A Goes Command Receiver For Weather Buoys

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) system is ideal for relaying data from remote buoys. However, transmission timing places severe constraints on the accuracy and reliability of system clocks, particularly those which remain unattended for long periods of time. The GOES satellite has the capability of transmitting commands on its interrogate link. A new generation of GOES Command Receiver (GCR) for the offshore weather buoy network of the Canadian Atmospheric Environment Service has been developed to receive these commands. The commands are structured to allow control over all the transmitting parameters. The cost of this development was substantially reduced by the use of existing receiver components.