Iridium Tide Gauge Telemetry

Iridium tide-gauge telemetry relays water-level data over the Iridium satellite constellation, 66 low-Earth-orbit satellites that give pole-to-pole coverage with no fixed ground footprint. It serves stations beyond GSM or VSAT reach: remote islands, Arctic and Antarctic coasts, and offshore buoys, where it is often the only path for the near real-time stream that tsunami and storm-surge warning centers need. Short Burst Data messages carry a compact level record every few minutes at low power, suiting solar-charged stations. The IOC sea-level network uses Iridium for many GLOSS Core Network gauges in the southern ocean and the deep Pacific.