GNSS

US decision to freeze construction of GLONASS stations

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has described as politically motivated the USs’ decision to freeze the construction of GLONASS signal calibration stations in its territory. Rogozin recalled that 11 signal calibration stations were deployed in 11 Russian regions. www.en.itar-tass.com

Russia, China eye cooperation of GLONASS and BeiDou

Russia and China see prospects of cooperation related with satellite navigation systems GLONASS and BeiDou in regional support and development of chipsets, said Russian Deputy PM. www.en.ria.ru

GLONASS disruption caused location errors of up to 55km

The General Lighthouse Authorities of the UK and Ireland (GLAs) stressed the vulnerability of satellite navigation systems as they unveiled data showing that a GLONASS disruption caused location errors of up to 55km. In April, all the satellites of the Russian constellation reportedly produced corrupted information for almost 12 hours. The GLAs published readings of its GLONASS receiver based in Harwich (England). During the disruption, the receiver – which is located on land – showed positions of up to 55km out at sea. All satellite navigation systems share the same failure points, the GLAs say. They operate in a limited frequency band and their distance from Earth make their weak signals susceptible to both accidental and deliberate interference as well as the upload of faulty data, thought to have caused the GLONASS problems. www.thedigitalship.com

GPS based aircraft tracking mandated by 2020

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is accelerating the implementation of the next generation of aviation tracking following the disappearance of the Malaysian Airline Boeing 777. The agency has been working on a system called Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast, or ADS-B, radio network. It allows controllers to monitor an aircraft from the time it takes off to the time it lands, using GPS satellite tracking, rather than ground-based radar. Of the 230 air traffic facilities across the US, only 100 use the system now. The FAA announced it will be mandatory for all facilities to use it by 2020. www.9news.com

Russian lawmakers approve satellite navigation hub in Nicaragua

Russian lawmakers have endorsed draft legislation to allow the country to set up a satellite navigation monitoring system in Nicaragua. “The agreement is aimed at creating an organizational and legal framework for mutually beneficial partnership between Russia and Nicaragua in terms of exploring and using space for peaceful purposes,” an official statement explained. www.spacedaily.com

Russia plans to install GLONASS Stations in more countries

Ground-based stations for GLONASS could be installed in several countries, including in Europe, but the current political situation is interfering with the process. “It is currently difficult to say exactly when and where [stations could be installed]. We are ready to sign an agreement with one of the European countries,” said Sergey Saveliev, the deputy head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. “Another station is preparing for launch in Brazil, but its functional profile is slightly different. www.en.ria.ru

Advanced research for indoor GNSS positioning

Researchers at Telecom SudParis, a part of the Institut Mines-Telecom, an education and research institution in the fields of information and communication technology, are working on a solution to provide indoor continuity for GNSS positioning. The idea is to deploy a minimal transmission infrastructure in order to allow a standard receiver to measure pseudo-ranges and carrier phases, thus leading to an indoor accurate positioning. The infrastructure consists of a few antennas fed through optical fibers with a GNSS-like signal. In order to achieve positions accurate to a few decimeters, the locations of the various indoor antennas had to be accurately known. This was achieved with the Spectra Precision FOCUS 8 total station in a local reference frame. www.spectraprecision.com

5th Boeing GPS IIF Satellite Joins GPS

The accuracy of the GPS has been improved with the recent handover of a fifth Boeing GPS IIF satellite to the U.S. Air Force. The newest addition to the GPS constellation increases the precision of position, navigation and timing data sent to users around the world. www.boeing.com

Aircraft GPS System Being Rolled out in Australia

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 has raised questions about how much authorities actually know about the location of aircraft in the sky. The answer is: a lot when they are in areas of radar coverage over land, but much less once they are over remote areas or over ocean.

Current onboard data transmissions from the separate Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), a system similar to text messaging, sends very limited data about a plane’s whereabouts and the transmissions can leave gaps of 15-30 minutes. However, new satellite based systems, similar to GPS in a car, are being rolled out by a number of countries including Australia that will provide much more detailed information on the location of the aircraft. The system, known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast, uses a combination of satellites and ground stations to identify the location and velocity of a plane equipped with the system with pinpoint accuracy. The aircraft sends out a signal every second to base stations and to satellites, which are then plotted in real time. Websites such as Flightrader24 are already using this information for their services. www.smh. com.au Source: Sydney Morning Herald