WALTHAM, Mass., June 8 (UPI) -- Raytheon has upgraded the communications network used by scientists and the U.S. Air Force in Antarctica.
This is the third major communications upgrade at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for critical weather systems, Raytheon said in a news release.
Raytheon carried out the improvement work to support the future scientific and environmental satellite missions of the U.S.-Antarctic Program's three year-round research stations, with the McMurdo Station being the largest.
The National Science Foundation manages the U.S.-Antarctic Program. McMurdo Station. The McMurdo Station also hosts the Air Force's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.
Other missions using the McMurdo station for satellite downlink include the NASA Near Earth Network Sciences and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites or EUMETSAT polar-orbiting MetOp satellite.
Raytheon's upgrades include increasing the off-continent communications bandwidth from 20 megabits per second outbound to 60 megabits per second along with integrating an alternate downlink station in Australia into the networks.
