md.
The center notified the Alaska State Troopers, who dispatched a North Slope Borough helicopter to investigate. The helicopter later flew in power company engineers who were able to repair the power generators and restore heat to the town.
NOAA and the Alaska State Troopers are participating in an experimental program to provide emergency beacons to people travelling or working in the harsh remote regions of Alaska. This Alaskan program has resulted in more than 50 saves since its inception in March 1995.
COSPAS-SARSAT is an international, cooperative, humanitarian program for detecting and locating persons in distress worldwide. NOAA, a Commerce Department agency, is the lead agency for the United States' participation in the system. Since the inception of the program 13 years ago, 5440 lives have been saved. These include mariners stranded at sea, downed aviators and lost hikers.
###Notes to Editors:
NOAA also operates the Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Station in Fairbanks, Alaska. The station tracks, commands and receives data from NOAA's polar-orbiting satellites. It transmits the data to a data processing center in Suitland, Md.
The U.S. Mission Control Center is located in Suitland, Md., in Federal Building #4. Reporters who wish to visit the facility and/or interview the chief of SARSAT operations should contact Patricia Viets.
Acronyms:
COSPAS -- Cosmicheskaya Systyema Poiska Avarynich Sudov (translated from the Russian language means "Space System for the Search and Rescue of Vessels in Distress")
SARSAT -- Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking