GEOLUTs

(Last updated : October 2008)

A GEOLUT is a ground receiving station in the Cospas-Sarsat System that receives and processes 406 MHz distress beacon signals which have been relayed by a Cospas-Sarsat geostationary satellite. Due to the extremely large continuous coverage footprint provided by each geostationary satellite, GEOLUTs are able to produce near instantaneous alerting over extremely large areas. However, due to the fact that the satellite remains stationary with respect to distress beacons, GEOLUTs are not able to determine beacon locations using Doppler processing techniques. In view of this, 406 MHz beacons with location protocols allow for the encoding of position data in the transmitted 406 MHz message, thus providing for quasi-real time alerting with position information via the GEOSAR system.

The blue cells in the table below indicate which GEOSAR satellite is tracked by specific GEOLUTs.


GEOLUT	GEOSAR Satellite
GEOLUT	GOES-East	GOES-West	INSAT 3A	MSG-1	MSG-2
1 - Algiers, Algeria
2 - Ezeiza, Argentina
3 - Brasilia, Brazil
4 - Recife, Brazil
5 - Edmonton, Canada
6 - Ottawa, Canada
7 - Santiago, Chile
8 - Toulouse, France
9 - Pentelli, Greece
10 - Bangalore, India *
11 - Bari, Italy
12 - Wellington (1), New Zealand
12 - Wellington (2), New Zealand
13 - Fauske, Norway
14 - Maspalomas (1), Spain
14 - Maspalomas (2), Spain
15 - Ankara, Turkey
16 - Combe Martin, UK **
17 - Maryland (1), USA
17 - Maryland (2), USA

* The Bangalore GEOLUT tracking INSAT 3A has yet to be formally commissioned into the Cospas-Sarsat System. Nevertheless, the SAR alert data it produces is distributed to SAR Services.

** The Combe Martin GEOLUT processes distress signals relayed by MSG-2. GOES-East is in standby for use when needed.

The map below depicts the location of GEOLUTs in the Cospas-Sarsat System.

[Map of GEOSAR Coverage]