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Don Nolan-Proxmire
Headquarters, Washington, DC August 30, 1996
(Phone: 202/358-1983)
Allen Kenitzer
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-2806)
RELEASE: 96-178
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES INSTALL NEW TECHNOLOGY
EMERGENCY LOCATOR TRANSMITTERS ON MISSION AIRCRAFT
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), United States Coast Guard and NASA recently completed
the installation of newly-available satellite-compatible
Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) on six aircraft. The
new transmitters are designed to eventually replace 1970s
technology ELTs that are currently installed in the U.S.
general aviation fleet, which numbers over 200,000 mostly
small single-engine aircraft. The aircraft selected to
receive the new ELTs include a NASA DC-8 research plane, a
NOAA P-3 "hurricane hunter," and Coast Guard command, search,
and recovery aircraft. The sixth plane is a twin-engine Aero
Commander that is flown by NOAA at low altitudes in remote
areas to measure the water content of snow packs.
This "pace-setter" action is intended to demonstrate
government agency support of the use of the new ELTs in the
U.S. general aviation fleet. The new ELTs are commercially
available now and can be installed in general aviation
aircraft on a voluntary basis. Conversion of the entire
general aviation fleet will require a ruling by the Federal
Aviation Administration.
"We're excited about the installation of this new
technology," said Ron Wallace, Search and Rescue Mission
Manager, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. "We
hope that other general aviation plane owners will follow our
lead and update their own beacons."
Installation of ELTs in the general aviation fleet was
mandated by Congress in the 1970's to aid in locating missing
aircraft. ELTs were originally designed to be detected
and located by overflying aircraft and fixed radio receivers,
but space-borne instruments are now the primary sensors.
Soon after the implementation of the ELT installation
requirement, it was discovered that many distresses were not
being detected. Consequently, NASA initiated a research and
development program to determine if ELT signals could be
detected and located from space.
The NASA research program, which was conceptualized and
originally developed at Goddard, has proved to be successful
and has played a vital role in saving lives. The program has
evolved into what is known today as the Search and Rescue
Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) System. This system
provided for location of the old-technology ELT as well as
the new. NOAA now operates the space and ground segments for
the United States. Internationally, the system is known as
COSPAS-SARSAT and includes Russian satellite instruments that
operate in the same manner as the SARSAT system. Some 28
nations are now participating in the program providing both
ground and space segment equipment. More than 6,000 persons
have been saved because of the satellite system, in both
aviation and maritime incidents, since the first space
instrument was launched in 1982. A NOAA study found that
converting the general aviation fleet to the new technology
ELTs would result in saving more than 130 lives a year that
would otherwise be lost in aviation accidents.
The SARSAT instrument is carried aboard the NOAA (TIROS)
series of satellites and serves as part of an international
satellite system for search and rescue. When a radio
transmitter beacon is activated by a marine vessel on the
open sea or by an airplane crash, the SARSAT instrument
receives the radio signal and transmits it to the U.S. Air
Force or the U.S. Coast Guard, who undertake rescue operations.
As with the older ELT, the new satellite-compatible
emergency transmitter is turned on when an aircraft impacts
with the ground. Once activated, it periodically sends a
short signal burst which is received by the instruments
carried by the satellites. The satellite retransmits the
information from the burst transmission to ground stations
located around the world. These ground stations calculate
the location of the crashed aircraft from the data received
from the satellites. The location, along with the ELT's
identification code, is then sent through a communication
network to the nearest rescue coordination center for action.
The process is entirely automatic and takes place in minutes.
In the U.S., the ground terminals are located at Guam,
Hawaii, Alaska, California, Texas and Puerto Rico. These
locations provide full satellite coverage of the entire U.S.
Search and Rescue area of responsibility designated by the
International Civil Aviation Organization. The U.S.
communication network node, or Mission Control Center, is
operated by NOAA at Suitland, MD. The U.S. Rescue
Coordination Centers are operated by the Air Force and the
Coast Guard at several locations throughout the country.
The burst signal transmitted by the new-technology ELTs
contains a digital identification code that is unique to each
unit. This identification code is the key to information
contained in a registration data base, which holds the
description and home airport of the aircraft, and names and
phone numbers of the ELT owner and emergency contacts. This
enables the rescue coordination center to make an immediate
phone call to the ELT owner, a relation, or someone who may
know the owner's whereabouts. This allows false ELT
activations to be cleared up without calling out the rescue
teams. Alternately, it can provide information to be
gathered that would be helpful in a search.
In addition to giving the identity of the plane, the new
technology ELTs have several other important advantages not
provided by the existing units. They have better location
accuracy, drastically cutting down the area that needs to be
searched. Response time is much shorter because the improved
accuracy allows the rescue response to begin after only one
satellite contact, while the older units require at least two
separate contacts. They have enhanced crash survivability,
greatly improving the odds of their working after the crash.
Further improvements are on the horizon. ELTs that put the
aircraft location at the time of the crash, as determined by
onboard navigation equipment, into the ELT signal burst
transmission will soon be available. This pinpoint location
will lead rescuers directly to the crash site and virtually
take the search out of search and rescue. With these self-
locating ELTs, the rescue reaction time will be further
shortened by signal relay through geostationary satellites.
Geostationary satellites are always in view in a given region
of coverage, while the COSPAS-SARSAT satellites, at lower
altitudes, come and go periodically. This delays the
reception of the ELT signal by the ground stations. NOAA's
geostationary weather satellites and the ground system are
equipped to perform this function today.
SARSAT is part of an international satellite system for
Search and Rescue. It consists of satellites in polar orbit
and a network of Earth stations which provide distress alert
and location information to appropriate rescue authorities,
anywhere in the world, for maritime, aviation and land users
in distress.
Goddard is responsible for the construction, integration
and launch of NOAA satellites. Operational control of the
spacecraft is turned over to NOAA after it is checked out on
orbit, normally 21 days after launch. The NOAA satellites
carry seven scientific instruments and two for Search and Rescue.
-end-