Report on ICG Activities at the IAIN Officers’ meeting and General Assembly on October 27, 2009.

Report on IHO Activities at the IAIN Officers’ meeting and General Assembly on
October 27, 2009.

Report on IMO Activities at the IAIN Officers’ meeting and General Assembly on
October 27, 2009.

Minutes of the IAIN Officers’Meeting, held on Tuesday, October 27, 2009, at Kastellet, Stockholm, Sweden.

Minutes of the IAIN General Assembly, held on October 27, 2009, at Kastellet, Stockholm, Sweden.

During the gala dinner in the finest of surroundings, right by the world-renowned Wasa, Captain Dick Smith (centre) had the honour of presenting the 2009 IAIN Awards.

The John Harrison Award was presented to Professor von Villiez (left), the 2009 Necho Award was presented to Håkan Lans (right).

On Christmas Eve IMO announced that it had decided to dedicate the year 2010 to
the world’s seafarers by choosing, as the theme for World Maritime Day, “2010:
Year of the Seafarer”.

In the words of Admiral Efthimios Mitropoulos, Secretary-General of IMO, “Our intention is to pay tribute to you, the world’s 1.5 million seafarers ? men and women from all over the globe ? for the unique, and all too often over-looked, contribution you make to the wellbeing of all of us.”

“We will do so with deep appreciation, in recognition of the extraordinary service you render every day of your professional life, frequently under dangerous circumstances, in delivering, to the more than 6.5 billion people of the world, the wheat that makes our daily bread, the gas and oil that warms our homes or moves our vehicles and the gifts we will share and enjoy with our families and friends over this Festive Season.”

THE ROLE OF NAVIGATION IN SUPPORT OF HUMAN ACTIVITY

News has been received from the Polish Naval Academy, the Institute of Navigation and Hydrography, and the Polish Navigation Forum of this event the XVIIth International Scientific and Technical Conference, to be held September 23 to 25 in Gdynia, Poland.

The goal of the conference is to create circumstances for meetings and discussions with scientific and industrial communities as well as practitioners dealing with the problems of safety of navigation and development of maritime industries.

Materials and papers applied for the Conference can be written and presented in Polish and English.

More information can be found at navsup.eu.

On 3rd December it was reported by the European Space Agency (ESA) that the engineering model of the first Galileo satellites had completed platform integration tests at the Thales Alenia Space facility in Rome.

The platform is now undergoing functional testing. Delivery of the engineering model payload from Astrium UK is expected this month.

It was reported by Northrop Grumman Corporation from Charlottesville, Virginia on 2nd December that the Sperry Marine business unit had introduced a new compact integrated bridge system (CIBS) designed to improve situational awareness and ship efficiency while reducing installation costs.

The site of a ground station for Galileo, Europe’s global navigation satellite system, inside the Guiana Space Centre (CSG), near Kourou in French Guiana, was inaugurated on 19th November and made available by France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES). It will play an essential role in the setting up of the Galileo system, since it will accommodate the most comprehensive of the Galileo ground segment stations.

Now in its ninth year, eNavigation 2009 will focus on the user: from the individual mariner, to the fleet manager, to waterways and harbour authorities, to regulatory and environmental agencies.

Said to be the only conference of its kind in the USA, eNavigation 2009 provides the operations sector of the maritime community with an opportunity to interact with the regulators, policymakers and international organizations making and implementing AIS and e-Navigation policy.

International Symposium: Enhanced Solutions for Aircraft and Vehicle Surveillance Applications, ESAVS 2010 is to be held from 16th to 18th March 2010 at MARITIM proArte Hotel Berlin.

A Call for Papers has been issued. Please note the following key dates:

• Submission of Abstracts: 1st December 2009

• Notfication of authors: 22nd December 2009

• Distribution of Programme: 15th January 2010

Information and on-line registration can be found at
dgon.de, button ESAVS 2010.

Further details may be obtained from Reinhold Thierse, the Symposium Co-ordinator at the German Institute of Navigation.

DUBLIN SURFACE MOVEMENTS

The Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS) supplied by HITT of The Netherlands officially became operational at Dublin Airport in the last week of October. The system ensures safe and efficient movement of vehicles and aircraft in all weathers.

Even in the current economic situation Dublin Airport frequently operates near capacity, averaging 22 flights per hour, with peak traffic almost twice as high. Over 90% of this traffic uses the same single runway. The system limits the reduction of runway capacity and prevents shutting down the airport due to poor weather.

The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) announced on 20th October that it welcomed the signing of the contract between the Department of Energy & Climate Change, The Crown Estate, NATS En Route and the wind industry’s Aviation Investment Fund Company (AIFCL) to progress the development of the
Raytheon solution.
The Raytheon solution is a hardware and software fix to the detection of wind turbines on radar systems, which will eliminate wind turbine interference of en route radar displays. It is estimated that currently there are six gigawatts of wind energy capacity held back due to objections from civil and Ministry of Defence (MoD) aviation authorities. This is enough capacity to power 3.4 million homes.

On 19th October the European Space agency (ESA) issued a communiqué on the conference entitled The Ambitions of Europe in Space which had been convened on 15th and 16th October. The event brought together members of the European Parliament, Council, European Commission, agencies, industry, research entities, operators, financing institutions as well as interested people from the media and public.
In his opening speech, the newly re-elected president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, noted that space is an enabling tool allowing Europe to face some fundamental challenges: fighting the economic crisis, ensuring the well-being of our citizens, tackling climate change, finding ways to unleash our full potential for innovation and job creation, and to bring about a true knowledge society, as well as reinforcing Europe’s position in the world scene.

It was announced on 21st October by the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau (IMB) in both London and Kuala Lumpur that global piracy figures have already surpassed the total number of attacks recorded in 2008. It was also revealed that the total number of incidents in which guns were used had risen by more than 200% compared to the corresponding period in 2008. A total of 306 incidents were reported to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) in the first nine months of 2009, while in 2008, the total number of attacks for the year was 293.

Location Technologies and Solutions: The Next Frontier

The world has seen substantial advances in the design, modernization, and applications of GNSS. Location-based technologies have triggered the go-ahead for smart phones, future phones for communication and navigation, autonomous operation of unmanned vehicles, and urban challenges. This conference will provide an update on satellite-based and integrated navigation systems. The conference will also cover the latest developments in navigation and positioning for land, sea, and air with special focus on GNSS augmentation.

Abstract Submission
Authors are invited to submit a 250 to 300 word abstract, indicating the most appropriate session(s) for the paper. Abstracts may be submitted electronically by e-mail to Dr. Ahmed El Rabbany or the Arab Institute of Navigation.

ICAO reports that the Global Air Traffic Management Forum on Civil/Military Co-operation will be held at ICAO Headquarters in Montreal from 19th to 21st October. The forum theme is: Time to take it global: Meeting each other’s needs without compromising the Mission.

During a press conference on 1st October, Antonio Tajani, European Commission Vice-President for Transport Policy, announced the official start of operations for EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service.

This is a satellite-based augmentation system that improves the accuracy of satellite navigation signals over Europe. The system consists of transponders aboard three geostationary satellites over the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Europe, linked to a network of about 40 ground stations and four control centres.

Prof Dr Adam Weintrit, Dean of the Faculty of Navigation, Head of the Department of Navigation at Gdynia Maritime University, has reported the publication of The Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS): An Operational Handbook of which he is the author.

To be held on Tuesday, 27 October 2009 at 1500hrs at the “Kastellet”, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm, Sweden.

To be held on Tuesday, 27 October 2009 at 1600hrs at “Kastellet”, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm, Sweden.

Following a highly successful strategy to support Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East through regional conferences designed to support the building of greater ANSP capability, it was announced in mid-August that CANSO is inviting delegates to register for the first such conference for the Latin American & Caribbean region.

24th September marked the 32nd celebration of World Maritime Day, the annual occasion when the IMO leads the world in highlighting a key issue for the Organization and the shipping industry. This year, the theme for World Maritime Day was Climate Change: a challenge for IMO too.