According to a report by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), knowledge of the ocean is demanded by many constituencies including climatologists, fishermen and fisheries managers, harbor pilots, coastal zone managers, Navy and Coast Guard commanders, Public Health Service officers, environmental protection professionals, commercial and recreational boat and ship operators, weather forecasters, and the offshore mining and oil industry. Many of these needs are being met by in-situ ocean observing platforms such as drifting surface buoys, moored buoys, floats, remotely operated vehicles and ships, just to name a few. For these platforms, the NOPP has placed a high priority on the development of technologies that disseminate data in a timely manner. A variety of commercially available low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems produced by the private sectors are now in, or will soon achieve, operational status. They have the potential to meet NOPP's requirements including two-way communications, real-time data transmission, global coverage, high data rate and reduced costs. As a result, NAL Research proposes to design and build a data link system utilizing LEO satellites to collect environmental parameters from ocean observing platforms and to deliver them to users worldwide in real-time.
Benefits: Satellite data link system can be extremely useful in many applications. Ships, airplanes and trucks have relied on geostationary satellites to provide mobile satellite services for years. Now, LEO satellite data link system will soon make mobile satellite services available for individuals. Any type of transmission, internet connection, voice, fax, data or paging, will soon be able to reach its destination anywhere on the planet. The system will simplify communications for business professionals such as salespeople, field producers and reporters for television networks, construction engineers sending plan revisions, oil-company geologists uploading test results, just to name a few. People who live in thinly populated areas that will never be covered by regular cellular phone service, travelers, private pilots, yachtsmen and disaster relief teams will benefit from the LEO satellite-based data link system as well.
Keywords: Satellite modem, Satellite transceiver, Ocean data link system, Low-Earth orbit satellites