yann in the arctic

SvalSat

Even though I quite often see it from mountain tops and hear about it all the time, I didn't actually really know what it did.

So in simple terms lol: in those massive domes lie satellite transceivers. They send data out to polar orbiting satellites (for example: asking one to take a photo of an oil spill when it orbits over that specific location) and then acts as a receiver when the satellite hovers over Svalbard an hour or so later.  Another use is to download weather data (in fact, most of Europe's weather data is downloaded here).

A satellite will orbit over the poles 14 times a day. And so in order to receive data at every orbit, it only makes sense to have the tranceivers as high up north as possible. Because of it's location, SvalSat receives data from 14 out of 14  orbits, unlike other ground station further south which only receive a fraction of this.

We were really lucky to have a sneak peak inside (closed for public normally), and even got to go inside one of the domes. All very interesting stuff.