India Plays a Lead Role

Over last 15 years of operations, India built and operationalise ground and space systems to provide Cospas-Sarsat SAR services to national and global community.

Satellite Aided Search and Rescue (SASAR) alerting services provided by ISRO, have attracted a large user segments in the country as well as in the neighbouring countries.  The programme is now matured to the extent that maritime and aviation sectors have attached high priority to integrate SASAR technology in their operational system as a part of their commitment to the national (DGCA, DG Shipping) and international (ICAO, IMAO) regulatory authorities. Taking into account the increasingly growing user needs, mandatory international regulations, vis-à-vis developments taking place in the technology and applications, ISRO/ISTRAC has taken a lot of initiatives to improve the services further. 

In India, recognizing the potential of satellite based search and rescue system, an inter Agency Steering Committee (IASC) consisting of representatives of Coast Guard, Directorate General of Shipping, Civil Aviation, all the three Defense Services, Department of Telecommunication and Department of Electronics was set up in April 1986 with the Department of Space as the nodal agency. After detailed studies, it was decided to set up two LUTs in the country, one at Bangalore and the other at Lucknow, and an Indian Mission Control Centre (INMCC) at Bangalore. The system is operational since middle of 1989 and providing its services to the national and global user community.

The GEOSAR (Geostationary Earth Orbiting Search And Rescue) system has already undergone test and evaluation phase and has been accepted as a part of Cospas-Sarsat System.  An important contribution by India has been the inclusion of the 406 MHz payload onboard INSAT-2 (A and B) and INSAT-3A providing an instantaneous coverage over a substantial region. This geostationary component compensates for the delay in detection of the emergency signals from the beacons due to the time gap between the passes in the Leosar system.  The system does not require Doppler processing; provides immediate alerts with Location Protocol Beacons.

Geolut, a ground processing system for receiving distress signals on 406 MHz band through geostationary satellites, was indigenously developed by ISRO and has been operational at ISTRAC, Bangalore. 

ISRO took Initiative to develop low cost beacon in India. Initial studies have been completed, prototype 406 MHz beacon has been developed and is under test phase.

INMCC provides alerting services to seven neighboring countries as per Cospas-Sarsat data distribution policy. They are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Srilanka, Tanzania and Seychelles.

As a member of the Cospas-Sarsat system, ISRO participated in various Cospas-Sarsat forums as and when needed, and contributed about 35 technical papers on different topics related to operations and system development. 

INMCC also ensures smooth functioning of the system and operations by taking care of the following supports:

• Coordinates with user agencies in implementing national regulatory policies so as to meet international requirements/obligations
• System enhancements and upgrades to meet growing user requirements, international specifications, and to keep pace with the technology growth. After commissioning of the system in 1989-90, the system was upgraded twice.
• Technical contribution to Cospas-Sarsat system for improvement of the system, operations and services