The Argos DCS is another data collection
relay system that adds the benefits of providing global coverage and
platform location. The Argos program is administered under a joint agreement
between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the French space
agency, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). The
system
consists of in-situ data collection platforms equipped with sensors
and transmitters and the Argos instrument aboard the NOAA Polar-orbiting
Operational Environmental Satellites (POES). The global environmental
data sets are collected at telemetry ground stations in Fairbanks, Alaska;
Wallops Island, Virginia; and Lannion, France; and pre-processed by the National
Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) in Suitland Maryland.
Two CNES subsidiary companies, Collecte Localisation
Satellites in Toulouse, France and Service Argos in Largo, Maryland
process the data and deliver it to the end user.
Flying the Argos system aboard polar-orbiting
satellites provides worldwide coverage.
Additionally, incorporating the Argos instrument on a moving satellite
allows for locating an in-situ platform using Doppler shift calculations.
This positioning capability permits applications
such as monitoring drifting ocean buoys and studying wildlife migration
paths.
