The University of Alaska Fairbanks and the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Station (FCDAS) work on joint projects under a memorandum of agreement to receive, process, and distribute satellite data in service to Alaska and the surrounding Arctic region. FCDAS has an extremely robust satellite data reception configuration that is an excellent complement to GINA’s user application focus and distribution capabilities.

FCDAS ground station at Gilmore Creek
NOAA/NESDIS

Noteworthy successes include:

• Reception of Landsat 5 for Alaska
• FCDASs provision of backup reception services to GINA during L-band reception outages
• Provision of satellite data captured by the FCDAS-operated Barrow ground station to Alaskan operational users
• Capture of DMSP satellite data for distribution by GINA.

The Landsat 5 reception partnership among NOAA/NESDIS-FCDAS, UAF-GINA, and USGS-EROS has provided both short term-value and will be a major long-term contributor to land remote sensing for Alaska. Landsat 5 can only be received by capturing image data sent down by direct readout as the satellite passes overhead. Prior to 2005, no ground station in Alaska was capturing Landsat 5 data. Starting in April 2005, FCDAS began capture of Landsat 5 data, GINA then transfers it to EROS, and EROS processes and archives it. Hundreds of Alaskan scenes have been purchased out of the EROS archive to support current projects. In 2005, during the emergency response to the Sheenjek River fire, Landsat 5 data was rapidly delivered to the Alaska Fire Service to fight a large wildfire encroaching on the village of Fort Yukon.

More than 10,000 Landsat 5 scenes have been captured and archived over the summer seasons in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. Landsat is the workhorse of land remote sensing and the value of these data to future scientists cannot be underestimated.

GINA supports a number of operational users. In addition to the Alaska Fire Service, the Alaska Volcano Observatory and the Fairbanks National Weather Service continuously use data captured by both GINA and FCDAS to support monitoring and operations.

FCDAS has a robust reception configuration with multiply redundant antennas, receivers, capture computers, and means of distribution. When GINA's ground station is down for maintenance or repair, data from NOAA s polar orbiting satellites is provided by FCDAS.

Additionally, FCDAS operates a reception station at Barrow, Alaska, the farthest north point in the state. This station captures several additional passes each day not visible from Fairbanks. Because the station is so far north, its view is far over the top of the Pole, giving forecasters a much better look at storms developing in the Arctic and moving towards Alaska.

As a final example, FCDAS captures data from the DMSP satellites. The instruments aboard these satellite are a good complement to existing NOAA and NASA sensors and are used operationally through the FCDAS-GINA capture-distribute partnership.

The data provided to Alaska users through the FCDAS-GINA partnership is of substantial benefit. It is used hourly and around-the-clock by operational users. Data archived from the partnership will be used time and again in the future for retrospective studies.