A conceptual system architecture for a Southern Hemisphere remote readout site for acquisition of weather data from polar orbiting satellites

The purpose of this study is to identify a system level functional and physical conceptual architecture for a ground based satellite readout site located at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. The U.S. military and civilian weather communities have searched for years to identify cost effective methods to reduce data latency of critical meteorological data acquired by the current fleet of polar orbiting environmental satellites.; With over 50% of the acquired meteorological data at least 60 minutes old at the time of receipt and processing by military and civilian weather centers, the needs of the modern military and civilian meteorologists are not being met. The results of this study indicated that a data receive site at McMurdo is a cost effective approach to reduce data latency by 50%. It brings additional data to the worldwide meteorological community and adds significant capability to the system with minimal technical impact to existing assets.