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Real-Time Satellite Remote Sensing with the MAGIC Direct Broadcast Receiving Station at the University of Texas at Austin
Gordon Wells
Center for Space Research
University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
In April, the Center for Space Research will celebrate the second
anniversary of the operation of the largest receiving facility for
satellite remote sensing in the South-Central USA. CSR operates three
receiving systems using a 1.5-meter antenna (S/L-band), 2.4-meter antenna
(X-band) and 4.5-meter antenna (X-band). The ground station receives
approximately 70 gigabytes of telemetry each day from 14 different Earth
observation satellites and 30-40 collections of data over Texas during
every 24-hour cycle. The receiving station distributes near real-time
data to a range of federal, state, and university-based organizations to
aid their crisis management, environmental assessment, treaty enforcement
and strategic planning missions. Areas of current research and
application development include air quality assessment, irrigation
monitoring, crop compliance monitoring, water quality analysis and
detection of oil spills, red tide outbreaks, and toxic waste releases. In
2006, the station will expand to provide the Central North American
reception site for the German DLR TerraSAR-X mission that will capture
high-resolution (1-2 meter) radar imagery.
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