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Remote Tracking Stations (RTSs)
DMSP uses one NOAA and three AF Satellite Control Network (AFSCN) Remote Tracking Stations (RTSs): NOAA Fairbanks, AK Tracking Station HTS: Hawaii Tracking Station, Kaena Point, HI NHS: New Hampshire Station, New Boston, NH TTS: Thule Tracking Station, Thule, Greenland The tracking stations have equipment compatible with the Space/Ground Link Subsystem (SGLS) DMSP satellite links. Presently shared AFSCN communications are not adequate to support the wideband (2.66 Mb/s) DMSP mission data and EST in real time. Special equipment and communications have been installed at these sites to allow the DMSP SOCs to send and receive data directly through these RTSs to provide the required data communications capacity and minimize commanding delays. 
These sites are all dual RTSs with Automated Remote Tracking Station (ARTS) installations. The ARTS design has been modified to include a DMSP Enhancement (DMSPE), which allows baseband interface of commands, EST, mission data, limited site status, and antenna pointing data in the form of NORAD two-card set ephemeris data for the DMSP satellites. The DMSP dedicated Wideband Network extends to these sites as DOMSAT links. Each of these sites receives two DOMSAT links, one from SOCC and one from ESOC. Data from one or the other of these links is selected by the RTS personnel to control which SOC is interfacing to the DMSP satellite. |