2018 SAR Controllers Workshop

NOAA/SARSAT along with USCG Office of Search and Rescue hosted the Search and Rescue (SAR) Controllers Workshop at the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction (NCWCP)
in College Park, Maryland USA, from March 5 – 9, 2018.  The workshop was attended by SAR professionals from the US Air Force and US Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Centers
(RCCs), as well as SAR Points of Contacts (SPOCs) from other countries that are supported by the US Mission Control Center (USMCC). This year there were over 80 attendees throughout
the week, the largest attendance since SARSAT began hosting the workshop. The SPOC attendees included Belize, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Corporación Centroamericana de Servicios de Navegación Aérea (COCESNA ).

This critical annual workshop provides an opportunity for the SARSAT US Mission Control Center to educate SAR data users on current SARSAT processes and procedures, provide SARSAT overview/background information, and share important lessons learned and best practices. Much of the workshop focused on understanding and interpreting the LEO/GEO/MEO alert data that are being distributed by the USMCC during MEOSAR early operational capability.

The US SARSAT Program (USCG, USAF, NOAA, and NASA) will use the feedback from this workshop to determine any need for policy or system changes or enhancements. In addition, the lessons learned from this workshop will be used to shape future workshops.