GMV Supports Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems Project in South Africa

SBAS networks around the world. Photo: GMV

[Via Satellite 06-06-2016] GMV has provided support for Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS)-Africa — a project U.K. satellite operator Avanti is spearheading with support from the U.K. and South African space agencies. The project, which began in September 2015, has enabled the deployment of an SBAS demonstrator to show the potential benefits of this technology in southern and eastern Africa.

SBAS improves the positioning accuracy and integrity provided by any Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) such as GPS, Glonass, Galileo and BeiDou. SBAS has already been rolled out in the United States (WAAS) and the European Union (EGNOS), with similar initiatives also underway in other countries like India (GAGAN), Japan (MSAS) and Russia (SDCM). The SBAS-Africa demo, which concluded in April, used GMV’s in-house processing, correction-generating and integrity-monitoring system magicSBAS, a network of GNSS monitoring stations deployed throughout the region by NSL, and Avanti’s geostationary satellite Artemis. Avanti facilities at Goonhilly Gateway Earth Station in the U.K. supported magicSBAS, as well as a Cyprus ground station.

The demonstrator enabled a series of tests and demos to be carried out for sectors such as air, sea and road transport, agriculture and geomatics. GMV took part in these trials and also in the presentation of the results to the competent South African authorities in the various sectors. The U.K. Space Agency co-funded the SBAS-Africa program through its International Partnerships Space Program (IPSP); its main contractors are GMV, NSL, Pildo Labs and Thales Alenia Space UK, with the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) being a large collaborator.