Cospas-Sarsat
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Cospas-Sarsat is an international satellite-based search and rescue system, established by Canada, France, the United States, and the former Soviet Union in 1979. These four countries jointly helped develop a 406 MHz satellite Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB), an element of the Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS) designed to operate with the Cospas-Sarsat system. These automatic-activating EPIRBs, now required on International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) ships, commercial fishing vessels, and all passenger ships, are designed to transmit to a rescue coordination center a vessel identification and an accurate location of the vessel from anywhere in the world. Newest designs incorporate GPS receivers to transmit highly accurate positions of distress.
Starting on 1 February 2009, the Cospas-Sarsat System will cease processing signals from 121.5 MHz and 243 MHz beacons; from then on only signals from 406 MHz beacons will be processed [link].
COSPAS is an acronym for the Russian words "Cosmicheskaya Sistyema Poiska Avariynich Sudov" which translate to "Space System for the Search of Vessels in Distress". SARSAT is an acronym for Search And Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking [link].
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