NOAA satellites help save 272 people in 2006 (Forwarded)

NOAA
Washington, D.C.

Media Contact:
John Leslie, NOAA Satellite and Information Service
(301) 713-1265

Jan. 11, 2007

NOAA SATELLITES HELP SAVE 272 PEOPLE IN 2006

NOAA satellites helped save 272 people from potentially life-jeopardizing
emergencies throughout the United States and its surrounding waters in 2006
-- up from 222 the previous year. This is the highest number of rescues
since 1999, when 294 people were rescued. NOAA's polar-orbiting and
geostationary satellites, along with Russia's Cospas spacecraft, make up the
powerful international Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking System,
called COSPAS-SARSAT.

The system uses a constellation of satellites to detect and locate distress
signals from emergency beacons onboard aircraft, boats and from hand-held
personal locator beacons. Once the satellites pinpoint the location of the
distress within the United States or surrounding waters, the information is
relayed to NOAA at the SARSAT Mission Control Center in Suitland, Md., and
sent to a Rescue Coordination Center, operated by either the U.S. Air Force
(for land rescues), or U.S. Coast Guard (for water rescues.)

"We're seeing the SARSAT program do exactly what it was intended to do --
save lives. This is another great example of Earth observation technologies
providing life-saving societal benefit," said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad
C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D, undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere
and NOAA administrator. "NOAA satellites and the quick responses of the U.S.
Air Force and Coast Guard continue to be the difference between life and
death."

Since its creation in 1982, COSPAS-SARSAT has been credited with more than
20,300 rescues worldwide, and 5,396 within the United States and its
surrounding waters. Most of the rescues each year happen at sea. The top
states with the most rescues in 2006 we Alaska, with 75 rescues in 29
events (including two dogs); Florida, with 50 rescues in 18 events
(including two dogs); Hawaii, with 16 rescues in five events, and Texas had
11 rescues in six events. Since the Personal Locator Beacon program became
operational nationwide in July 2003, there have been 125 rescues credited to
the hand-held devices.

"If you, or your family, are ever in a position to need an emergency beacon,
it's imperative for responders that it be registered with NOAA," said Mary
E. Kicza, assistant administrator for the NOAA Satellite and Information
Service.

Older emergency beacons, which operate on the 121.5 and 243 megahertz
frequencies, will be phased out by early 2009, when 406 megahertz beacons
will become the new standard. The distress signals from 406 megahertz
beacons, which use Global Positioning System technology, can be instantly
detected and lead to faster rescues.

Notable SARSAT Rescue Activity

Within a five day stretch in November, 18 people -- and one dog -- were
rescued in nine separate maneuvers from Florida to Alaska. From November 3 -
7, three crewmen were rescued from a boat caught in rough surf near Kodiak,
Alaska, and in Barrow, another person was rescued after being stranded.

Meanwhile, two boaters were pulled to safety off the coast of Cape Cod,
Mass.; one crewman was saved from a troubled vessel more than 1,000 miles
east of Long Island, N.Y.; another two boaters were rescued off the coast of
Hilton Head Island, S.C.; two people were rescued from a sinking boat near
Ponce Inlet, N.C.; two passengers were picked up from the site of a plane
crash near Tulsa, Okla.; one person was saved from a capsized boat 1,200
miles northeast of Bermuda, and four people and a dog were rescued from a
sinking boat near Tampa.

NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of
science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of
the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau
and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's
scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA. NOAA is dedicated to enhancing
economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of
weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for
transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of the nation's
coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation
System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more
than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring
network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and
protects.

Relevant Websites:

* NOAA SARSAT
http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/
* NOAA Satellites
http://www.noaa.gov/satellites.html

IMAGE CAPTION:
[http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories...ges/goes-n.jpg (671KB)]
Artist's rendering of a NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellite above the Earth. Credit: NOAA