Sodankylä Satellite Ground Station

Arctic Space Centre located north of the Arctic Circle in Sodankylä (67°22 N, 26°39 E) lies in an excellent location for receiving data from all polar orbiting spacecraft. ASC operates the satellite antennae: one antenna dedicated to direct broadcasting mission and two highly versatile 7.3 meter X-band antennae provide multi-mission support and are used to downlink data from various spacecraft like COSMO-SkyMed, Sentinel-1 and Suomi-NPP satellites. The flexibility of ground station system allows easy scheduling of new satellite missions to the operations schedule. The other 7.3 meter antenna also has S-band up-/downlink capability.


Technical properties of Sodankylä Ground Station antennas

Item SOD01 SOD02 SOD03
Reflector 2.4 m
X-band Cassegrain		 7.3 m
X-band Cassegrain		 7.3 m
X-band Cassegrain
S-band Prime Focus
G/T (X-Band)
      effective
G/T (S-band)
22.8 dB/K
≥33.39 dB/K
≥32.11 dB/K
≥19.81 dB/K
Gain
     X-band
     S-Band
52.11 dB
53.65 dB
42 dB
Tracking Auto and Program Track Auto and Program Track Auto and Program Track
Accuracy
     Pointing
     Tracking
0.1°
0.03°
0.1°
0.03°
0.043°
0.025°
De-/anti-icing Radome Electrical heating None
Satellite support Fully automated Fully automated Fully automated
Operational 2003 2011 2017
Frequency
     X-band D/L
     S-band U/L
     S-band D/L
7.7 - 8.5 GHz
7.7 - 8.4 GHz
7.75 - 8.4 Ghz
2025 - 2120 MHz
2200 - 2300 MHz
Transmit Amplifier 100W
Polarization
     Data
     Tracking
RHCP/LHCP
RHCP+LHCP
RHCP/LHCP
RHCP+LHCP
RHCP/LHCP
Coverage Hemispherical, no keyholes Hemispherical, no keyholes Hemispherical, no keyholes
Number of axis 3 3 3
Data channels 1 2 4
Data rate 0.665 - 20.8 Mbps 2-320 Mbps x 2 ch Up to 600 Mbps x 4 ch
Up to 1200 Mbps x 2 ch

Sodankylä National Satellite Data Centre focuses on fast delivery remote sensing product generation for scientific and commercial uses. The data centre's high performance computer arrays are capable of processing vast amounts of satellite data to value adding products to various users. The products can be delivered directly to customer or to large data archives for bulk use. Satellite data and products are transferred to users with no delay using high speed optical fiber.