Satellite Rise Times

We use four satellites for communication at the South Pole.  LES-9 is an older satellite with about 38k bandwidth.  This is roughly the equivalent of a household modem for the entire station!  MARISAT 2 has approximately 2 Mbps bandwidth.  TDRS is a NASA satellite with approximately 1.2 Mbps bandwidth.  GOES-3 is a NOAA satellite with 192 kbps receive and 256 kbps transmit bandwidth.

Times listed below are given in New Zealand Standard Time (UTC +12)

NOTE: These times indicate when a clear line-of-sight is available to the satellites. Magnetic phenomena between the satellite and its earth connections, ground reflections, etc. may cause times of actual satellite connectivity to vary from the times stated below. Some of these satellites may be in use by other sites (like Palmer Station) even when they are visible from the South Pole.

Date last updated:  10-Apr-02


Satellite
 Start
End
LES 9 
12:11 10-Apr-02 
16:44 10-Apr-02
MARISAT 2 
16:49 10-Apr-02 
23:14 10-Apr-02
TDRS 1
19:10 10-Apr-02
0:24 11-Apr-02
GOES 3
21:58 10-Apr-02
4:27 11-Apr-02*
 
*Since the dish does not track we will lose the GOES 3 signal about 90 minutes earlier than reported above. We will also pick up the signal about 90 minutes later than reported above, but this should still overlap with the TDRS1 pass.

 
NOTE:The GOES-3 satellite is eclipsed by the Earth during each pass from mid July to early October. During these eclipses, the satellite's solar panels 'go dark', so the satellite must shut down to avoid draining its batteries completely. The nightly outage is up to 72 minutes, and is completely unavoidable.