It was announced from HQ in Manassas Virginia, on 23 April that the IEEE/ION PLANS 2020, originally scheduled to take place in April, has been rescheduled and renamed IEEE/ION PLANSx 2020 for later in the year. IEEE/ION PLANSx 2020 is an outgrowth of the IEEE/ION Position Location and Navigation Symposium 2020 and will be hosted by ION GNSS+ 2020 from 23 to 25 September 2020 at the St Louis Union Station Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri.

IEEE/ION PLANS is the biennial technical conference that occurs in the spring of even numbered years where mission is to provide a forum to share the latest advances in navigation technology.

The (US) Institute of Navigation informs that registration is now open for ION GNSS+ 2020 with the theme GNSS + Other Sensors in Today’s Marketplace. This is the 33rd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of the Institute of Navigation and the world’s largest technical meeting and showcase of GNSS technology, products, and services.
ION GNSS+ 2020 will take place from 21 to 25 September at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, featuring Commercial and Policy tracks and Research tracks with over 36 technical sessions over 23 to 25 September plus a commercial exhibit. In addition, on 21 and 22 September ION GNSS+ 2020 will offer short courses on pre-conference tutorials to provide in-depth learning of specific GNSS-related disciplines and will again facilitate the CGSIC meeting.

The (US) Institute of Navigation, the ION, has announced that nominations may be submitted for the Johannes Kepler Award 2020. The award is sponsored by the Satellite Division of the Institute of Navigation to honour an individual for sustained and significant contributions to the development of satellite navigation during their lifetime.

Nominations must be received by 30 June 2020. Submissions received after the closing date will not be considered.

Just how easy is it to hack a yacht these days, which systems are most vulnerable to attack and what can be done to help prevent the risks of it happening to your yacht? Readers may gain an understanding of what signs to look out for and which systems should be secured.

Campbell Murray will be speaking to Richard Hodder about a live hacking demonstration on a super yacht in 2017 – how easy was it then and how have things changed since.

On 7 April the EUROCONTROL Member States announced agreement on a financial package enabling airlines to defer the payment of up to €1.1 billion of air traffic control fees due for payment to Europe’s air traffic management industry in the coming months.

As a result of COVID-19, the number of flights operating daily in European airspace has declined by 90%. This dramatic reduction in operations is likely to continue for a number of weeks to come and therefore the airline industry had sought the support of EUROCONTROL Member States to help it deal with its sudden and significant cash flow crisis.

EUROCONTROL Member States agreed to help airlines operating in Europe by deferring their payments of air traffic control fees worth €1.13 billion for periods between seven and thirteen months. While this provides relief for one branch of the aviation industry, it clearly shifts the burden to ANSPs, who will find it difficult to maintain financial stability without further support.

CANSO therefore supports the related proposal adopted yesterday (13 April) which enables EUROCONTROL to apply for funding which guarantees a minimum level of financing for European ANSPs until September.

In the US the Institute of Navigation (ION) announces that the ION Joint Navigation Conference 2020 has been rescheduled to 8-11 September, at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center.

The US-only For Official Use Only (FOUO) sessions will be hosted at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Kentucky (right across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio), and the US-only secret sessions will be hosted at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), WPAFB in Dayton, Ohio. The rescheduled conference will host the original program, as previously scheduled in June.

It was announced from Amsterdam on 8 April that the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) and Aireon are to deliver an initiative to produce data-driven insights and analysis to better understand how COVID-19 is impacting a broad range of stakeholders within the aviation industry. Particular emphasis will be placed on how the pandemic is impacting the air traffic management (ATM) and the flow of essential goods and services.

This partnership comes at a time when the aviation industry faces a crisis unlike any throughout its history. Starting in March 2020 the aviation industry saw the erosion of traffic from a daily average of approximately 100,000 flights to just 32,000 flights on 4 April. Daily flight hours have fallen 78% from typical global averages captured in January 2020.

The air traffic management (ATM) industry is committed to offering critical air navigation services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes enabling the safe passage of vital repatriation and cargo flights through global airspace and delivery of medical support worldwide. This was reported in a communiqué from the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation.

While air traffic has reduced significantly in recent weeks due to measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the ATM industry is continuing to ensure air navigation services are available in all regions across the world.

The KMI International Journal of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries is an international journal published biannually in June and December. The journal aims to share theories, managements, and practices at international, national and local levels with researchers, policy makers, managers and other stakeholders, and thereby to advance ocean and coastal policy regimes at all levels.

Submission to the journal proceeds online, authors will be informed step-by-step from submission to review notification. Guidelines for authors are available for download.

The World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) met in Sharm el-Sheikh and worked on the basis of the agenda approved by the Council. It adopted a revision of the Radio Regulations and Appendices thereto, as contained in these Final Acts.

In accordance with its agenda, the Conference also took other decisions that it considered necessary or appropriate, including the review and revision of existing Resolutions and Recommendations and the adoption of various new Resolutions as contained in these Final Acts.

The Final Acts WRC-19 constitute a record of the decisions taken at the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) that comprises both the new and revised provisions of the Radio Regulations, including all Appendices, and the new and revised Resolutions and Recommendations approved by the Conference.

Please find the updated call for presentations for GSC’20 here, where graduate students in systems and control from Israeli universities are invited to present their latest research results.

These meetings provide an opportunity for the graduate students to present their work to senior faculty members and to interested delegates from industry, as well as get acquainted with the work of their peers.

Please save the date of 4 May 2020 for this exciting annual event, that for the first time will be held online – information to follow.

IAIN Associate Member, the International Public Association “Academy of Navigation and Motion Control” informs us that the latest issue of the Gyroscopy and Navigation journal is now available.

Gyroscopy and Navigation is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal published by the Academy of Navigation and Motion Control and the State Research Center of the Russian Federation Concern CSRI Elektropribor, JSC, in cooperation with Pleiades Publishing, Ltd, since 2010. It is available in printed form (ISSN 2075-1087) and online (ISSN 2075-1109) versions.

Trinity House has been closely monitoring the developments of the impact of COVID-19 and has followed advice provided by HM Government.

With regard to its function as the General Lighthouse Authority (GLA) for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, the Trinity House priority is to keep staff safe while delivering its statutory functions.

Passage through northern shipping routes and Arctic waters has received a boost following the doubling of the connectivity speed of the Iridium Certus™ network. This was reported by maritime communications specialist IEC Telecom from Norway on 23 March.

As the shortest sea route between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the Northern Sea Route holds immense potential to compete with conventional trade passages. There has been a significant increase in maritime traffic across the main transport corridors in the Arctic, Northern Sea Route in the Russian Federation, the Northwest Passage in Canada as well as the Arctic Bridge from Canada to Europe. It has been reported that in the Canadian Arctic, traffic tripled between 1990 and 2015. Moreover, cargo volume in the Northern Sea Route increased by 40% between 2016 and 2017.

In an address on 20 March IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim stressed the vital need to maintain commerce by sea and protect seafarers’ welfare in the face of the coronavirus shut down.

‘It is, therefore, crucially important that the flow of commerce by sea should not be unnecessarily disrupted. At the same time, the safety of life at sea and protection of the marine environment must also remain paramount.’

Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and IALA regrettably announce that the 14th IALA Symposium and all activities planned for 24-29 May 2020 will unfortunately have to be postponed.

The board of the International Foundation for Aids to Navigation (IFAN) has met in London and highlighted the issue of non-payment of navigational dues as critical to the ongoing modernisation and provision of aids to navigation in the Gulf region.

The Middle East Navigation Aids Service (MENAS, a subsidiary of IFAN) has been providing these services since 1911 as no state owns the aids to navigation in the joint waters of the Gulf. This service is funded exclusively by payment of navigation dues, and the sustainability of the existing service, on which the shipping industry depends, is totally dependent on receipt of these dues.

It was announced from Cologne on 13 March that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued a safety directive to reduce the risk of spread of the novel coronavirus through flights to and from high risk areas. This is the first EU-wide operational measure to control the spread of COVID- 19 in Europe.

The safety directive specifies measures to be taken for flights serving high-risk destinations. It mandates thorough disinfecting and cleaning of aircraft which operate from high-risk destinations after each flight. Exceptions can be made only when disinfectants with a longer-lasting effect are used – but even in those cases a thorough disinfection is mandated no later than 24 hours after departure from a high-risk airport.

See video extract here.

New data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite reveal the decline of air pollution, specifically nitrogen dioxide emissions, over Italy. This reduction is particularly visible in northern Italy which coincides with its nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The animation shows the fluctuation of nitrogen dioxide emissions across Europe from 1 January 2020 until 11 March 2020, using a 10-day moving average. These data are thanks to the Tropomi instrument on board the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite which maps a multitude of air pollutants around the globe.

After careful consideration, the (US) Institute of Navigation has announcing that the IEEE/ION Position Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS) scheduled to take place from 20 to 23 April in Portland, Oregon has been cancelled.

The Institute’s decision to cancel this meeting was based on:

– The World Health Organization has declared Coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic.

– The US government has restricted travel into the U.S. from Asia and Europe (United Kingdom excluded).

– The Governor of Oregon has called for all gatherings of over 250 people to be cancelled for the next four weeks.

From Amsterdam on 12 March the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) issued a statement as the COVID-19 global pandemic continues to cause serious public health concerns, the significant drop in travel demand it has triggered is impacting all regions and all those whose job it is to ensure safe and efficient global connectivity by air.

During this challenging time, CANSO is committed to working with the industry to deliver seamless service.

In the words of Simon Hocquard, CANSO Director General: ‘The air traffic management industry that CANSO represents plays a vital role in the aviation system and has always been committed to public safety as our first priority.’

The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) are planning a new edition of ADMIRALTY Ocean Passages for the World (NP136).

First published in 1895, this publication is designed to support mariners in the planning of deep sea voyages along major trade routes, with details of weather, currents, ice hazards and other environmental features that may be encountered in transit.

Ocean Passages for the World (NP136) supports the planning of deep-sea voyages on most major routes, with details of weather, currents, ice hazards and distances between major ports.

Members of IAIN are encouraged to complete this latest survey as soon as possible to ensure that small craft users and others do not lose the sailing route information used for ocean passage planning purposes that was formerly included. The survey, which is being run by the UKHO, should only take about five minutes to complete and can be found here.