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NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Engineering Development Division

Iridium Positioning System (IPS)

The IPS (Iridium Positioning System) was designed and built by NOAA/PMEL. The system is an easy way to track the position of buoys and assets via GPS fixes and realtime communication via Iridium short burst data modem. The IPS is comprised of a CPU, GPS module, Iridium modem and batteries all housed in a water proof enclosure. The IPS is completely isolated from the buoy system and has an endurance of ~4 years using 4ea 9v batteries. Should the buoy package fail or come loose from the mooring line, the user is able to track and retrieve the buoy or asset with hourly updates from GPS.


IPS IPS