Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) The
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 3, or GOES-3,
is a weather satellite launched in 1978 that has long lost its
imaging capability. However, the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP)
still uses its fully functional communication transponder for
the approximately 7 hours a day when it is visible at the South
Pole. The University of Miami serves as the teleport for the
GOES-3, operating and controlling the satellite for the National
Science Foundation and providing the ground station at Richmond,
Florida. GOES-3 supports data rates of roughly 1 Mbps out of and
roughly 1.5 Mbps into South Pole Station. Its U.S. ground
station is in Miami, Florida, which is connected to an access
point in the USAP Denver data center by a dedicated
communications circuit, providing Internet and telephone
services to South Pole network users. About the USAP