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Eareckson Station, Alaska
Eareckson Air Station , formerly Shemya Air Force Base, is a United States Air Force military airport located on the island of Shemya, in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands. The airport was closed as an active Air Force Station on 1 July 1994. However, it is still owned by the USAF and is operated by the USAF Pacific Air Forces Regional Support Center at Elmendorf AFB for refueling purposes. It also serves as a diversion airport for civilian aircraft. The base previously hosted the AN/FPS-17 and AN/FPS-80 radars and since 1977 the more powerful AN/FPS-108 COBRA DANE phased-array radar. Overview Eareckson Air Station is located on the western tip of Alaska's Aleutian islands near the larger island of Attu, lying approximately 1,500 miles southwest of Anchorage. The airport lies on the south side of the 2-mile by 4-mile island and is 98 feet above mean sea level. Shemya Island has been the scene of two major earthquakes. The 1965 Rat Islands earthquake, measuring 8.7 on the moment mag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shemya
Shemya or Simiya () is a small island in the Semichi Islands group of the Near Islands chain in the Aleutian Islands archipelago southwest of Alaska, at . It has a land area of , and is about southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. It is wide and long. History The Russian vessel ''Saint Peter and Paul'' wrecked at Shemya in 1762. Most of the crew survived. In 1943, a United States Air Force radar surveillance, weather station, aircraft refueling station, and a runway opened on Shemya and are still in operation. At its peak in the 1960s, the station, originally Shemya Air Force Base or Shemya Station, had 1,500 workers. In 1956, Northwest Airlines leased Shemya Island from the U.S. government to use as a refueling station on their North Pacific route. According to Northwest's website, that made them "the first airline to operate its own airport." Northwest was operating Lockheed Constellation Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, L-1049G model propliners on its "Orient Express" servic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aleutian Islands
The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before Alaska Purchase, 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain of 14 main, larger volcanic islands and 55 smaller ones. Most of the Aleutian Islands belong to the U.S. state of Alaska, with the archipelago encompassing the Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska, Aleutians West Census Area and the Aleutians East Borough, Alaska, Aleutians East Borough. The Commander Islands, located further to the west, belong to the Russian Federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Kamchatka Krai, of the Russian Far East. The islands form part of the Aleutian Arc of the Northern Pacific Ocean, and occupy a land area of 6,821 sq mi (17,666 km2) that extends westward roughly from the Alaska Peninsula, Alaskan Peninsula mainland, in the direction of the Kamchatka Peninsula; the archipelago acts as a border between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VHF Omnidirectional Range
Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range Station (VOR) is a type of short-range VHF radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft with a VOR receiver to determine the azimuth (also radial), referenced to magnetic north, between the aircraft to/from fixed VOR ground transmitter, radio beacons. VOR and the first DME(1950) system (referenced to 1950 since different from today's DME/N) to provide the slant range distance, were developed in the United States as part of a U.S. civil/military program for Aeronautical Navigation Aids in 1945. Deployment of VOR and DME(1950) began in 1949 by the U.S. CAA (Civil Aeronautics Administration). ICAO standardized VOR and DME(1950) in 1950 in ICAO Annex ed.1. Frequencies for the use of VOR are standardized in the very high frequency (VHF) band between 108.00 and 117.95 MHz Chapter 3, Table A. To improve azimuth accuracy of VOR even under difficult siting conditions, Doppler VOR (DVOR) was developed in the 1960s. VOR is accordi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TACAN
A tactical air navigation system, commonly referred to by the acronym TACAN, is a navigation system initially designed for naval aircraft to acquire moving landing platforms (i.e., ships) and later expanded for use by other military aircraft. It provides the user with bearing and distance (slant-range or hypotenuse) to a ground or ship-borne station. It is, from an end-user perspective, a more accurate version of the VOR/ DME system that provides bearing and range information for civil aviation. The DME portion of the TACAN system is available for civil use; at VORTAC facilities where a VOR is combined with a TACAN, civil aircraft can receive VOR/DME readings. Aircraft equipped with TACAN avionics can use this system for enroute navigation as well as non-precision approaches to landing fields. However, a TACAN-only equipped aircraft cannot receive bearing information from a VOR-only station. History The TACAN navigation system is an evolution of radio transponder navigation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Non-directional Beacon
A non-directional beacon (NDB) or non-directional radio beacon is a radio beacon which does not include directional information. Radio beacons are radio transmitters at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. NDB are in contrast to directional radio beacons and other navigational aids, such as low-frequency radio range, VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) and tactical air navigation system (TACAN). NDB signals Ground conductivity, follow the curvature of the Earth, so they can be received at much greater distances at lower altitudes, a major advantage over VOR. However, NDB signals are also affected more by atmospheric conditions, mountainous terrain, coastal refraction and electrical storms, particularly at long range. The system, developed by United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) Captain Albert Francis Hegenberger, was used to fly the world's first instrument approach on May 9, 1932. Types of NDBs NDBs used for aviation are standardised by the Internatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Runway
In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, grass, soil, dirt, gravel, ice, sand or road salt, salt). Runways, taxiways and Airport apron, ramps, are sometimes referred to as "tarmac", though very few runways are built using Tarmacadam, tarmac. Takeoff and landing areas defined on the surface of water for seaplanes are generally referred to as waterways. Runway lengths are now International Civil Aviation Organization#Use of the International System of Units, commonly given in meters worldwide, except in North America where feet are commonly used. History In 1916, in a World War I war effort context, the first concrete-paved runway was built in Clermont-Ferrand in France, allowing local company Michelin to manufacture Bréguet Aviation military aircraft. In January 1919, aviation p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1965 Rat Islands Earthquake
The 1965 Rat Islands earthquake occurred at 05:01 UTC, on 4 February (19:01, 3 February local time). It had a magnitude of 8.7, making it one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history, and triggered a tsunami of over 10 m on Shemya Island, but caused very little damage. Tectonic setting The Rat Islands form part of the Aleutian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands forming an island arc, that results from the subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the North American plate. This plate boundary, the Aleutian Trench, has been the location of many megathrust earthquakes. Characteristics The 1965 Rat Islands earthquake share common features with the 1963 Kuril Islands earthquake and the 1964 Alaska earthquake. Earthquake The earthquake was associated with a 600 km long rupture along the plate boundary, based on the distribution of aftershocks. The pattern of energy release suggest the presence of three asperities along the plate interface, each causing a pulse of momen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anchorage
Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna Borough, had a population of 398,328 in 2020, accounting for more than half the state's population. At of land area, the city is the fourth-largest by area in the U.S. Anchorage is in Southcentral Alaska, at the terminus of the Cook Inlet, on a peninsula formed by the Knik Arm to the north and the Turnagain Arm to the south. First settled as a tent city near the mouth of Ship Creek in 1915 when construction on the Alaska Railroad began, Anchorage was incorporated as a city in November 1920. In September 1975, the City of Anchorage merged with the Greater Anchorage Area Borough, creating the Municipality of Anchorage. The municipal city limits span , encompassin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Attu Island
Attu (, ) is an island in the Near Islands (part of the Aleutian Islands chain). It is one of the westernmost points of the U.S. state of Alaska. The island became uninhabited in 2010, making it the largest uninhabited island that is part of the United States politically. (archived June 25, 2017) In the chain of the Aleutians, the islands immediately to the west of Attu are the Russian Commander Islands, away (and on the other side of the International Date Line). Attu is nearly from the Alaskan mainland and northeast of the northernmost of the Kuril Islands of Russia, as well as being from Anchorage, from Alaska's capital of Juneau, and from New York City. Attu is about in size with a land area of , making it #23 on the list of largest islands in the United States. Attu Station, a former Coast Guard LORAN station, is located at , making it one of the westernmost points of the United States relative to the rest of the country. (Technically it is in the Eastern Hemisph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
COBRA DANE
The AN/FPS-108 COBRA DANE is a PESA phased array radar installation operated by Raytheon for the United States Space Force (originally for the United States Air Force) at Eareckson Air Station on the island of Shemya, Aleutian Islands, Alaska. The system was built in 1976 and brought online in 1977 for the primary mission of gathering intelligence about Russia's ICBM program in support of verification of the SALT II arms limitation treaty. Its single face diameter phased array radar antenna faces the Kamchatka Peninsula and Russia's Kura Test Range. COBRA DANE operates in the 1215–1400 MHz band and can track items as small as a basketball sized drone at distances of several hundred miles. The "COBRA" designation indicates a general Defense Intelligence program and, in accordance with the Joint Electronics Type Designation System, the "AN/FPS-108" designation represents the 108th design of an Army-Navy fixed radar (pulsed) electronic device for searching. Descriptio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AN/FPS-80
The United States Space Surveillance Network (SSN) detects, tracks, catalogs and identifies artificial objects orbiting Earth, e.g. active/inactive satellites, spent rocket bodies, or fragmentation debris. The system is the responsibility of United States Space Command and operated by the United States Space Force and its functions are: * Predict when and where a decaying space object will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere; * Prevent a returning space object, which to radar looks like a missile, from triggering a false alarm in missile-attack warning sensors of the U.S. and other countries; * Chart the present position of space objects and plot their anticipated orbital paths; * Detect new artificial objects in space; * Correctly map objects traveling in Earth orbit; * Produce a running catalog of artificial space objects; * Determine ownership of a re-entering space object; * The Space Surveillance Network includes dedicated, collateral, and contributing electro-optical, passiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
