This program provides students with a detailed explanation of the Cospas-Sarsat international satellite distress alerting system.

At the completion of this Unit students will:

• Understand the development and operation of the Cospas-Sarsat distress beacon system
  
• Explore the operation of the GEOSAR, LEOSAR and the new MEOSAR constellations
• Examine how this system can aid the SAR coordinator during a SAR mission
• Identify the differences between 406MHz (digital) and 121.5MHz (analogue) beacon signals
• Discuss the difference in the Local and Global operational modes of Cospas-Sarsat
• Identify beacon coding including country code
• Understand the process of 'Notification of Country of Registration (NOCR)'
• Identify the different sources of search and rescue intelligence available through the Cospas-Sarsat global system