| NOAA SARSAT | Cospas-Sarsat |
Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking: SARSAT
SARSAT
overview graphic
SARSAT Information:
RCC Handbook: Handbook on Distress
Alert
Messages for Rescue Coordination Centres (RCCs), Search and Rescue
Points of Contact (SPOCs) and IMO Ship Security Competent Authorities,
Cospas-Sarsat document
G.007, Oct 2008.
Is
your emergency beacon registered?
To enhance protection of life and property, it is mandatory that
emergency beacons be registered with NOAA before installation and that information be kept up to date.
Click here for easy online beacon
registration.
U.S. Beacon Registration Database System
25 Years of Cospas-Sarsat article from On Scene Magazine, Summer 2008
SAR Satellites Help Save Lives article from CG Magazine, Dec 2007
SARSAT Beacon (Sep 2012)
SARSAT Beacon (Sep 2011)
Training Presentations:
Time to get a 406 MHz ELT for your aircraft [view presentation]
Testing magnets installed on EPIRB brackets [view presentation]
Properly Dispose of Old Beacons To Prevent False
Alerts
Discarded radio beacon triggers false alarm... [read
more]
A Survivor's
Story
A testimonial from Rudy Snel on surviving the sinking of Sean Seamour II, thanks
to an EPIRB [play
audio]
Beacon Types
There
are three types of beacons used to transmit distress signals:
ELT: Emergency Locator Transmitter for aviation use
121.5
MHz Phase Out: Satellites
stopped processing signals from 121.5 MHz
emergency beacons (EPIRBs and
ELTs) on 01 Feb 2009. The
International Cospas-Sarsat Program terminated satellite processing of
distress signals from 121.5 and 243 MHz emergency beacons on February 1,
2009. Mariners, aviators and other persons will have to
switch to emergency beacons operating at 406 MHz in order to be detected by
satellites.
Termination
of 121.5 MHz Fact Sheet
FAA
Safety Notice on 121.5 MHz Phase Out
FCC
Pulbic Notice on 121.5 MHz Phase Out
Code of Federal Regulations
121.5 MHz EPIRBs still allowed with FCC waiver
Distress Alerting Satellite System (DASS)
NASA
info on DASS
International Cospas-Sarsat Program Website
SARSAT Agreements
International
Cospas-Sarsat Program Agreement
In fostering international cooperation for search and rescue, the purpose of
this Agreement is to: (a) assure the long
term operation of the System; (b) provide distress alert and location data from
the System to the international community in support of SAR operations; (c)
support, by providing these distress alert and location data, the objectives of
the IMO and the ICAO,
concerning search and rescue; and (d)
define the means by which the Parties shall coordinate the management of the System and cooperate with other national
authorities and relevant international organizations
in the operation and coordination of the System. Signed July 1, 1988
Interagency Memorandum of Agreement for the U.S. Satellite-Aided Search
and Rescue System
This memorandum of agreement (sometimes referred to as the 'SARSAT MOA')
went into effect on 25Feb2010, after being signed by the U.S.
interagency SARSAT partners--NOAA, USAF, NASA, and USCG. This MOA
provides a legal and policy framework and Party commitments to continue
supporting the existing operational SARSAT and international Cospas-Sarsat
programs, and to develop a Medium-altitude Earth Orbiting SAR (MEOSAR)
system called the Distress Alerting Satellite System (DASS).
This MOA supersedes the following two agreements:
MOU among the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, U.S Coast Guard, U.S. Air Force, and the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration regarding U.S. Responsibilities for
the Cospas-Sarsat System, 1998 as revised and amended; and the
MOA Regarding the Development and Demonstration of the Global
Positioning System-Based Distress Alerting Satellite System, 2003.