Plans to harness Galileo and other satellite navigation systems for next generation satellite augmentation systems for aviation and other high performance uses took a significant step forward at the latest gathering of worldwide operators and experts, reported by the European Space Agency in mid-February.

Working group participants

Opening of the Working Group, New Delhi

Satellite augmentation systems combine additional ground stations and satellite transponders to sharpen navigation accuracy and reliability across given geographical regions – based on the US GPS for now, but with plans to move to a multi-constellation design additionally employing Europe’s Galileo, China’s Compass and Russia’s Glonass systems in the post-2020 era.

EGNOS sharpens GPS accuracy over Europe

GAGAN service coverage, India

Satellite navigation constellation

With the first Galileo services set to begin this year, the European Space Agency (ESA) is working directly with European manufacturers of mass-market satellite navigation chips and receivers to ensure that their products are Galileo-ready.

Hybrid localisation solution rack

Explained Riccardo de Gaudenzi, head of ESA’s Radio Frequency Systems, Payload and Technology Division, “Our objective is to make sure, ahead of the EU’s declaration of early Galileo services that mass-market devices are ready and able to make use of them. In co-ordination with the European GNSS Agency, we put out an open call to satellite navigation manufacturers offering testing with our laboratory facilities. We have gone on to work with five massmarket chipset makers and a comparable number of professional receiver manufacturers.”

Octobox

ESA Lab’s Telecommunications and Navigation Testbed vehicle

Kelud volcano on Indonesia’s Java island erupted late on the night of 14th February. While disaster-management authorities are busy on the ground, satellites are tracking the major cloud of ash and sulphur dioxide as it spreads in the atmosphere. “The ash has reached high altitudes where commercial aircraft
fly and is a significant hazard to aviation,” said Fred Prata from the Norwegian
Institute for Air Research. Airports across Java have closed, and multiple flights have been cancelled throughout the region.

The Netherlands Institute of Navigation (NIN) has announced the annual European Navigation Conference (ENC), will be held from 15th to 17th April 2014 in the World Trade Center, Rotterdam under the auspices of the European Group of Institutes of Navigation (EUGIN). This conference will focus on technology, innovation and the transfer to business applications in the PNT sector.

An Early Bird rate available is available until 15th February. Participants who register for the conference before 15th February will be offered a discount on their registration fee. The regular fee is € 895. Early Birds will pay € 795.

The in-orbit validation of Galileo has been achieved, it was reported by ESA on 10th February such that Europe now has the operational nucleus of its own satellite navigation constellation in place – the world’s first civil-owned and operated satnav system.

In 2011 and 2012 the first four satellites were launched into orbit. Four is the minimum number needed to perform navigation fixes. In the following year, these satellites were combined with a growing global ground infrastructure to allow the project to undergo its crucial In-Orbit Validation phase: IOV.

Galileo’s observed dual-frequency positioning accuracy is an average 8m horizontally and 9m vertically, 95% of the time. Its average timing accuracy is 10 billionths of a second – and its performance is set to sharpen as more satellites are launched and ground stations come on line.

It was announced from Lystrup, Denmark at the end of January that Terma had been contracted by Thales Air Systems S.A.S. to deliver and install a SCANTER 5502 Surface Movement Radar (SMR) system to Minsk-2 International Airport in Belarus. Delivery is part of the Belarussian air navigation services company BELAERONAVIGATSIA SOE’s investment in airports before the ice hockey World Cup which begins in May.

ABS, a leading provider of global maritime classification services, with Headquarters in Houston, on 29th January released its Navigating the Northern Sea Route Advisory to support shipowners and operators intending to transit the increasingly popular commercial shipping routes through the Arctic seas.

This comprehensive advisory, which was developed with assistance from Russia’s Central Marine Research and Design Institute, provides shipowners with the information they need to apply for permits and to identify the possible technical and operational risks that could arise when trading in some of the world’s most challenging commercial shipping environments.

ABS classed vessels able to navigate the Northern Sea Route

Trading through the NSR has the potential to reduce the typical transit times between Japan and Rotterdam by as much as 3,400 miles – or ten days – compared to the traditional route via the Suez Canal.

It was announced by ICAO from Montreal on 22nd January that a task force led by the International Air Cargo Association (TIACA), with active support from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA), reported the completion of a two-year
project on educational needs for the next-generation of managers for the worldwide air cargo industry.

ICAO announced on 17th January that preliminary data confirmed that 2013 was the safest year ever recorded in terms of fatalities for scheduled international air transport operations.

Although the number of fatal accidents involving scheduled commercial operations remained steady at nine during 2013, fatalities themselves were down a significant 53.5% from 2012, dropping to only 173 compared to 372 the previous year. Using 2010 as a baseline, fatalities have fallen by a huge 76% and 2013 represents the third consecutive year in which air transport fatalities have continued to decrease.

The deregulation of air traffic services (ATS) at Swedish airports has taken off well and since the end of 2013 the private Swedish company ACR Aviation Capacity Resources is now operating the control towers at nine of the country’s 36 airports. ACR more than doubled their business when the company took over the towers at the airports in Kalmar, Jönköping, Norrköping, Karlstad and Skellefteå on 1st January 2014.

Shortly before Christmas the sixth ICAO Air Services Negotiation Conference (ICAN2013) wound up on a record note in Durban, South Africa, with 73 States/territories using the unique ICAN one-stop negotiation facility to conclude over 500 new air services and open skies agreements.

Almarin, a Spanish manufacturer of marine aids to navigation, reports that it has completed the design and turnkey supply of aids to navigation for Puerto Brisa, La Guajira, Colombia. The company provided 14 buoys: twelve lateral marks, one safe water mark and one special mark. All buoys, from its ‘Guía’ range, were provided with self-contained lights equipped with satellite monitoring.

The Netherlands Institute of Navigation (NIN) is hosting the annual European Navigation Conference (ENC-GNSS 2014), to be held from 15th to 17th April 2014 in the World Trade Center, Rotterdam under the auspices of the European Group of Institutes of Navigation (EUGIN). The conference will focus on technology, innovation and the transfer to business applications in the PNT sector.

The annual market for global navigation satellite products and services is currently valued at € 124 billion and is expected to grow over the next decade, leading to an estimated market size of € 244 billion in 2020. With the Galileo system having 18 satellites by the end of 2014, many new applications will be developed in combination with other GNSS systems and other Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) sensors.

The programme can be found here.

Through the good offices of the Royal Institute of Navigation we have been informed that an English version of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System Public Service Performance Standard has been published. The document (Version 1.0) details the Public Service Performance parameters of the BeiDou system (BDS), including service area, accuracy, integrity, continuity and availability. It is published as ‘a basic commitment to customers from BeiDou system providers, but also an important basis for customers to choose, use and evaluation the system performance’.

The BeiDou space constellation ultimately will comprise 35 satellites to provide a global service. With a current space constellation of 14 operational satellites, it has provided open services to much of the Asia-Pacific region since December 2012.

According to the RIN website India’s Satellite Based Augmentation System has become the fourth such system to offer improved navigation.

On 30th December, the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) provisionally certified the country’s Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) programme, the GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system, to the ‘Required Navigation Performance, 0.1 Nautical Mile’ (RNP0.1) service level. This will enable SBAS-capable aircraft to use GAGAN signals in space for en-route navigation and non-precision approaches – those without vertical guidance – in Indian air space.

GAGAN will bridge the gap between the EU’s EGNOS and Japan’s MSAS coverage areas, offering a huge area of seamless navigation to the aviation industry.

Estonia is the only European Union Member State that is not yet a EUROCONTROL Member – but this could well change on 1st January 2015. Estonia signed a Declaration of Intent to accede to EUROCONTROL in June 2013.

At left, Frank Brenner, Director General of EUROCONTROL, and Juhan Parts, the Estonian Minister for Economic Affairs and Communications.

Exterior of the American Air Museum – © IWM

An announcement was made on 15th January 2014 to the effect that the Imperial War Museum (IWM) Duxford in eastern England has received a grant of £ 980,000 from the national Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the American Air Museum redevelopment project.

Interior of the American Air Museum, showing the B-52 Stratofortress, around the dimensions of which the American Air Museum was built – © IWM

The American Air Museum was built at IWM Duxford in 1996-67 to present for public display the best collection of American military aircraft outside the United States. The Museum tells the story of American air power and the integral relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.

On 9th December the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published guidance which expands to all phases of flight the possibility to use personal electronic devices (PED) such as tablets, smartphones, e-readers and MP3 players. The devices will have to remain in ‘Flight Mode’ or ‘Airplane Mode’ and transmitting capabilities will have to be disabled.


It will be to the discretion of each airline to use this guidance and change its policy. In this case, the airline will have to inform the aviation authority of the country in which it is registered.

The Dutch company Reelektronika B.V. has, at the request of the Dutch Pilots Corporation (Nederlands Loodswezen), developed and tested successfully Enhanced Differential Loran (eDLoran) to backup GNSS in cases of jamming or spoofing of the satellite system. An unprecedented but required absolute accuracy of five metres has been achieved at sea and in the Rotterdam Europoort harbour area.

Organised by IALA with the Danish Maritime Authority in association with the Nautical Institute, the Comité International Radio-Maritime, the International Hydrographic Organization and the ACCSEAS Project delegates will focus on strategic issues and study detailed aspects of e-Navigation.

It will be the fourth time the international e-Navigation community will gather in a maritime environment to discuss the current state of the e-navigation process. Day one will focus on strategic issues, day two will explore more detailed aspects of e-Navigation and the third day will be dedicated to an open discussion to achieve full consultation on conclusions and recommendations.

The resilience of UK transport infrastructure and services during periods of adverse winter weather has improved, but more must be done to strengthen the sector’s winter preparedness, said the cross party Transport Select Committee in
the House of Commons, the parliament’s lower house.

“Disruption to transport is not just caused by snow. We saw recently the impact of severe storms and flooding on transport services. At Gatwick, thousands of passengers were stranded over the Christmas period due to a power failure
during stormy weather.”

Shortly before Christmas it was announced from Aarhus, Denmark that Terma and the Danish Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organization (DALO) had recently conducted a successful flight test of the Electronic Warfare (EW) equipment carried by the Royal Danish Air Force’s (RDAF) EH-101 TTT helicopters.

Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC), has recently been accredited by the National Transport Authority (NTA) to conduct IALA model courses for Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) operators at its dedicated training centre. By receiving this accreditation, the ADPC Training Centre is claimed to be the first maritime educational institute in the Gulf Region to offer the highest internationally accredited training courses for VTS personnel.

The Nautical Institute is an international representative body for maritime professionals involved in the control of sea-going ships. It provides a wide range of services to enhance the professional standing and knowledge of members who are drawn from all sectors of the maritime world.

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), and how to plan activities from wind farms and
oil exploration to subsea cabling, is the subject of a new free publication specifically for seafarers from The Nautical Institute and the World Ocean Council produced in association with IALA.

On 12th December this year the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) unanimously appointed Commissioner Farid Zizi to a one-year term as President of the ICAO Air Navigation Commission (ANC), the UN civil aviation Standards Organization’s main technical body. Zizi was nominated for the appointment by France and his mandate begins on 1st January 2014.