All corrections
Wikipedia May 4, 2026 at 05:28 AM

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argos_(satellite_system)

5 corrections found

1
Claim
Decommissioned June 2025
Correction

For NOAA-15, this date is wrong: NOAA says the satellite was decommissioned on August 19, 2025, not in June 2025.

Full reasoning

In the NOAA-15 row, the status cell says "Decommissioned June 2025". NOAA's own operations pages give a different date.

  • NOAA Satellite Operations says NOAA-15 was decommissioned on August 19, 2025 at 20:37 UTC.
  • NOAA's POES status page repeats that NOAA-15 was decommissioned on Aug 19, 2025.

So the NOAA-15 entry's month is incorrect.

2 sources
2
Claim
Decommissioned June 2025
Correction

For NOAA-19, this date is wrong: NOAA says the satellite was decommissioned on August 13, 2025, not in June 2025.

Full reasoning

In the NOAA-19 row, the status cell says "Decommissioned June 2025". Official NOAA status pages contradict that.

  • NOAA Satellite Operations says NOAA-19 was decommissioned on August 13, 2025 at 16:55 UTC.
  • NOAA's POES status page also states NOAA-19 was decommissioned on Aug 13, 2025.

So the NOAA-19 entry's month is incorrect.

2 sources
3
Claim
Argos is operated by CLS, based in Toulouse, France, and its United States subsidiary, Woods Hole Group.
Correction

This is outdated: official sources now say Argos is operated worldwide by Kinéis, not by CLS/Woods Hole Group.

Full reasoning

Current official Argos sources contradict this sentence.

  • CNES says: "Argos is today operated worldwide by Kineis".
  • NOAA's Argos DCS page says CLS, Kinéis, and Woods Hole Group process the data and deliver it to end users, while the system itself is operated through the international Argos cooperative program.

So CLS and Woods Hole Group are not the current operators of Argos in the way this sentence states. The sentence appears to reflect an older operational arrangement and is now outdated.

2 sources
  • Argos | CNES

    Instigated in 1978 by CNES and the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Argos is today operated worldwide by Kineis.

  • Argos Data Collection and location System (DCS) | OSPO

    CNES subsidiary companies, Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS) and Kinéis in Toulouse, France and Woods Hole Group (formerly CLS America) in Lanham, Maryland process the data and deliver it to end users.

4
Claim
There are 22,000 active transmitters (8,000 of which are used in animal tracking) in over 100 countries.
Correction

Official Argos sources now report roughly 13,000 to 14,000 active platforms/transmitters worldwide, not 22,000.

Full reasoning

This figure does not match current official counts.

  • NOAA's Argos DCS page says there are "nearly 13,000 active Argos platforms" in 100+ countries.
  • CNES lists "14,000 transmitters operating around the world" as a current key figure for Argos.

Those are the current official numbers from the agencies that run the system, and both are far below 22,000. That makes the article's present-tense claim materially incorrect.

2 sources
5
Claim
At a vantage point of 850 km, satellites cover approximately 5000 km2 of Earth.
Correction

The official Argos documentation says the satellite footprint is about 5,000 kilometers in diameter, not 5,000 square kilometers.

Full reasoning

This statement mixes up diameter with area.

Official Argos documentation says each satellite sees transmitters within an approximate 5,000 kilometer diameter footprint/visibility circle. CNES likewise describes a circle with a diameter of 5,000 km.

A footprint that is 5,000 km in diameter is vastly larger than 5,000 km² of surface area. So the article's unit here is wrong: it should refer to a roughly 5,000-km-wide footprint, not 5,000 square kilometers.

2 sources
  • How Argos Works? - Argos

    At any given time, each satellite simultaneously "sees" all transmitters within an approximate 5,000 kilometer diameter "footprint", or visibility circle.

  • Système | CNES

    Chaque satellite voit simultanément et à tout moment toutes les balises situées à l'intérieur d'un cercle d'un diamètre de 5 000 km.

Model: OPENAI_GPT_5 Prompt: v1.16.0