It was reported in recent weeks that five white papers have been published by EU-PolarNet, within which the World Ocean Council (WOC) is a Working Partner. This issue is a conclusion to the 2018 Workshop: Working Towards an Integrated European Polar Research Programme (illustrated).

The EU-PolarNet White Paper Workshop convened 50 international experts in La Cristalera, Spain, in September last year (2018), with the aim of drafting a set of policy documents that highlight issues in both the Arctic and Antarctic that urgently need to be addressed – and to which European polar research could make significant contributions.

On 19 May the US Navy News Service reported that the Abraham Lincoln
Carrier Strike Group (ABECSG) and the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group (KSGARG), with the embarked 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU),
conducted joint operations on 17 / 18 May in the Arabian Sea, part of the US 5th Fleet’s area of responsibility.

According to Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Catie Coyle of the
Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group Public Affairs, after the ABECSG
deployed to the region in response to credible threat indicators, these operations highlight the ability of the US Navy to quickly mobilize assets and aggregate different platforms with a variety of operational capabilities.

The East Med Maritime Conference EMMC 2019 will be held under the patronage of the President of the Council of Ministers, HE Saad Hariri, as well as the Ministry of Public Works & Transport, Directorate General of Land & Maritime Transport in Lebanon.

EMMC 2019 will take place on 19 and 20 June 2019, at Hilton Beirut Habtour Grand, Beirut-Lebanon.

To ensure a more efficient approach on Earth-system science and to bring direct benefits to society it was reported on 13 May that the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission are to cooperate closely.

Having regard to global change in the coming decades Earth’s growing population will place greater pressure on vital resources such as water and food. Along with the risk of further pollution, damage to ecosystems, declining biodiversity, global issues such as sea-level rise and the likelihood of more extreme weather events are some of the serious concerns to be addressed.

Satellites will witness change and provide critical information to enable an understanding of what is happening and, ultimately, to deliver the evidence needed to make informed decisions.

At the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Rovaniemi, Finland, Ministers of the eight Arctic States, leaders from the six indigenous Permanent Participant organizations and the Chairs of the six Working Groups of the Arctic Council met to mark the passing of the Chairmanship from Finland to Iceland.

In the Rovaniemi Joint Ministerial Statement, the Arctic States reaffirmed the Council’s commitment to maintain the Arctic as a region of peace, stability and constructive cooperation. Additionally, Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini released a Chair’s statement, summarizing the Council’s achievements and giving guidance for the next two years. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) was accredited as a new Observer.

Registration is now open. Advanced discounted registration is open until 27 May, 2019.

Daniel Zelazo, Publicity Chair for MED 2019 writes: ‘The 27th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED 2019) will be held from 1-4 July 2019 in Akko, Israel.’

‘MED 2019 will include tutorials and workshops, a technical programme of presentations, keynote lectures and social events. It offers a great opportunity for academics, researchers and industrial players working in control and automation to network together, present research progress and address new challenges. The conference will include a wide range of topics on systems, automation, robotics and control including theory, related hardware, software and communication technologies, as well as applications.’

An ESA-backed project is harnessing satellite navigation to insert an intelligent sense of place and time to power grids, to provide early warning of potentially dangerous electricity network failures.

Four years ago an apparent fire from nowhere forced the evacuation of 5,000 people from central London. Thick black smoke and choking fumes emerged from manhole covers as power was cut off to the Holborn neighbourhood. The local London Underground station was shuttered, along with West End theatres and law courts.

This project is supported through ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP), applying ESA’s hard-won expertise from Galileo and Europe’s EGNOS satellite augmentation system to new satellite navigation and – more widely – positioning, navigation and timing challenges.

It was reported on 2 May from Maastricht, The Netherlands, that since 25 April 2019, cross-border free route airspace (FRA) managed by EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC), Naviair, LFV and DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung has allowed cross-border free route operations.

Airspace users planning to fly in the upper airspace between Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden can now do so irrespective of airspace boundaries, it is understood. According to EUROCONTROL’s statement this allows for optimised routeings, fuel savings and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

ICAO Secretary General Dr Fang Liu attended the 2nd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in April, providing remarks to the main Infrastructure Connectivity session highlighting the critical role of air transport in forging new travel and trade routes between Belt and Road countries and other states leading to new venues for prosperity. This was reported from IHQ in Montreal on 30 April.

Stressing how liberalized air transport and increased air traffic routes are currently helping many developing States move closer to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted under the UN’s Agenda 2030, Dr Liu highlighted to the large number of Ministers of Transport and Infrastructure and heads of international organizations present that: ‘a very direct relationship exists between States’ investments in aviation development and their eventual realization of increased economic growth.’

It was reported from ION HQ in Manassas, Virginia, USA on 23 April that the ION GNSS+ 2019 advance conference programme is now available online.

Registration may be achieved here.

This is the world’s largest technical meeting and showcase of GNSS technology, products and services. ION GNSS+ 2019 will take place from 16 to 20 September at the Hyatt Regency Miami in Miami, Florida and features two different technical tracks, Commercial and Policy Sessions and Research Sessions.

It was reported from Langen, Germany, on 10 April 2019 that CANSO (the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation) has laid out the steps that all stakeholders in air traffic management need to take towards achieving seamless airspace.

In an address at a Global ATM Operations Conference hope was expressed that air navigation services providers (ANSPs) and States should continue to take full advantage of new technologies and also start to move towards a more network, cross-border mindset. Furthermore governments must give ANSPs the freedom to act as normal businesses and regulators need to adopt a performance-based approach to regulation.

vChris Mills, the author, has supplemented a selection of contemporary newspaper articles, mainly from the 1920s and 1930s, with background information from other sources such as the reports of Marine Courts of Inquiry, extracts from ships’ logs, and references to crew agreements, law reports and published narratives by ship masters. A few imaginative details have been added, but the stories are all firmly based on true events as reported and recorded at the time.
Each of this book’s chapters describes an incident from the period which was something of a golden age for British shipping. These incidents affected vessels of the Red Ensign going about their business.
Mills portrays what conditions were like on board British merchant vessels of the time and has made his subject a most readable one.

It was announced ION’s HQ in Manassas, Virginia, on 4 April that it had published a special issue of its journal NAVIGATION, featuring China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) with special editors John W Betz, Mingquan Lu, Y Jade Morton and Yuanxi Yang.

This special issue provides a collection of papers presenting research achievements in the BDS over the last two years. It covers essential fields necessary to ensure the successful operation of BDS such as constellation design, operational and control system design and construction, frequency and signal design, updated coordinate reference system and time system, satellite orbit determination, ionospheric model, and software receiver. Publication of the issue also provides an opportunity to promote users’ understanding and applications of the BDS.

The image shown here was taken on 3 April from a Royal Air Force Typhoon aircraft, and is of two Russian Blackjack Tupolev Tu-160 long range bombers in the distance leaving long vapour trails.

RAF quick reaction alert Typhoon aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland scrambled to monitor the two Blackjack bombers while they were in the UK area of interest. This is the third time RAF jets have been scrambled to monitor Russian aircraft in the last ten days.

To celebrate 50 years since NASA’s Apollo 11 mission landed the first humans on the Moon, the National Maritime Museum (NMM) is to stage The Moon, the UK’s biggest exhibition dedicated to Earth’s nearest celestial neighbour – opening on 19 July 2019.

Featuring over 180 objects from national and international museums and private collections, the exhibition presents a cultural and scientific story of our relationship with the Moon over time and across civilisations. Through artefacts, artworks and interactive moments, the exhibition will enable visitors to reconnect with the wonders of the Moon and discover how it has captivated and inspired us.

On 3 April 2019 Inmarsat, a leader in global mobile satellite communications, announced that its Indian telecommunications partner, BSNL, had received an In-Flight and Maritime Connectivity (IFMC) licence from the Government of India’s Department of Telecommunications.

Issuing of the licence marks a major step for Inmarsat’s services in the Indian connectivity market. It is understood that BSNL is now approved to offer IFMC services, which will include Inmarsat’s Global Xpress (Ka-band) and SwiftBroadband and FleetBroadband (L-band) services, to Indian airlines operating within and outside India, as well as foreign airlines transiting through Indian airspace, and shipping companies operating within Indian waters.

Inmarsat and BSNL are expected to commence services later this year once the ground infrastructure and associated approvals are in place.

It was announced from Brussels, on 2 April 2019 that CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation) has emphasised that flexibility and realism are needed at the local level in implementing proposed and challenging EU-wide air traffic management (ATM) targets. The new targets are for the third reference period (RP3) of the Single European Sky Performance Scheme. It is understood that they cover performance in the areas of safety, flight efficiency, en-route delays and cost.

In its statement CANSO indicates that it strongly supports the need for such performance-based targets as important to the development of ATM in Europe. However, the proposed new targets are understood to pose a significant challenge: to reduce unit costs while continuing to tackle the pressing capacity constraints affecting performance in Europe. It is therefore, according to CANSO, vital that the binding local targets that flow from these EU-wide targets are realistic, achievable and appropriate for present conditions.

Safe navigation at sea is dependent on good training, sound practice and long experience – and no organisation is better placed to draw on those qualities than the UK’s Royal Navy. The Nautical Institute is proud to publish the 11th edition of The Admiralty Manual of Navigation, Volume 1: The Principles of Navigation.

This latest edition has been updated for the electronic era of navigation. The first to be digital by design, it assumes the reader’s vessel will be navigated using an IMO type-approved ECDIS. Nevertheless, the basic principles are the same as those of a century ago: ensuring the safe conduct of a ship across the oceans. As the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Philip Jones, points out: ‘The fundamental skills of the professional navigator remain unchanged, no matter the medium on which a fix is plotted.’

Following the huge success of previous events (more than 200 participants and 20 companies participating in the exhibition in 2018) the 2020 Israel Navigation Workshop and Exhibition has been preliminary scheduled for 27 January, at the Daniel Hotel in Herzliya.

INWE20 will be a one-day event dedicated to technical talks in navigation systems, ranging from fundamental research, to applications, to field test results.

In parallel with the talks INWE20 will host a technical exhibition in which navigation equipment manufacturers and suppliers will have the opportunity to show their current products and most recent technical innovations.

It was reported from Washington on 27 March that President Donald J Trump signed the Executive Order on Coordinating National Resilience to Electromagnetic Pulses (EMP), the first-ever comprehensive whole-of-government policy to build resilience and protect against electromagnetic pulses, or EMPs, which are temporary electromagnetic signals that can disrupt, degrade, and damage technology and critical infrastructure systems across large areas.

Qantas has incorporated more complex stall warning recovery events in recurrent lesson plans for its Boeing 747 flight crews. These improvements follow an Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigation into an in-flight upset involving a Boeing 747-438 110 km SE of Hong Kong International Airport on 7 April 2017. This is the subject a report by the ATSB, Investigation number AO-2017-044.

While descending toward Hong Kong, air traffic control instructed the flight crew to hold at a waypoint. When entering the holding pattern, the aircraft’s aerodynamic stall warning stick shaker activated a number of times and the aircraft experienced multiple oscillations of pitch angle and vertical acceleration.

During the upset, some passengers and cabin crewmembers struck the cabin ceiling and furnishings, sustaining minor injuries.

It seems likely that the UK will leave the EU within the next few weeks. At the moment the date is not clear and is dependent upon a vote or votes in the Westminster Parliament in the week ahead.

What has been said is that delivering a deal negotiated with the EU remains the government’s top priority. With an implementation period until December 2020, this would give businesses stability, certainty and time to prepare for the UK’s new relationship after EU Exit.

However, from a Government website it was learned today that business must plan for every possible outcome including no deal. Without a deal, businesses may need to take action before 11 April 2019.

With regard to transport there is more available here.

It was reported from Saint-Germain-en-Laye (78100, France) 20 March that the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA), which has National members in 82 coastal States around the world, will call a Diplomatic Conference in early 2020 to adopt a new legal framework on its transition from an international non-governmental association to an Intergovernmental Organization (IGO). The Government of Malaysia will host the Conference.

The Convention on the International Organization for Marine Aids to Navigation will have the status of an international treaty instrument. Upon its adoption, it will be deposited with the United Nations (UN) by the Organization’s host nation, the French Republic, and open to signature by all UN members. It will enter into force upon fulfilment of the ratification requirements as agreed by the Diplomatic Conference.

Further to our posting on 18 March regarding GPS Rollover the US Department of Homeland Security has now issued a memorandum for US owners and operators using GPS to obtain UTC time.

This document has been prepared to provide an understanding of the possible effects of the 6 April 2019 GPS Week Number Rollover on Coordinated Universal Time derived from GPS devices.

Moshe Idan, IAAC President, advises readers the deadline for submissions is 23 March.

At GSC’19 graduate students in systems and control from Israeli universities are invited to present their latest research results. These meetings provide an opportunity for students to present their work to senior faculty members and to interested delegates from industry, as well as to become acquainted with the work of their peers.