SARSAT Rescuee Visits NOAA

(from left to right) -- Christopher O'Connors (SARSAT Program Manager), Eric Hopkins, Kathy Kelly (OSPO director) and CAPT Mark Moran (OSPO Deputy Director).[click to enlarge]

Eric Hopkins, who was rescued from a sinking boat on December 23, 2010, credits NOAA satellites for saving his life from the frigid waters off the Delaware Bay. Last week, he visited NOAA's Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) in Suitland, Md., to thank the staff behind network that initiated the search. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued Hopkins after the boat he was a passenger on began taking on water and eventually sank. He activated the boat's emergency beacon before departing the sinking vessel. Hopkins was also able to place two 911 calls, which assisted in the save. Unfortunately, his friend (the owner of the boat) did not survive the incident. NOAA's polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites, along with Russia's COSPAS spacecraft, are part of the international Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking system, called COSPAS-SARSAT. This system uses a network of satellites to quickly detect and locate distress signals from emergency beacons onboard aircraft and boats, and from smaller, handheld personal locator beacons called PLBs. When a NOAA satellite finds the location of a distress signal within the United States or its surrounding waters, the information is relayed to the SARSAT Mission Control Center at NSOF. From there, the information is quickly sent to a Rescue Coordination Center, operated by either the U.S. Air Force, for land rescues, or the U.S. Coast Guard, for water rescues. Since it began in 1982, COSPAS-SARSAT has been credited with supporting more than 30,000 rescues worldwide, including more than 6,700 in the United States and its surrounding waters.

Visit the NOAA SARSTA Website at http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/

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