Technology that saves lives
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) uses a cellular technology system that does not require a cellular network to connect to cell phones. Lifeseeker, developed by Spanish company Centum Research & Technology, turns the cell phone into an emergency beacon to guide rescue teams to the user's location. This system allows a person in need to communicate with a rescue team without the person calling for help having to do anything because Lifeseeker replicates the cellular network. A fixed-wing aircraft or helicopter, whether piloted or drone, can be equipped with Lifeseeker, which functions like a tower antenna for a cellular network. As long as the person's phone has power, it will find the antenna just as it would in an area covered by a cellular network. The person in need can send and receive text messages through Lifeseeker, and the aircraft carrying them can determine where the caller is.
If the weather isn't great or the terrain is really difficult, it could take hours or days to find someone
“Sometimes when the weather is not so good or the terrain is really difficult, it can take hours or days to find someone,” said Centum marketing manager Olalla Varela. “And with Lifeseeker, you can have the location of the missing person in less than 10 minutes. It was used to save lives.”
Lifeseeker has been available since 2016 and various countries and their SAR services have acquired the technology, as well as the Canadian Air Force. Varela said: “We have many end users around the world. Many of them are search and rescue teams, some of them are Rega [Swiss Air-Rescue], the Swiss Air Force, the Canadian Air Force; We also have the police in Spain.” Another customer is the Norwegian Ministry of Justice. Varela describes Lifeseeker as an unobtrusive technology, as small as a “shoebox,” that can be installed on an aircraft. The technology can even be carried by an individual, for example in a backpack.
“It works like a cell tower,” she explained. “It locates the cell phone. The lost person's cell phone says, 'Connect to me. 'I am the best network.'” Once aircraft or emergency services personnel connect to the phone, that handset can be called and spoken to the person in distress. Text messages can also be exchanged with the target phone. Lifeseeker's range varies from 1.5 km with a drone to 30 km for other use cases.
But Lifeseeker had success on a much larger scale. “For example, we have a successful case in the United States that spanned more than 34 miles because it was in the mountains,” Valera said. Since 2016, Lifeseeker has been made lighter and its range increased.
The RCAF Leonardo CH-149 Cormorant and Leonardo CH-146 Griffon helicopters are the primary rotary-wing aircraft used to respond to search and rescue operations in Canada
For the helicopter use case, the Lifeseeker unit now weighs less than 10kg. The RCAF Leonardo CH-149 Cormorant and Leonardo CH-146 Griffon helicopters are the primary rotorcraft used to respond to search and rescue operations in Canada. The Canadian Armed Forces has primary responsibility for providing airborne SAR services to search for downed aircraft. But domestically, SAR is also a shared responsibility of federal, provincial and municipal organizations, as well as volunteer SAR organizations in the air, on the ground and at sea.
“The RCAF is just starting to roll this out [Lifeseeker] capability, and at this point it is operationally somewhat new,” the RCAF said. The Air Force provides military air assets in response to approximately 1,000 SAR events annually. The large Cormorant and Griffon helicopters can carry up to 12 stretchers and offer fast response times, hover and lift capabilities, and dedicated SAR personnel. The shoebox-sized Lifeseeker technology would easily fit on board. The RCAF Lockheed CC-130 Hercules is the fixed-wing aircraft used by dedicated SAR personnel to drop specialized equipment such as survival equipment, including life rafts and shelters, to those in distress.
Canadian SAR squadrons are strategically located across the country according to the historical distribution of emergencies to ensure the fastest and most effective SAR response to the greatest number of potential incidents. The Canadian Armed Forces has approximately 140 SAR technicians. They are specialists who provide pre-hospital medical care and rescue to Airmen and others in distress in remote or hard-to-reach areas of the vast country and its wilderness.
Portable devices
Satellite technology is still advancing and beacons have been miniaturized, with some products now available to be worn on the wrist. Mobit Telecom, maker of portable PLBs, is an Israeli company that coordinated two European Union (EU) Horizon research program projects for location beacon technology. The wrist-worn model SAT406 weighs 95g, is waterproof to three meters, has a 24-hour operating time and can operate in temperatures from -20°C to +55°C. The company markets it as a good product for sailing, kayaking, skydiving, flying, mountaineering and skiing, among others. Mobit Telecom's new product, SAT406M, is expected to be available next year.
The company's PLBs operate on the international Cospas-Sarsat system, which uses 406 MHz emergency beacon technology and navigation satellites. From 2004 until this year, existing and developing satellite navigation constellations, such as the EU's Galileo, placed SAR repeater payloads on the satellites. All major global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), including Russia's GLONASS, the US's Global Positioning System (GPS) and China's BeiDou, have SAR repeaters on board their spacecraft. The global GNSS orbits the Earth at an altitude between 19,000 and 23,000 km, an area considered medium Earth orbit (MEO). This “MEOSAR” system of GNSS satellites was declared operational in 2016 and its full operational capability was declared this year.
MEOSAR utilizes the SAR payloads that are not susceptible to jamming or spoofing
“MEOSAR leverages SAR payloads that are not vulnerable to jamming or spoofing,” said Daniel Katz, CEO of Mobit Telecom.
The Mobit PLBs contain a proprietary technology developed by Mobit called Single Burst Single Satellite Beacon Localization or SINSIN. This technology enables two-dimensional localization of a beacon based on a single burst sent from the PLB to a single MEOSAR satellite. Katz explained that this could shorten the arrival time of search personnel for the MEOSAR service, but SINSIN has not yet been adopted by the Cospas-Sarsat system. In Katz's view, SINSIN's anti-jamming/spoofing properties due to its single-burst operating method would make it “more attractive to the military.” However, currently all of Mobit's products are intended for the civilian market.
Tracking systems
Civil or military tracking beacons are required for much of the world's aviation. In the US, emergency locator transmitter (ELT) products are required for all aircraft and PLBs are popular with US aviators. But in the aviation industry, there is a third category that is growing in popularity, as Tom George, Alaska regional manager of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), explained: “This [third category] There are other satellite devices that are becoming increasingly popular that have tracking and emergency response capabilities.” He is referring to the Garmin inReach product and the 15-year-old New Zealand aircraft tracking service Spidertracks, which operates in 130 countries.
For AOPA members in the US, the US government's SAR operation is referred to as the Search And Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT) system. It is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and uses the 406 MHz frequency for ELTs. Like the iPhone, an ELT transmits to a SARSAT rescue coordination center when the aircraft experiences a higher G-force impact. Due to false positives, the US government is now requiring people to register their ELT with contact information. A quick call and lack of response make it clear that this is a real emergency.
Personal tracking beacons and their SAR networks continue to expand in geographic coverage, signal quality, and location detection accuracy
Personal tracking beacons and their SAR networks continue to expand in geographic coverage, signal quality, and location detection accuracy. The achievement of full operational capability of the MEOSAR Cospas-Sarsat system, combined with the continued miniaturization of smartphone satellite telecommunications technology, increases the likelihood that PLBs will become ubiquitous. Whether it is military interest in civilian beacons and detectors or civilian interest in military technology, the speed at which victims can be located by SAR providers appears to be increasing with each generation.
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