Finally our last installment of the Satellite Ground Stations series is here - below you will learn about ESS’ involvement in various projects that our team are proud to have been a part of. In case you missed the earlier parts, they can be found here: Part I and Part II.
Part III
Project History
ESS has been involved in many satellite ground station installs including continuous work on upgrading these systems over the years. ESS is also proud to house two satellite reception systems on our roof in Richmond, Melbourne (HimawariCast and SATRAX). Project installs include local projects within Australia, but also stretch internationally to several countries such as, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, South Korea and even to the continent of Antarctica to name a few! See below a few handpicked projects from ESS’ impressive repertoire.
Figures. Left: Himawari ground station on ESS Weathertech roof in Richmond; Middle: SATRAX at Alice Springs Geoscience Australia; Right: Radome covered antenna at Great Wall station in Antarctica.
Geoscience Australia, Australia – Satellite Reception System
As COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease, our trusty local team in Melbourne are going to head to Alice Springs around December to install a fresh new satellite ground station system for reporting of Terra and Aqua, NOAA, MetOp A/B/C, SNPP, FY3-C/D and future NPAA21/22 and MetOp SG data! Watch this space. This will be the third ESS tracking antenna to be installed at the Geoscience Australia Alice Springs antenna farm in the past 25 years.
Hong Kong Observatory, Hong Kong –Oberon Satellite Reception System
In 2018, the Hong Kong Observatory commissioned a new satellite reception and data processing system from ESS to replace the originally supplied SATRAX antenna and radome installed back in 2003. The new and improved system now allows for the processing of new generation Chinese satellites (FY3B, C and D) on top of the existing products from NOAA AVHRR, MetOpA/B, SNPP, NOAA20, Terra and Aqua.
National Environment Agency, Singapore – Himawari-8 Ground Station
ESS was pleased to enter a contract with the National Environment Agency (NEA) in 2015 for the design, supply, delivery, installation, testing, commissioning and comprehensive maintenance of a Satellite Data Reception and Processing System for the reception and processing of data from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) Himawari-8/9 satellites and an upgrade to the ESS SATRAX satellite tracking antenna for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). This includes a large 3.7m antenna dish that can receive a C-band feed of data. This project is still ongoing to support the maintenance of the system.
Thanks for joining us on this series, and please look forward to further projects from ESS. If you would like to know more about our systems and equipment, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.