Res Communis

NOAA, Japan Establish Navigation Satellite Ground Station in Guam

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

From NOAA:

NOAA, Japan Establish Navigation Satellite Ground Station in Guam

August 27, 2009

Members of the U.S.-Japan GPS-QZSS Experts Working Group at the NOAA Weather Forecast Office in Guam.

Members of the U.S.-Japan GPS-QZSS Experts Working Group at the NOAA Weather Forecast Office in Guam. Back row, left to right: Ray Cancel, Hiroaki Maeda, Satoshi Kogure, Koji Terada, Alice Wong, Genevieve Miller, John Betz, A.J. Van Dierendonck, Patrick Harrington, Anil Hariharan. Front row, left to right: Hiroshi Soga, Takahiro Mitome, Tamaki Takahashi.

The Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, designed to work seamlessly with the U.S. Global Positioning System, is a JAXA effort to improve navigation satellite coverage over Japan and surrounding areas. The first QZSS satellite is expected to launch in 2010.

Speaking at a ceremony on August, 25 at NOAA’s National Weather Forecast Office in Guam, Genevieve Miller, meteorologist in charge said the new station strengthens the collaboration between the United States and Japan in the area of GPS and satellite navigation.

NOAA and JAXA have worked since 2008 to install the monitoring station at the NOAA Weather Forecast Office in Guam. The station is the result of a joint agreement between the two agencies, which allows JAXA to place antennas and other equipment on the NOAA property to observe the QZSS satellites. In return, JAXA will share satellite data from the station with NOAA, which integrates information from hundreds of GPS tracking stations into the National Spatial Reference System. . . . [Full Story]