What are Earth Station Satellites, The Complete FAQ Guide

What is an earth station satellite

Today, this article will tell you all about earth station satellites. From the introduction, principle, purpose, here you will find all information about earth station satellites.

Read on to learn more.

Article Directory

What is an Earth Station Satellite?
What Are the Functions of an Earth Station?
What Are the Components of an Earth Station Satellite?
What Are the Main Applications of Earth Station Satellites?
What Are the Types of Earth Station Satellites?
Earth Station Design Consideration
Most Popular Earth Station Satellites in 2022
Conclusion

What is an Earth Station Satellite?

Earth station satellite, also known as earth station or earth terminal station. is used to collect remote sensing satellite data and transmit it to various users and applications. This may include national meteorological centers such as the Bureau of Meteorology or research centers such as CSIRO. These centers collect weather and other data to provide to customers and the public. Ground stations may be located on the Earth's surface or in the Earth's atmosphere. The ground station and the spacecraft achieve the purpose of communication by transmitting or receiving radio waves in the ultra-high frequency or extremely high frequency band (for example millimeter wave).

What Are the Functions of an Earth Station?

Earth stations are a vital element in any satellite communication network. The function of an earth station is to receive information from or transmit information to, the satellite network in the most cost-effective and reliable manner while retaining the desired signal quality.

What Are the Components of an Earth Station Satellite?

Satellite ground stations generally consist of the following main components: a reception antenna, a feed horn, waveguide, and receiver. All are typically mounted on a pedestal. Satellite Ground Stations can also be protected by a ‘radome’; the sphere used to cover the antenna.

What Are the Main Applications of Earth Station Satellites?

Satellites are used for a wide variety of use cases, including weather forecasting, surface imaging, communications, and video broadcasts. Ground stations form the core of global satellite networks.

What Are the Types of Earth Station Satellites?

The earth station is a crucial part of satellite communication because one earth station transmits the signal and another earth station receives it.

The three major categories in which an earth station is divided are as follows:

Transmit type: This type of earth station is one that is only designed to transmit the signals towards the satellite and has no arrangement of signal reception.
Receive type: The type of earth station that simply performs the function of reception of signals coming from satellite and cannot transmit the signal to the satellite in space is known as to receive type earth station.
Transmit-Receive type: The earth station unit that solely handles two-way communication i.e., sends the signal to the satellite and also receives the signal coming from the satellite is known as transmit-receive type earth station.

Earth Station Design Consideration

Design of an Earth station is generally a two-step process:

(1)The first step involves the identification of Earth station requirement specifications, which in turn govern the choice of system parameters.

(2)The second step is about identifying the most cost-effective architecture that achieves the desired specifications.

Requirement specifications include the type of service offered (Fixed satellite service, Broadcast satellite service, or Mobile satellite service), communication

requirements (telephony, data, television, etc.), required baseband quality at the

destination, system capacity, and reliability.

Major system parameters relevant to Earth station design include transmitter EIRP (Effective Isotropic Radiated Power), receiver figure-of-merit

(G/T ), system noise and interference and allowable tracking error.