 |
|
Polar explorers use satellite broadband to stay in touch
May 08, 2006A team of young explorers from the Climate Change College are on a ten day field trip, participating in ESA's CryoSat validation experiment on the Greenland Ice Sheet. To stay in touch, the team is using Inmarsat's Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN), a technology development supported by ESA.
Led by Dutch polar explorer Marc Cornelissen, the students have set up camp on the ice and are assisting with experiments which will be used to validate results from the CryoSat mission. Ground measurements made by the students will be compared with those obtained from an aircraft carrying the ASIRAS radar altimeter to simulate CryoSat measurements.
The CryoSat-2 mission is expected to be launched in March 2009 and will answer the question of whether global climate change is causing the polar ice caps to shrink, a contentious issue in the global warming debate. CryoSat will do this by monitoring precise changes in the thickness of the polar ice sheets and floating sea ice.
On 3 May, the team travelled by helicopter from Ilulissat to a data point designated T05 located on the ice sheet. In daytime temperatures of minus 20 degrees centigrade, the students are conducting field work in the area around T05 before departing again for Ilulissat on 10 May.
To allow the team to stay in touch with media organizations around the world by phone, e-mail and video link and also to update their web logs, Inmarsat has provided free use of one of their newest satellites and Radio Holland have loaned the expedition a BGAN terminal manufactured by Hughes, one of several companies now offering this equipment.
The Inmarsat-4 F2 satellite located at 53 degrees west became operational in late April 2006. It is one of a constellation of two satellites, with a third held on the ground as a reserve. The constellation offers coverage over 85% of the Earth's surface and 98% of its population. Ilulissat, where a trial took place earlier this week, is located at 69 degrees north, well within range of Inmarsat's maximum northerly reach of 80 degrees.
Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN)
BGAN, the payload aboard the Inmarsat satellite which is making communications for the expedition possible, was conceived in response to the demand for mobile broadband data. Previous solutions found it difficult to combine high bandwidth with wide coverage, reliability and portability. The Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) system, designed to operate with the Inmarsat-4 satellites, provides breakthrough services that meet all of these requirements.
Mobile users can make simultaneous voice and broadband data connections, before packing up and moving on in the time it takes to stow a laptop PC and BGAN satellite terminal.
BGAN's introduction fills in coverage gaps left by limited terrestrial networks. It is accessed by using a small, highly portable satellite terminal, which is quick to set up and low-cost. In many instances, using BGAN airtime is actually cheaper than international voice and GPRS roaming on cellular networks.
Inmarsat became interested in supporting the expedition after a suggestion from ESA. Establishing reliable broadband satellite communication so far north and under such extreme conditions demonstrates both the capabilities of the BGAN system and the ruggedness and portability of the terminals.
Inmarsat has been working with ESA since 2003 to bring the benefits of BGAN to the maritime, aeronautical and land-vehicular environments. This is being carried out in a follow-on project called BGAN extension.
European Space Agency
To allow the team to stay in touch with media organizations around the world by phone, e-mail and video link and also to update their web logs, Inmarsat has provided free use of one of their newest satellites and Radio Holland have loaned the expedition a BGAN terminal manufactured by Hughes, one of several companies now offering this equipment.
The Inmarsat-4 F2 satellite located at 53 degrees west became operational in late April 2006. It is one of a constellation of two satellites, with a third held on the ground as a reserve. The constellation offers coverage over 85% of the Earth's surface and 98% of its population. Ilulissat, where a trial took place earlier this week, is located at 69 degrees north, well within range of Inmarsat's maximum northerly reach of 80 degrees.
Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN)
BGAN, the payload aboard the Inmarsat satellite which is making communications for the expedition possible, was conceived in response to the demand for mobile broadband data. Previous solutions found it difficult to combine high bandwidth with wide coverage, reliability and portability. The Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) system, designed to operate with the Inmarsat-4 satellites, provides breakthrough services that meet all of these requirements.
Mobile users can make simultaneous voice and broadband data connections, before packing up and moving on in the time it takes to stow a laptop PC and BGAN satellite terminal.
BGAN's introduction fills in coverage gaps left by limited terrestrial networks. It is accessed by using a small, highly portable satellite terminal, which is quick to set up and low-cost. In many instances, using BGAN airtime is actually cheaper than international voice and GPRS roaming on cellular networks.
Inmarsat became interested in supporting the expedition after a suggestion from ESA. Establishing reliable broadband satellite communication so far north and under such extreme conditions demonstrates both the capabilities of the BGAN system and the ruggedness and portability of the terminals.
Inmarsat has been working with ESA since 2003 to bring the benefits of BGAN to the maritime, aeronautical and land-vehicular environments. This is being carried out in a follow-on project called BGAN extension.
European Space Agency
Swedish researchers fly all the way to the Antarctic
Participants in the second part of this winter's polar expedition to the Antarctic, SWEDARP 2002/03, are ready to depart. Today, Monday, January 20, five members of the expedition will leave Sweden to join the group of ten researchers already on site in Antarctica as of the middle of December. Swedish scientists in the fields of glaciology, atmospheric physics, and chemical meteorology are participating in the expedition: · Glaciologists from Uppsala University will be working with ice dynamics and mass balance in local glaciers. · Researchers from the Institute for Space Physics in Kiruna will meas
More Polar Expedition Current Events and Polar Expedition News Articles
 | Polar Dream: The First Solo Expedition by a Woman and Her Dog to the Magnetic North Pole by Helen Thayer In 1988, at the age of 50, Helen Thayer became the first woman in the world to travel on foot to the magnetic North Pole, one of the world's most remote and dangerous regions. Her only companion was Charlie, her loyal husky, who was integral to her survival. Polar Dream is the story of their heroic trek and extraordinary relationship as they faced polar bears, unimaginable cold, and a storm that... |
| To the top of the world: The first Plaisted Polar Expedition by Charles Kuralt | |
| You Wouldn't Want to Be a Polar Explorer!: An Expedition You'd Rather Not Go on (You Wouldn't Want To... (Sagebrush)) by Jen Green A humorous look at the polar expedition of Ernest... | |
 | Bi-Polar Expedition by N Walton Neil Walton ISBN: 9781847471239 Published: 2007 Pages: 220 Key Themes: Bi-Polar Description This book is about a Bi Polar Author, this story is about a man struggle with drink and a number of family... |
 | Dangerous Crossings: The First Modern Polar Expedition, 1925 by John H. Bryant, Harold N. Cones The U.S. exploration of the northernmost regions of the world in 1925 was mounted by three extraordinary individuals: Richard E. Byrd, a young naval aviator set on making a name for himself as an explorer; Donald B. MacMillan, a colleague of Robert Peary's and renowned polar explorer in his own right; and Eugene E. McDonald, the man responsible for the Zenith Corporation's prominence in the radio... |
 | Gender on Ice: American Ideologies of Polar Expeditions (American Culture, Vol 10) by Lisa Bloom |
 | Midnight to the North: The Inuit Woman Who Saved the Polaris Expedition by Sheila Nickerson In 1871, Charles Francis Hall's Polaris expedition set out to be the first official American party to reach the North Pole. Five months later, the Polaris had become locked in ice and Hall was dead-likely murdered. The expedition members were set adrift for six months on the icy seas: a fifteen-hundred-mile journey that all survived, thanks to the skills of Hall's translator, Tookoolito, a... |
| SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC. The Journals of Captain R.F. Scott's Last Polar Expedition. by Captain R.F.): (Scott | |
| Rear Admiral Byrd and the Polar Expeditions: With an Account of His Life and Achievements by Coram Foster | |
| Crustacea, (Norwegian North polar expedition, 1893-1896. Scientific results) by G. O Sars |
| © 2008 BrightSurf.com |