France: More than 30 specialists overseeing the world’s five satellite navigation augmentation systems gathered in Russia last week, planning for a high-performance future with many more navigation satellites in orbit.
The Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) Interoperability Working Group was hosted in St Petersburg by Russia’s Roscosmos space agency and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Meeting twice yearly, the task of the Working Group is to ensure that the various systems work together on a standardised basis, so end-users can pass seamlessly between them.
“The Group’s terms of reference include developing a shared vision for future generations of these systems,” commented Didier Flament, representing ESA.
“The future will see many more navigation satellites in place. So among the most important achievements of the meeting was agreeing a common SBAS message based on dual-frequency multiconstellation (DFMC) signals from up to four constellations – GPS, Galileo, Compass and GLONASS – for the post-2020 era,” said Flament.
“Field tests by our Japanese colleagues using GPS and GLONASS combined with MSAS are confirming the improved performance expected from this DFMC concept,” he added.
“Two solutions have been studied in parallel, one by ESA and one by the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). Both have been compared, with a final single definition to be made before the end of this year. This represents a major step forward towards providing a quasi-global SBAS service,” he said.
Source: ESA
