ATLAS customers to benefit from FMI’s ground station services

The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has entered a cooperation agreement with satellite communications specialist ATLAS Space Operations to provide ground station services to ATLAS’s polar orbit customers. As such, FMI is further developing its Artic Space Centre in Sodankylä, Northern Finland, to support both national and international Earth observation satellite communications. FMI will begin by supporting ATLAS’s partner – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – by collecting polar orbiting environmental satellite data. According to FMI, satellite ground stations are costly investments and such collaborations maximize the efficiency of the investments for all parties involved, particularly the satellite operators as customers. “Public-private-partnerships enable cost efficient and flexible collaboration between national institutional offices,” explained Jyri Heilimo, head of FMI Arctic Space Centre. Mike Carey, founder and chief strategy officer for ATLAS Space Operations, added, “Establishing this partnership with FMI is a critical step in the advancement of ATLAS’s capability in the Arctic for supporting polar orbiting spacecraft.” The center’s Arctic circle location enables it to provide unparalleled support for polar orbiting satellites. The facility also operates as the National Satellite Data Centre which archives Earth observation data, disseminates satellite data and provides data processing services to Finnish users and international partners.