Unstrung reports that telecom services across South Asia are gradually being restored after the devastating tsunami that hit the region last weekend. Subsea communications links will be vital as aid agencies the world over continue the work of assessing the damage and providing assistance.

The major undersea cables, operated by consortiums of telecom providers, survived largely unscathed — Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. says the Tata Indicom-Chennai-Singapore cable, SEA-ME-WE-2 and SEA-ME-WE-3, and the Western Africa Submarine Cable (WASC) were not affected; neither was Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd.’s 3,200 kilometer cable connecting Chennai, India, with Singapore.

The Press Trust of India reported Tuesday that the Malaysian leg of the South Africa Far East (SAFE) submarine cable had been disrupted and traffic was being rerouted via VSNL s redundancy cables. There was no word on when the cable could be restored although a representative from the Melkbosstrand Submarine Cable Station, told DailyWireless that efforts are being made to have the system repaired ASAP.

The SAT-3/WASC cable links Europe with West Africa and SAFE continues the connection on to India and Malaysia. The Indian link remains operational.

Leasing a 45 Mbps line to Hawaii (or Japan) is cheap using Tyco’s 7.86 terabit transpacific fiber line (which terminates in Portland’s Brewery Blocks). San Luis Obesbo might also be a sweet spot.

The TxVision teleport in Hawaii can uplink to two-thirds of the world s population in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and India. Those satellites include AGILA 2, MEASAT 2 and Japan’s JSAT DBS (JCSAT-8). A far eastern footprint is one hop away. Alternately, New Skies NSS-6 in Australia, can “see” Asia, the Middle East and Southern Africa with spot beams.

Transpacific Fiber is just laying there:

• TyCom Transpacific Fiber connects Japan to the West Coast, then returns to Asia via Hawaii and Guam. The 8-fiber pair architecture, using both 64- and 96-channel DWDM transmission technology, will provide a state-of-the-art system having a design capacity up to 7.68 terabits/second. The TyCom Global Network (TGN) will also connect to other Asian countries including South Korea, Philippines, China, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and link all pan-Asian and transpacific segments into the TGN system.

• AT&T’s WorldNet’s has two cables that go overseas from Bandon, Oregon. The 5Gbps TPC-5 goes to Japan from with a spur to California (map1 & map2) and a second, the China-US cable. China-US runs 80-gigabits and has 30 international partners led by AT&T in North America. It’s one of the major links between China and the U.S. mainland. The China-US cable has four pairs of fiber arranged in a VERY big loop. Each pair, equivalent to 241,920 circuits, has a speed of 20 Gbps, giving the network a total capacity of 80 Gbps and 967,680 circuits. Optical amplifiers and SDH multiplexing equipment are used in the network.

• Global Crossing’s PC-1 landed in Harbour Pointe, Washington in 1990 while Alaska United lands in Seattle and also links to Alaska. PC-1 was the most advanced Pacific telecommunication cable ever deployed at the time.

Here’s a review of the big West Coast Transpacific pipes:

• AUFS Alaska United Cable System
  (Updated 23 May 2002 - AT&T)
  In-Service: Feb 1999
  Seattle, Washington, USA — Juneau, Alaska, USA — Whittier, Alaska, USA — Valdez, Alaska, USA - 3,751 km at 4 x 2.5 Gb/s Maintenance Authorities: GCI, AT&T

• PC1
  (Updated 20 October 2000 - Global Crossing)
  In-Service: Dec 1999 North Ring; Nov 2000 South Ring
  Grover Beach, CA (US) - Harbor Pointe, WA (US) - Ajigaura (Japan) - Shima (Japan) 21,000 km at 4 x 20 Gb/s Maintenance Authority: Global Crossing

• NorthStar
  (Updated 16 October 2000 - Telstra)
  In-Service: Oct 1999
  Nedonna Beach, Oregon, U.S.A. — Branch Juneau, Alaska, U.S.A. — Whittier, Alaska, USA — Valdez, Alaska, USA - 3,352 km at 6 x 2.5 Gb/s Maintenance Authority: WCI Cable

• NPC North Pacific Cable, Pacific City, OR
  In-Service: May 1991
  Pacific City, Oregon U.S. — (Miura, Japan): branch Oregon to Seward, Alaska. 9,531 km at 3 x 420 Mb/s, 1 x 420 Mb/s Maintenance Authority: PT Cable, Inc. (C&W IDC, C&W plc)

• Tyco Transpacific
  (Entered 10 April 2001, Tyco)
  RFS: June 2002
  Ring system with a maximum capacity of 5.12 Tb/s. Seg 1 - Emi, Japan to Nedonna Beach, Oregon, USA 8338 km Seg 2 - Toyohashi, Japan to Piti, Guam 2741 km Seg 3 - Agat, Guam to Lualualei, Hawaii, USA 6604 km Seg 4 - Kahe Point, Hawaii, USA to Hermosa Beach, California, USA 4445 km Seg 5 - Hermosa Beach, California, USA to Twin Rocks, Oregon, USA 2064 km Maintenance Authority: Tyco

• TPC-5 Trans-Pacific Cable No. 5
  (Updated 23 May 2002 - AT&T)
  Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, Grover Beach and Hermosa Beach, CA, Fiber-optic Cables:
  In Service: Dec 1996 San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.A. — Keawaula, Hawaii, U.S.A. — Tumon Bay, Guam, U.S.A. — Miyazaki, Japan — Ninomiya, Japan — Bandon, Oregon, U.S.A. — San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.A. 24,593km at 2 x 5 Gb/s Maintenance Authorities:- AT&T, KDDI

• Coos Bay and Bandon, OR
  China-US Cable Network
  (Updated 23 May 2002 - AT&T)
  RFS Dec 1998
  San Luis Obispo, Calif, USA — Tanguisson Point, Guam — Okinawa — Shantou, China — Fangshan, Taiwan — Chongming, China — Pusan, Korea — Chikura, Japan — Bandon, Oregon, USA - approx. 30,000 km at 4 x 20 Gb/s Maintenance Authorities: AT&T, ITDC, CT, NTT, KT, KDDI

• China-US Cable Network
  (Updated 23 May 2002 - AT&T)
  Under Construction: RFS Dec 1998
  San Luis Obispo, Calif, USA — Tanguisson Point, Guam — Okinawa — Shantou, China — Fangshan, Taiwan — Chongming, China — Pusan, Korea — Chikura, Japan — Bandon, Oregon, USA - approx. 30,000 km at 4 x 20 Gb/s Maintenance
  Authorities: AT&T, ITDC, CT, NTT, KT, KDDI

• Japan-US Cable
  (Updated 23 May 2002 - AT&T)
  In-Service: 2000
  The Japan-U.S. Cable Network consists of 9 segments connecting 3 landing points in the United States and 3 landing points in Japan with approximately 21,000km of 8 fiber submarine cable in a 100% self-healing ring configuration. The Network uses state-of-the-art SDH technology to provide an ultimate capacity better than 160Gbits/s per fiber pair for a minimum design capacity of 640Gbits/s. Maintenance Authorities: MCI-WorldCom, AT&T, KDDI, Japan Telecom, NTTWN

• Southern Cross Cable Network
  (Updated 20 May 2002 - SCCL)
  In-Service: Nov 2000
  Segment E: Morro Bay, California, US Mainland to Hillsboro, Oregon, US Mainland
  Segment F2: Hillsboro, Oregon, US Mainland to Nedonna Beach, Oregon, US Mainland
  Segment F1: Nedonna Beach, Oregon, US Mainland to Kahe Point, Ohau, Hawaiian Islands
  Each fibre pair is capable of being upgraded to 160Gbit/s. Capacity on the segments is divided into 3 SDH rings comprising: Total cumulative length of the segments is approximately 30,500km. Maintenance Authority: Southern Cross Cables Limited (SCCL) through CW Optus, TNZ, Verizon, Worldcom and Fintel Harbour Pointe, Lynnwood and Seattle, WA

• PAC
  (Updated 20 October 2000 - Global Crossing)
  In Service: Nov 2000
  Grover Beach, CA (US) - Tijuana (Mexico) - Mazatl n (Mexico) - Fort Amador (Panama) - Puerto Viejo (Venezuela) - St. Croix (USVI) 9,500km at 2 x 10 Gb/s Maintenance Authority: Global Crossing

• HAW-4 Hawaii - US Mainland No. 4
  (Updated 23 May 2002 - AT&T)
  In-Service: 18 April 1989
  Point Arena, California, U.S.A. — Makaha, Oahu, Hawaii U.S.A. 4,238 km at 280 Mb/s Maintenance Authorities: AT&T, Hawaiian Telephone Company

• HAW-5 Hawaii - US Mainland No. 5
  (Updated 23 May 2002 - AT&T)
  In-Service: Jan 1993
  San Luis Obispo, California U.S. — Keawaula, Hawaii U.S. 4,775km at 560 Mb/s Maintenance Authority: AT&T

Google recently bought Keyhole for high resolution, interactive flybys. You can fly through 12+ Terabytes of Earth imagery at home. Anyone can buy Digital Globe’s 1 ft satellite imagery. Other satellite imaging is available from Orbimage, Space Imaging, ImageSat, Indian Remote Sensing, RadarSat and Spot. FORMOSAT-2 is a Taiwan imaging satellite.

A NASA satellite formation, consisting of six satellites flying in close proximity (below), will improve the understanding of how clouds and aerosols regulate the Earth s climate.

The first satellite, Aqua (acquires precise atmospheric and oceanic measurements), was launched in 2002. The second one, Aura (observes the atmosphere), launched in June 2004, while CloudSAT (will use advanced radar to “slice” through clouds to see their vertical structure), CALIPSO (will provide key measurements of aerosol and cloud properties needed to improve climate predictions), and PARASOL (French’s CNES microsatellite project will measure the radiative impact of clouds), started their mission in October 2004. The last one, OCO, will join them in 2006 and provides space-based observations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal anthropogenic driver of climate change.

NASA’s MODIS (or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) is a key instrument aboard the Terra (EOS AM) and Aqua (EOS PM) satellites. A Rapid Response system (orbit tracks) provide rapid access to multispectral data globally.

Hyperspectral images provide many different wavebands allowing a variety of surface features to be analysed. Each pixel in an image has up to 200 values associated with it. Vexcell’s flyby software combines synthetic aperture radar (SAR), LIDAR, maps, GIS and photogrammetry.

Fusing high resolution panchromatic data with lower resolution multispectral data over a 3D LIDAR database can create informative, high-resolution flybys that can be made available to laptops everywhere. Google and HP can do it. IBM’s World Community Grid aims to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. The United States government, by comparision, seems ineffectual.

Freefall for Mac OS-X (below), simulates the flight path of more than 650 actual satellites. Lloyd Wood’s free SaVi simulates orbits and coverage, in two and three dimensions, and runs on Linux and Windows (Java simulation).

Here’s a free Java 3D satellite tracker that does most everything. SeeSat-L and their List Serve have mailing lists for visual satellite observers. Download the latest Satellite Tracking Elements to view any satellite location. Here’s NASA’s WorldWind, a Keyhole like terraserver of earth images and a terrific shot of the Space Station (6 Megapixels).

LyngSat lists more than one hundred geosynch satellites over Asia & the South Pacific. Jonathan’s Space Report has the latest news and World SpaceFlight News has more space links than anyone. Here’s the latest from Vandenburg. Spaceflight Now has a regularly updated listing of planned missions from spaceports around the globe. More satellite information is available at Network Magazine, Lloyd Wood’s Satellite Constellations, The SkyREPORT, LyngSat Satellite Chart, Global VSAT Forum, Boeing Satellite Systems, Loral Skynet, PanAmSat and SES Americom.

Mother of Storms by John Barnes, merges climate change, game networking, politics and sex together to make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.

Apple Computer listed these links to help survivors and their families:

• American Red Cross International Response Fund
• AmeriCares South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund
• Direct Relief International International Assistance Fund
• M decins Sans Fronti res International Tsunami Emergency Appeal
• Oxfam Asian Earthquake & Tsunami Fund
• Sarvodaya Relief Fund for Tsunami Tragedy
• Save the Children Asia Earthquake/Tsunami Relief Fund
• UNICEF South Asia Tsunami Relief Efforts

Posted by Sam Churchill on Thursday, December 30th, 2004 at 7:43 am.