Organised by the Polish Navigation Forum, the 2019 edition of the European Navigation Conference will take place in Warsaw, Poland, 8-12 Aprl, 2019.
/>“Welcome! On behalf of European Group of Institutes of Navigation (EUGIN) and the Polish Navigation Forum (PNF), I invite you to participate in the next edition of European Navigation Conference, ENC 2019. Looking forward to seeing you in Warsaw!”

Krzysztof Czaplewski, Chairman of the ENC 2019 Organizing Committee

ESA’s Aeolus wind mission will provide timely and accurate profiles of the world’s winds and further information on aerosols and clouds. This mission will advance our understanding of atmospheric dynamics. It will also provide much-needed information to improve weather forecasts and contribute to climate research.

The satellite, an example shown here, carries a single instrument: a Doppler wind lidar (light+radar) called Aladin. This sophisticated instrument is designed to probe the lowermost 30 km of the atmosphere along the satellite’s orbital path. Comprising a powerful laser, a large telescope and a very sensitive receiver, Aladin will be the first wind lidar in space. In cloud-free air the lidar will probe the atmosphere down to the surface, or to the top of dense cloud.

This is the formal announcement as a Call for Papers in respect of INC 2018. It is important to mention that delegates from last year’s event, INC2017, referred to it as: “an excellent conference for information exchange and updating knowledge”, and “every year opportunities at INC are increasing and it has become a very interesting forum to attend.”

Deadline for sumission is July, 27, 2018.

This satellite image, captured by Sentinel-2A on 9 July 2018, shows a huge iceberg perilously close to the village of Innaarsuit (indicated in red) on the west coast of Greenland. It is understood that if the berg breaks apart, waves resulting from the falling ice could wash away parts of the village.

Here the 169 residents of Innaarsuit are relatively used to seeing large icebergs floating by, but weighing around 10 million tonnes, the berg shown is reported to be the largest in memory. With chunks of ice calving from the iceberg, a number of residents were evacuated amid fears of a bigger break up.

It was announced from Portsmouth on 16 July that ASV Global (ASV), in partnership with Sonardyne International Ltd., the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and SeeByte, have successfully delivered a long-endurance, multi-vehicle, autonomous survey solution.

A recent two-week trial in Scotland’s Loch Ness was the culmination of the three-year Autonomous Surface and Sub-surface Survey System collaborative project, part-funded by Innovate UK and Dstl.

The aim of the project was to deliver an integrated system to perform low cost, full water column marine surveys using multiple autonomous systems.

On 13 July CANSO, the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, announced that it is seeking strong cooperation and a greater sense of urgency to address the forecast air traffic capacity shortages and delays in Europe.

It welcomes and supports the joint call for action from the European Commission and the European Parliament. CANSO and its Members are working hard to improve air traffic management performance in Europe but States need to ensure a pan-European approach with more cross-border cooperation, adequate funding for infrastructure expansion and modernisation, and appropriate performance-based regulation.

The International Harbour Masters’ Association (IHMA) is delighted to announce that its new President is Captain Allan Gray, Harbour Master, Port of Fremantle, Australia.

Captain Gray had a 20 year career at sea and traded in various vessels including ro-ro, container, bulk carriers and LPG tankers. On coming ashore he was a Vessel Traffic Manager at Mackay/Haypoint and Reefcentre. He joined Fremantle Ports in July 2006 as Deputy Harbour Master and was appointed Harbour Master in September 2008. Captain Gray was previously the Federal Master for the Company of Master Mariners Australia and was later awarded Life Membership.

IHMA is delighted that its initiative to introduce awards highlighting the contribution of people and organisations to port operations has met with such a positive response. The first ever IHMA awards were announced at the Association’s biennial Congress Dinner held at the Headquarters of the International Maritime Organization on 27 June 2018.

The Safe, Efficient and Secure Port Award to Pilbara Ports Authority for Under-Keel Clearance Management at Port Hedland in conjunction with IHMA Commercial Member OMC International.

The Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Profession of Harbour Master Award to Captain Andreas Mai, Harbour Master, Port of Bremerhaven and Bremen.

The Port Operations Photograph of the Year Award to the Harbour Master’s Office of the Port of Rotterdam for its photo of a hybrid patrol vessel (illustrated).

ACI’s Arctic Shipping Summit is moving to Hamburg, Germany for its 13th gathering in the series and will take on a new look for December 2018, it is reported. ACI are bringing together stakeholders from all parts of the Arctic to discuss their involvement in the ever-changing Northern Shipping Route.

The two day conference will see an assembly of companies and organisations such as coast guards, senior Arctic government officials, shipping companies, LNG projects, lawyers, P&I Clubs, arctic researchers and lecturers and more. This is expected to allow for an interactive and open conference with much networking and discussion.

Europe’s next four Galileo satellites have been fuelled at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in preparation for their launch on 25 July. The European Space Agency (ESA) reported on 3 July that the four satellites were placed in their protective containers to be transported from the S1A processing building to the S3B payload preparation building, where they were filled with the hydrazine fuel that will keep the satellites manoeuvrable during their 12-year working lives.

It is understood that the next step is to fit the quartet onto the dispenser that holds them in place securely during launch and then releases them into space once the upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket reaches its 22,922 km altitude target orbit.

The General Lighthouse Authorities of the UK and Ireland are conducting a survey to gauge current and future user requirements for their Differential GPS service. This was announced at the end of June 2018.

The authorities are now surveying users across a wide variety of sectors to better understand how the Differential GPS service is being used. The Differential GPS service currently provides corrections for GPS (single frequency) only, but the technology is being developed to enable corrections to be provided for all Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), should there be a requirement. The survey results will be used to establish current and future user needs.

It is important for respondents to understand that this is a survey about the
Differential GPS service and not GPS/GNSS. You can complete the survey online or download this form for offline completion.

A new Remotely Piloted Air System (RPAS) ordered for the Royal Air Force will fly non-stop from the United States to RAF Fairford in the UK on 11 July. The UK is the lead customer for the next-generation aircraft which will be known as the Protector RG Mk.1 when it enters service in the early 2020s.

Operated at all times by a fully qualified pilot, Protector is the World’s first RPAS to be designed, built and certified against stringent NATO and UK Safety Certification standards equivalent to manned aircraft. The flight from North Dakota to Gloucestershire is likely to take over 20 hours and will be the first across the Atlantic by a Medium Altitude RPAS and the first time one has entered UK airspace under beyond line-of-sight communication control.

It was announced by Saab on 21 June that it had been selected to deliver the next generation of air traffic control safety equipment to Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago, Chile.

Saab was selected through an open competition to provide a new generation air traffic safety system in Santiago. This system includes fully integrated tower working positions with a ground display, electronic flight strips, and a general information display. In addition, the system will feature A-SMGCS level safety alerting, Saab multilateration and the Saab SR-3 Surface Movement radar.

In summary, the MAIB report (No11/2018 published on 20 June 2018) indicates that at 2311 on 10 October 2017, The Netherlands registered general cargo vessel Ruyter (89.99m loa; 2528gt; built 2006) on passage from Skagen, Denmark to Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, ran aground on the north shore of Rathlin Island. It was found that the master who was the watchkeeper had left the bridge unattended. The bridge navigational watch alarm system, which could have alerted the chief officer to the fact that the bridge was unmanned, had been switched off.

It was found that the master had been consuming alcohol prior to taking over the watch but the chief officer, who had previously warned the master against excessive consumption of alcohol, had been satisfied that the master was fit for watchkeeping duties.

Recognised specialist in marine planning, ABPmer, has been appointed to support the development of a marine spatial plan (MSP) for Ireland. This marine plan will cover Ireland’s maritime area, including internal waters (sea area), territorial seas, exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf. It is intended that a single plan will be prepared for the entire area with the possibility of more detailed regional plans being made at a later date.

It is understood that Ireland transposed the MSP Directive (EU Directive 2014/89/EU) through the European Union (Framework for Maritime Spatial Planning) Regulations in June 2016. These regulations established the legal basis and broad framework for Ireland to implement marine spatial planning through the development of an MSP (or plans) on a ten-year cycle. During 2017, a marine planning function was set up within the Irish Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and in December 2017 it launched its roadmap for delivering a national marine spatial plan.

Abstracts are invited for the ION’s combined International Technical Meeting (ITM) and the 50th Anniversary of the Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Systems and Applications Meeting. The co-located conferences will take place from 28 to 31 January 2019 at the Hyatt Regency Reston, Reston, Virginia.

Abstracts are due on 10 October 2018.

ITM and PTTI 2019 are co-located in that one registration fee covers two technical events, a commercial exhibit, and the 50th Anniversary of PTTI.

– ITM is the ION’s winter meeting with peer-reviewed technical papers related to positioning, navigation and timing and includes the ION Fellows and Annual Awards presentations.

– PTTI is the annual technical conference designed to disseminate and coordinate PTTI information at the user level; review present and future PTTI requirements; inform government and industry engineers, technicians and managers of precise time and frequency technology and its problems; and provide an opportunity for an active exchange of new technology associated with PTTI.

At the same time a special joint plenary session will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of PTTI.

A reminder that IAIN 2018 will be held from 28 November to 1 December at Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan, and bring together researchers, engineers, companies and related institutions from around the world to present research and to engage in lively discussion. Much interest has been shown in this event.

A reminder with regard to the submission of abstracts informs that this will be closed on 30 June 2018. Also here.

How to create better shipping for a better future was a theme running throughout the 2018 IMO World Maritime Day Parallel Event held from 13-15 June in Szczecin, Poland.

In the words of IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim (illustrated), in his keynote address: ‘IMO’s heritage for 70 years has been to drive improvements in shipping to achieve a better world today. But we cannot rest on past achievements. Our challenge for the years to come remains the same: to create better shipping – for a better future.’

It was reported from Cape Town towards the end of May that South Africa is emerging as a hub of training in marine aids to navigation (AtoNs) for other developing countries keen to establish their maritime transport sector as a safe, secure and environmentally sound pillar of socio-economic growth. This was clear from an address by David Gordon, Executive Manager: Lighthouse and Navigational Systems (LNS) of Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) at the Pre-Conference Forum of the 19th IALA Conference in Incheon, Republic of Korea on 26 May.

He said: ‘South Africa is recognised as the centre of excellence in Africa with regard to AtoNs. It is therefore important that South Africa leads the way in ensuring that the African continent on the whole is led by competent individuals and organisations in order to achieve compliance with international
legislation.’

IAIN wishes Eid Mubarak to all our Muslim members and readers.

Choices made in the next decade will have long-term consequences for Antarctica and the globe, according to research published on 14 June by the journal Nature. The study explores how Antarctica and the Southern Ocean will change over the next 50 years, and how those changes will impact the rest of the globe. This was reported by CSIRO on 14 June.

Two scenarios are considered: one in which greenhouse gas emissions remain unchecked, and one in which strong action is taken to limit emissions and to manage increased human use of Antarctica.

More than 500 delegates attended the 19th IALA Conference in the port city of Incheon, Republic of Korea, from 26 May to 2 June 2018. A total of 94 technical presentations were made in 13 technical sessions and two special sessions over four days, and Conference participants were able to see and discuss the latest developments in aids to navigation and VTS technology in the large industrial exhibition, where a record number of IALA Industrial Members exhibited.

The Conference had a strong focus on the development and exchange of maritime digital information to improve the safety and efficiency of maritime transport. It heard that the use of Maritime Resource Names (.mrn) will be needed for the development of globally-harmonised data models to enable implementation of digital maritime services under the IMO e-Navigation Strategic Implementation Plan.

The first of Britain’s new advanced aircraft flew into RAF Marham their new home in Norfolk in eastern England. They touched down on the evening of 6 June after a trans-Atlantic flight from the United States, where Britain has more of the jets and 150 personnel in training. The F-35s took off from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort earlier in the day, and were flown by British pilots of the newly-reformed 617 Squadron, which was immortalised by the famous Dambusters’ raid of the Second World War.

The F-35s’ arrival in the UK two months ahead of schedule provides an opportunity for support staff to get a head-start in preparing the aircraft ready for operational service at the end of this year.

Under Serge Dassault’s leadership, Dassault Aviation consistently developed and implemented a policy aimed at adapting to new market realities. He led the Company to rise to the challenges of the 21st century. Under his terms emerged innovative aircraft meeting the new customers’ requirements, notably the modernized Super-Étendard, the Mirages 2000-5 and 2000D and Rafale for combat aircraft, and the Falcons 2000, 900EX, 50EX, 900C and multi-mission Falcons with the Falcon family of business jets.

Under his impetus, and with the help of Charles Edelstenne, he restructured and modernized the industrial tool while maintaining the company’s social model. Notably, Serge Dassault ensured that every employee could benefit from the efforts made by distributing an incentive and a profit-sharing each year far in excess of what the law provided for.

The Danish Maritime Authority widens the international work on digitalization and e-navigation and enters into a cooperation agreement with the Republic of Korea (ROK), Sweden, Australia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

This was reported by DMA from Seoul on 4 June. Up until this date Denmark has had cooperation agreements (MoU) on enavigation with the ROK and Sweden, but in order to strengthen the focus on digitalization in the maritime sector, the cooperation is now widened to include Australia and the PRC.