Space

Morocco and Communication Satellite Systems

Morocco currently operates three satellite stations providing national and international circuits (the Mohammed V station at Rabat, a station at Laayoune and another one at Dakhla).

It is a partner in the operation of the ARABSAT system and has signed a cooperation agreement with EUTELSAT and INTELSAT for the direct transmission of national television and radio programmes in Europe, Canada, the United States of America and certain Scandinavian countries.

In 1995 it became linked to the international Inmarsat network and to the VSAT business communication network. These networks are managed by the government department with competence for them, namely the Ministry for Post and Telecommunications.

In addition, the National Office for Post and Telecommunications, which comes under this Ministry, carried out an extensive modernization programme in 1995 in order to digitize and extend the entire equipment of Earth stations.

With regard to satellite data, stations are currently in operation to receive METEOSAT weather satellite data, for example at the National Department of Meteorology (DMN).

There are plans to set up two NOAA stations, one for meteorological studies at the DMN and the other at the Royal Centre for Spaceborne Remote Sensing (CRTS) for receiving advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) data. This station is to be set up within the framework of the GLOVE project, which is co-financed by the European Union.

The distribution of satellite images in the Kingdom is the responsibility of CRTS. In order to accomplish this task, the Centre has concluded contacts with a number of satellite image distributors: Spot Image in France for Spot data, Eurimage in Italy for LANDSAT, NOAA, ERS and IRS data, etc. CRTS is also responsible for centralizing the national archives of satellite data and data from projects using spaceborne remote sensing.