page_title: Svalbard Satellite Station
hierarchical_section_title: Svalbard Satellite Station
caption_attribution_description: English: Internal structure of a dome at Svalsat
context_page_description: Svalbard Satellite Station or SvalSat is a satellite ground station located on Platåberget near Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway. Opened in 1997, it is operated by Kongsberg Satellite Services, a joint venture between Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace and the Norwegian Space Centre. SvalSat and KSAT's Troll Satellite Station in Antarctica are the only ground stations that can see a low altitude polar orbiting satellite on every revolution as the earth rotates. As of December 2019 the facility consists of almost 100 multi-mission and customer-dedicated antennas which operate in the C, L, S, X and K bands. The station provides ground services to more satellites than any other facility in the world.
  Customers with their own installations include the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the European Space Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The station also reads and distributes data from the Japanese Hinode solar research satellite.
context_section_description: Svalbard Satellite Station (Norwegian: Svalbard satelittstasjon) or SvalSat is a satellite ground station located on Platåberget near Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway. Opened in 1997, it is operated by Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), a joint venture between Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace and the Norwegian Space Centre (NSC). SvalSat and KSAT's Troll Satellite Station (TrollSat) in Antarctica are the only ground stations that can see a low altitude polar orbiting satellite (e.g., in sun-synchronous orbit) on every revolution as the earth rotates. As of December 2019 the facility consists of almost 100 multi-mission and customer-dedicated antennas which operate in the C, L, S, X and K bands. The station provides ground services to more satellites than any other facility in the world.
  Customers with their own installations include the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The station also reads and distributes data from the Japanese Hinode solar research satellite. The facility has seen a large increase in smaller customers after 2004, when the Svalbard Undersea Cable System started providing a fiber Internet connection. Concessions for downloading are only issued to civilian satellites, yet some data has been indirectly used by armed forces. There is a disagreement as to whether this constitutes a breach of the Svalbard Treaty.
caption: Internal view of a dome containing a dish antenna for satellite communications
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 7D Mark II", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 9.1.1 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2017:10:02 21:53:21", "Image Artist": "Alex Minetto", "Image Copyright": "Alex Minetto", "Image ExifOffset": "270", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "946", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9755", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "2500", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "2500", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:09:08 17:15:05", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:09:08 17:15:05", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "4906891/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "17", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "30", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "30", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "79937569/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "79937569/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "Alex Minetto", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "058021004253", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[17, 40, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF17-40mm f/4L USM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000000000"}