As if a hurricane season so active that – in about a month and a half – we’ve exhausted the list of 21 names the NHC put aside for the entire year wasn’t enough, this has also been an incredibly active year for an increasingly prevalent natural disaster – wildfires.

The year started with 46 million acres burning in Sydney, Australia. Those deadly bushfires destroyed more than 5,900 buildings and killed at least 34 people. It was a horrific tragedy that caused incredible damage to not just Australia’s people, but to many incredibly important natural habitats.  Those brushfires reportedly killed or displaced upwards of three billion animals, leading the World Wide Fund for Nature to call it, “…one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history.”

Now, we’re seeing a similar situation play out in America’s west coast. There are currently 59 uncontained fires burning across the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in reporting by CNN, these fires have, “…burned more than 5.8 million acres,” and have killed, “….at least 34 people.”

As with all hurricanes and wildfires in the past, eventually, the storm passes and the fire is contained. In those moments, the best of humanity is on display as people band together to help rebuild and recover from these costly and terrible disasters.

Unfortunately, they’re often forced to do so without a vital resource – communications.

Destroying infrastructure as well as buildings
When people see aftermath photos of a natural disaster they’re often thinking about the damage to things like homes, office buildings, and small businesses. And while they may also see a washed-out road or a fallen bridge, transportation infrastructure isn’t the only one that is damaged and destroyed.

Natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires also often compromise important electrical infrastructure and critical communications infrastructure. As Cale Teeter Gregg recently wrote on The Last Mile:

Many people don’t realize that the critical communications infrastructure that transmits the signals that keep their cell phones and other devices connected are often destroyed in natural disaster situations. The electronics at the base of these towers are often compromised in flooding. Wildfires will burn through the cables that connect them to terrestrial networks. Hurricanes will blow down cabling and damage electronics making them inoperable. Even lightning strikes can impact a cell tower and knock out service.

When these systems are knocked out and denied, the emergency response crews and impacted civilians in the affected area are left without the ability to communicate. This can make calling for help or assistance difficult to impossible. This can make coordination of relief and recovery efforts difficult. This can also have a major emotional toll as families are left unable to tell loved ones they’re okay, or to check in to ensure that they’re safe and secure.

And this is where satellites can help.

Quickly deployed, high bandwidth connectivity
In the wake of large natural disasters, such as highly damaging hurricanes and wildfires, it can take months to restore basic services. For example, following Hurricane Maria, it was estimated to take up to nine months to get power restored to 100 percent of the people serviced by the public utility company, PREPA.

During this time – while critical infrastructure is being repaired – there are still recovery teams and civilians that require access to stable communication networks. And satellite can help to deliver them.

Portable satellite terminals that deploy quickly can be brought into affected areas to help take the place of – or complement – damaged terrestrial networks. Since the connectivity comes from space and the hardware is mobile and deployed following the crisis or natural disaster, satellite is always available – regardless of what damage was done to terrestrial networks and infrastructure.

And, thanks in large part to the new generation of high throughput satellites (HTS) and the emergence of HTS satellites at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), the connectivity that is delivered via satellite is both high bandwidth and dependable.

HTS delivers drastically increased throughputs, better link optimization, and performance. HTS also combines frequency reuse with blanket juxtaposition of high-power spot beams over a geographic area. This allows the user to transmit and receive more data than a standard wide beam. HTS satellites at MEO combine this increased throughput and dependability with lower latency – effectively delivering a fiber-like connection from space.

The recovery teams and civilians in areas impacted by natural disasters need critical connectivity tools for collaboration, coordination, and communication among themselves and their loved ones. While the terrestrial infrastructure that traditionally delivers this connectivity may be disrupted, satellites can fill that requirement without any loss of quality or capability.

Natural disasters are terrible tragedies, but they also bring out the best in people. Those that rush in to help following disasters should be given the tools they need to do their jobs effectively and ensure their own safety. Today’s next generation of HTS satellites can give them the tools they need to help communities recover while keeping themselves safe and connected.

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That agency is a component of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) called the National Weather Service (NWS), and its ability to effectively accomplish its mission really can be the difference between life and death for American citizens.

In June of this year, the National Weather Service Office (NWSO) at Pago Pago, American Samoa signed a contract with SES Space and Defense for a new tool to help them accomplish their very important mission – a highly reliable, low latency link for passing critically important weather information between the NSWO in Pago Pago and the NWS headquarters Office on Ford Island in Honolulu, Hawaii.

This contract with SES Space and Defense was notable for two reasons.

First, the satellite constellation that the NWSO in Pago Pago would be utilizing would not be the company’s GEO constellation. Instead, the satellite constellation carrying information between American Samoa and Hawaii would be the newer O3b MEO constellation of satellites, which promise fiber-like throughputs and lower latency.

Second, the contract signed between the NWSO in Pago Pago and SES Space and Defense was not just for the lease of some satellite capacity, but rather for a complete satellite managed service. This decision to move forward with satellite as a managed service is a revolutionary, innovative step forward for the federal government, since managed services are widely considered the more economical and efficient acquisition model that is the future of the satellite industry.

To learn more about this revolutionary new satellite service being implemented by the NWS, we spoke to Ray Tanabe, the Pacific Region Director at NWS, and Per Pedersen, the Systems Integration Branch Chief at NWS. During our discussion, we asked about the NWSO at Pago Pago’s mission, why it’s so fundamentally important, and the role that the O3b managed satellite services will play in the office accomplishing that mission.

Here is what they had to say:

GovSat Report: What is the mission of NOAA’s National Weather Service Office (NWSO) at Pago Pago, American Samoa? Is there something about this weather station that makes it particularly essential for weather forecasting and prediction?

Ray Tanabe: The mission of Weather Service Office (WSO) Pago Pago is exactly the same as every other NWS office in the United States, to, “Provide weather, water, and climate data, forecasts and warnings for the protection of life and property and enhancement of the national economy.”

WSO Pago Pago has the distinction of being the only NWS office in the southern hemisphere and serves a population of approximately 55,000 people spread out over five rugged, volcanic islands and two coral atolls.  One these seven islands, Rose Atoll, is a Marine National Monument.

Primary threats to American Samoa include hazardous sea conditions around the islands, tropical cyclones, heavy rainfall, and tsunamis.  The relative isolation of these islands, complex geography, lack of a weather radar, makes the forecasts and warnings issued by WSO Pago Pago very important.

GovSat Report: Why is COMSATCOM essential for connecting this station? Is Pago Pago’s geography and location particularly challenging for the installation of terrestrial networks? What makes satellite – and specifically COMSATCOM – so important for connectivity here?

Per Pedersen: Present day weather forecasting and prediction is very much data driven. Predictive computer models, satellite and radar data from multiple sources and observational data form the basis for the production of forecasts and warnings. It is essential that WSO Pago Pago have reliable network capability to access this data.

The remote location in American Samoa is a challenge as there are limited terrestrial network options.

In the process of upgrading the network communications for WSO Pago Pago, several highly-reliable, high-bandwidth solutions were considered, and the MEO satellite based solution from O3b/SES Space and Defense was found to be the best and most cost-effective for our requirements.

GovSat Report: O3b operates a MEO constellation that has been touted as capable of delivering fiber-like connectivity via satellite. Why was a high-bandwidth, low-latency MEO constellation necessary for this weather station? What kind of data will be transmitted? Why was a traditional GEO constellation not chosen for its data needs?

Per Pedersen: The low-latency MEO solution from O3b/SES Space and Defense provides the scalability and flexibility we need. The large data sets we use require high-capacity data transmission capability and the low latency provides the technological versatility that will allow us to tailor this solution to anticipated future needs, comparable to what we would be able to do using a fiber-based solution.

GovSat Report: Although many have tabbed managed services as the future of COMSATCOM, we haven’t seen many government agencies move in that direction yet. Why did NWS decide to pursue a managed service with SES Space and Defense and O3b? What benefits will a managed service solution deliver over the traditional leasing of capacity?

Per Pedersen: Our forecasting and warning operations run 24x7x365 and we support our operations accordingly. The availability and expertise provided under this contract allow us to cost-efficiently support our operations without having to acquire dedicated, in-house expertise required for this specialized technology.

GovSat Report: How far along is the implementation of this managed service at Pago Pago? Is it active now? Is it coming online soon? If it’s already online, what have initial responses been to the service?

Per Pedersen: The antennas and protective radomes were installed in late May of this year,  and after initial testing and reliability verification the system was declared operational. The service has been operating fully successfully since then.

For additional information about the O3b MEO satellite constellation and the benefits it can deliver to the federal government, click on the following resources:

• White Paper On O3b “Fiber Like” Satellite Communications for U.S. Government Applications
• VIDEO: Pete Hoene on MEO satellites and their potential benefits for the government
• PODCAST – O3b CEO Discusses Delivering Fiber-like Bandwidth Anywhere
• Dome Placement at Pago Pago, Samoa for NWS (Time lapse)

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With our parent company’s acquisition of O3b on August 1, 2016, SES Space and Defense can now uniquely offer the only scalable Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and GEO combination in the satellite industry. This capability brings the best of GEO wide beam, GEO High Throughput Satellites (HTS), and O3b MEO high throughput and low latency capabilities to its end users.

By leveraging the combined strengths of the SES GEO and the MEO O3b satellite network, SES Space and Defense (SES Space and Defense) brings significant flexibility and game-changing connectivity to the U.S. Government. While the existing SES GEO satellite fleet is ideal for connectivity across a wide coverage area for a large number of simultaneous users, O3b MEO satellite services provide extremely high throughput (up to 1.6 Gigabits per beam, per second) in a more focused region.  Further, O3b satellites are significantly closer to the earth and provide the low latency required for cloud-enabled interactive applications and other real-time communication needs.

The SES GS team has the depth and breadth of understanding for the U.S. Government’s communication needs. By virtue of our team’s diverse operational and strategic military leadership experience, SES Space and Defense is ideally positioned to create solutions capitalizing on the innovations of combined SES and O3b capabilities.

More specifically, we have worked over the last two years with O3b to demonstrate these capabilities through mission-focused applications to dozens of senior leaders including U.S. Central Command, U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. State Department and Pentagon officials.  The applications include large file transfer (100 GB or larger), multiple, simultaneous High Definition Full-Motion Video transmissions, 4G LTE capabilities for a local enclave, and many other high throughput, low latency features.

No longer does the warfighter have to give up speed and throughput when they are deployed. By utilizing our combined GEO and MEO fleet, warfighters have access to  the same net-centric warfare capabilities they have in garrison.  Large files from ISR missions and simultaneous HD videos providing situational awareness can be pushed to the network edge or transported quickly to analysts in rear locations.

Additionally, 4G LTE delivered from O3b’s “fiber in the sky” allows soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines to securely and effectively use their own smartphones and tablets to connect with commanders. With that kind of real-time information at their fingertips, our U.S. leadership can make better-informed, life-saving decisions and maneuvers in the field. These are critical warfighting advantages.

In addition to the significant improvements O3b services will provide to warfighters, SES Space and Defense recently delivered a critical end-to-end solution using O3b in the Western Pacific. The National Weather Service (NWS) is using O3b fiber-like capacity to provide far more timely, reliable and effective weather forecasts and warnings from across the Pacific Ocean Region. Through O3b services provided in a contract between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) and SES Space and Defense, the NWS can now transmit large weather report files from observation offices in American Samoa to scientists and meteorologists in Hawaii and across to the mainland. It is the first O3b services agreement with the U.S. Government, and a great example of how SES Space and Defense and O3b are working more closely than ever to connect government agencies across the globe.

This is an exciting time for the U.S. Government to take advantage of industry’s innovations and breakthroughs. The pendulum has swung and commercial industry is now leading the charge for innovative, leading-edge solutions.  As a result, the U.S. Government end users are able to leverage the scalable capabilities offered by the SES Space and Defense GEO fleet and the game-changing features of O3b at MEO.

For additional information about O3b and its applications for the federal government, click on the following articles and resources:

White Paper: O3b “Fiber Like” Satellite Communications for U.S. Government Applications
Video: Fiber in the Sky
Milsat Magazine: What Fiber in the Sky Means to the Warfighter Today

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