International Cospas-Sarsat Programme

The Mission

The International Cospas-Sarsat Programme provides accurate, timely, and reliable distress alert and location data to help search and rescue authorities assist persons in distress. [Read more]

Interested in learning how the Cospas-Sarsat System works?

Cospas-Sarsat implemented a new web interface for its International Beacon Registration Database (IBRD), effective June 2011.  The IBRD website is a place where:

-beacon owners can directly register a beacon, when the beacon’s country code corresponds to that of an Administration that allows registration on the IBRD ; and

-Search and rescue services can easily upload or retrieve beacon registration information.  

The new IBRD accepts beacon registration by type (ELT, EPIRB, and PLB), as allowed by the national administration.  If the national administration does not allow beacons with its country code to be directly registered by owners on the IBRD, then the owner must register the beacon in a database established by that country.

National administrations that wish to authorize direct registration on the IBRD by beacon owners (coded with its national country code(s)), may request the Cospas-Sarsat Secretariat to enable that IBRD function for their country.  This minimizes the burden to a government of maintaining its own registration facility, and provides easy, centralized access to beacon registration data by search-and-rescue (SAR) authorities.  A template for the appropriate letter to the Secretariat can be found on the Cospas-Sarsat website.  With the latest improvements,  government authorities can now work offline to create a database that can later be uploaded to the IBRD, with no need to install software.

With its new look and many new features, Cospas-Sarsat is confident that both beacon owners and national SAR authorities will find the new IBRD web interface to be a very convenient and effective way to ensure that rescuers have all the information that they need during an emergency.