SARR instrument on Metop

SARR

 

Relaying distress signals to aid rescue organsations

SARR instrument on Metop
SARR instrument on Metop

The Search and Rescue signal repeater (SARR), continuously monitors the earth, to provide immediate alerts of distress signals.

Last Updated

06 May 2022

Published on

28 May 2020

As part of the Cospas-Sarsat programme it relays distress signals from 406 MHz beacons within the MSG coverage zone in Europe, Africa and the Atlantic Ocean.

The signals are sent to Geostationary Earth Orbit Local User Terminals (GEOLUTs) and eventually passed on to Rescue Coordination Centres (RCC) for quick organisation of rescue activities.

Geostationary satellites, such as MSG, continually view large areas of the Earth and can provide near instantaneous alerting from a 406MHz beacon. However, they cannot determine a beacon's location using Doppler shift processing ideally, a LEOSAR or Sarsat satellite (a specially-equipped polar-orbiting satellite) will fly over the the beacon within the next hour and calculate the beacon's location.