The Philippine Earth Data Resource and Observation Center, also known as the PEDRO Center is an organization tasked in operating satellite ground stations. It is part of the Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Micro-satellite (Phil-Microsat) program by the

Department of Science and Technology Department of Science and Technology may refer to: *Department of Science and Technology (Australia), an Australian Government department between November 1980 and December 1984 * Department of Science and Technology (India) * Department of Science ...

, which includes the deployment of the

Diwata-1 Diwata-1 also known as PHL-Microsat-1 was a Philippine microsatellite launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 23, 2016, and was deployed into orbit from the ISS on April 27, 2016. It was the first Philippine microsatellite an ...

and

Diwata-2 Diwata-2 or Diwata-2B is a Philippine microsatellite launched on October 29, 2018. It is the first satellite launched under the STAMINA4Space program. Development The satellite was developed by 11 scholars under the Philippine Department of Scien ...

microsatellites. It also receives information from commercial satellites.

History

The Philippine Earth Data Resource and Observation (PEDRO) Center project was implemented by the Advanced Science and Technology Institute of the

in December 2016 following the launch of the Philippines' first microsatellite,

on April 26, 2016. The project was implemented to be able to establish a ground receiving station that would gather data from satellites.

Satellite ground stations

PEDRO's first

satellite ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio wave ...

is situated at the

–Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST–ASTI) facility at the University of Philippines Diliman in

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,960,048 people. It was foun ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. The facility has a satellite tracking antenna. The ground station was initially planned to be located inside the

Subic Bay Freeport Zone The Subic Special Economic and Freeport Zone, often shorterned as Subic Bay or Subic, is a special economic zone and freeport area covering portions of the city of Olongapo and the town of Subic in Zambales, and the towns of Morong and Hermo ...

in Subic,

Zambales Zambales, officially the Province of Zambales ( fil, Lalawigan ng Zambales; ilo, Probinsia ti Zambales; Pangasinan: ''Luyag/Probinsia na Zambales''; xsb, Probinsya nin Zambales), is a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon ...

. This plan was reportedly changed in March 2016, with the ground station to be built in

Diliman Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,960,048 people. It was foun ...

instead. Construction began in 2016 and PEDRO became operational by June 2017. The second satellite ground station was launched on June 30, 2019 and is located at the

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP, ; fil, Pangasiwaan sa Abyasyong Sibil ng Pilipinas) is the civil aviation authority of the Philippines and is responsible for implementing policies on civil aviation to assure safe, econ ...

(CAAP) Transmitter Facility in

Davao City Davao City, officially the City of Davao ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Dabaw; ), is a first class highly urbanized city in the Davao Region, Philippines. The city has a total land area of , making it the largest city in the Philippines in terms of lan ...

Francisco Bangoy International Airport Francisco Bangoy International Airport ( ceb, Tugpahanang Pangkalibutanon sa Francisco Bangoy; fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Francisco Bangoy; ), also commonly known as Davao International Airport, is the main airport serving Davao City and th ...

. The Davao facility has a satellite tracking antenna and a container van which serves as a control room. A third ground station in Dumangas,

Iloilo Iloilo (), officially the Province of Iloilo ( hil, Kapuoran sang Iloilo; krj, Kapuoran kang Iloilo; tl, Lalawigan ng Iloilo), is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is the City of Iloilo, the ...

was launched in August 2022. While the first two stations were funded by the DOST, the Iloilo station was financed by the

Japan International Cooperation Agency The is a governmental agency that delivers the bulk of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the government of Japan. It is chartered with assisting economic and social growth in developing countries, and the promotion of international c ...

. The station was slated to open in July 2020 but was delayed because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Linked satellites

Aside from the PHL-Microsat satellites the Pedro Center has access to data of other third-party satellites. ;Multispectral satellites *

Maya-1 Maya-1 was a Filipino nanosatellite. It was developed under the Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite program (PHL-Microsat) and was jointly implemented by the University of the Philippines and the Department of Science and T ...

KompSat-3 KOMPSAT-3 (Korean Multi-purpose Satellite-3), also known as Arirang-3, is a South Korean multipurpose Earth observation satellite. It was launched from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan at 16:39 UTC on 17 May 2012. Like the earlier KOMPSAT-1 and ...

* PlanetScope (Constellation of 100+ nanosatellites) *

RapidEye RapidEye AG was a German geospatial information provider focused on assisting in management decision-making through services based on their own Earth-observation imagery. The company operated a five-satellite constellation producing 5-meter res ...

GeoEye-1 ''GeoEye-1'' is a high-resolution Earth observation satellite owned by DigitalGlobe, launched in September 2008. The satellite was acquired in the 2013 purchase of GeoEye. History On 1 December 2004, General Dynamics C4 Systems announced it ...

WorldView-1 ''WorldView-1'' (WV 1) is a commercial earth observation satellite owned by DigitalGlobe. WorldView-1 was launched on 18 September 2007, followed later by the ''WorldView-2'' in 2009. First imagery from ''WorldView-1'' was available in October 20 ...

WorldView-2 ''WorldView-2'' (WV 2) is a commercial Earth observation satellite owned by DigitalGlobe. ''WorldView-2'' provides commercially available panchromatic imagery of resolution, and eight-band multispectral imagery with resolution. It was launc ...

WorldView-3 ''WorldView-3'' (WV 3) is a commercial Earth observation satellite owned by DigitalGlobe. It was launched on 13 August 2014 to become DigitalGlobe's sixth satellite in orbit, joining '' Ikonos'' which was launched in 1999, ''QuickBird'' in 2001, ...

* Sentinel-2A *

Sentinel-2B Sentinel-2B is a European optical imaging satellite that was launched on 7 March 2017. It is the second Sentinel-2 satellite launched as part of the European Space Agency's Copernicus Programme, and its orbit will be phased 180° against Sen ...

;SAR satellites * KompSat-5 *

Cosmo-Skymed COSMO-SkyMed (COnstellation of small Satellites for the Mediterranean basin Observation) is an Earth-observation satellite space-based radar system funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and Ministry of Defence and conducted by the Ita ...

References

{{Philippine space program Earth stations in the Philippines Department of Science and Technology (Philippines) Research institutes in Metro Manila 2016 establishments in the Philippines