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Participants in the Challenges in Arctic Navigation workshop in Olos, Muonio, Finland on April 16-18 discussed how GNSS can address some of the difficulties posed by navigation in the Arctic, in addition to how satellite navigation itself can be improved in the region, which is also a challenging environment for GNSS.

The Challenges in Arctic Navigation workshop was held under the Finnish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council. The workshop was organised by the Ministry and Communications (Mrs Seija Miettinen-Bellevergue) and the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (Prof. Heidi Kuusniemi) and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A number of challenges to both conventional and satellite navigation were highlighted during the conference. These range from severe climatic and ice conditions, to the long distances involved in navigating in the region, all of which result in longer emergency response times for search and rescue. The challenge of sparse telecommunications coverage in the Arctic was also highlighted.

Low EGNOS coverage due to the poor visibility of geostationary (GEO) satellites received a lot of attention. This was highlighted as a significant obstacle to the expansion of SBAS-based navigation in Arctic aviation. Specifically, poor EGNOS LPV 200 coverage in the North and the Arctic means that it is not possible to use this service for landing aircraft. New satellite constellations in low-Earth or highly elliptic orbits were seen as a promising solution. Some participants also noted specific challenges with the reception of GNSS signals at Auroral latitudes.

In addition to GNSS and telecommunications, navigation in the Arctic also benefits from other space-based technologies, especially in the maritime domain. "Sea currents are chaotic and not well predictable if satellite images are not available," Veli Luukkala, Chief Officer at Arctia Icebreaking Ltd., said.

While acknowledging these challenges in his address at the conference, Gian Gherardo Calini, the GSA’s Head of Market Development, also stressed some of the opportunities offered by EGNSS for different applications. The ones coming from implementation of EGNOS based procedures in aviation are: improved accessibility and operational capability, reduced environmental impacts and costs, infrastructure rationalisation, and increased safety. With regard to the low level of EGNOS coverage, he said that extension of the commitment areas for APV-I, NPA and LPV-200 up to 72ºN in Norway and Finland is planned for 2018 according to the EGNOS SoL Implementation Roadmap.

Watch this: EGNOS is growing

Regarding the issue of emergency response times, Calini said that, with the increased positioning accuracy provided by Galileo integrated into COSPAS-SARSAT, users would benefit from reduced detection times, improved localisation, increased availability and the return link function. “If a person in distress knows that their message has been heard and that help is on the way, this is very important. This is a key differentiator of Galileo,” he said.

In his address at the workshop, Eric Guyader, Galileo Programme Administrator at the European Commission, said that since 2013, the European Commission has been developing modernisation plans for Galileo, to ensure that the system can respond to new challenges in the use of GNSS. He said that the EC’s approach is to capture the strategic priorities of the Member States, including in the Arctic, and to understand the changing GNSS environment.

Regarding the specific challenges posed by the Arctic region, he said that the Commission is in open dialogue with countries in the region to establish priorities. He said that Galileo provides good service overall in both navigation and SAR, and that, in combination with GPS and GLONASS, it would offer excellent service.

Guyader said that the Galileo modernisation includes plans for Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM), and emergency warning service and an ionosphere prediction service, which will make it possible to quickly react to sudden signal degradation.

In another presentation, a representative from academia noted that ionospheric scintillation, or the rapid modification of radio waves by small-scale structures in the ionosphere, was an important concern in the Arctic, primarily for service availability and continuity, rather than integrity. He said that dual-frequency GNSS offered a possible solution, as it would allow users to directly and robustly estimate ionospheric delay.

A potential solution to the problem of poor visibility of GEO satellites was offered by Kjersti Moldekelev, Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Space Centre. Moldeklev said that the company Space Norway was planning to launch HEO satellites in 2022, which would provide broadband access to the Arctic region. She said that if these HEO satellites were to carry SBAS payload, this would give the EU a foothold in the Arctic. "This will definitely be a solution for communications challenges in the region and perhaps for navigation challenges also,” she said.

Local stakeholders in Arctic navigation were well represented at the workshop, including the Finnish Defence Forces, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, and companies such as Finnair, KNL Networks, and Reaktor. The stakeholders actively contributed to the workshop by giving keynote addresses, participating in panel discussions, and working in expert groups to build a roadmap towards resolving the challenges of Arctic navigation.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

Participants in the Challenges in Arctic Navigation workshop in Olos, Muonio, Finland on April 16-18 discussed how GNSS can address some of the difficulties posed by navigation in the Arctic, in addition to how satellite navigation itself can be improved in the region, which is also a challenging environment for GNSS.

The Challenges in Arctic Navigation workshop was held under the Finnish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council. The workshop was organised by the Ministry and Communications (Mrs Seija Miettinen-Bellevergue) and the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (Prof. Heidi Kuusniemi) and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A number of challenges to both conventional and satellite navigation were highlighted during the conference. These range from severe climatic and ice conditions, to the long distances involved in navigating in the region, all of which result in longer emergency response times for search and rescue. The challenge of sparse telecommunications coverage in the Arctic was also highlighted.

Low EGNOS coverage due to the poor visibility of geostationary (GEO) satellites received a lot of attention. This was highlighted as a significant obstacle to the expansion of SBAS-based navigation in Arctic aviation. Specifically, poor EGNOS LPV 200 coverage in the North and the Arctic means that it is not possible to use this service for landing aircraft. New satellite constellations in low-Earth or highly elliptic orbits were seen as a promising solution. Some participants also noted specific challenges with the reception of GNSS signals at Auroral latitudes.

In addition to GNSS and telecommunications, navigation in the Arctic also benefits from other space-based technologies, especially in the maritime domain. "Sea currents are chaotic and not well predictable if satellite images are not available," Veli Luukkala, Chief Officer at Arctia Icebreaking Ltd., said.

While acknowledging these challenges in his address at the conference, Gian Gherardo Calini, the GSA’s Head of Market Development, also stressed some of the opportunities offered by EGNSS for different applications. The ones coming from implementation of EGNOS based procedures in aviation are: improved accessibility and operational capability, reduced environmental impacts and costs, infrastructure rationalisation, and increased safety. With regard to the low level of EGNOS coverage, he said that extension of the commitment areas for APV-I, NPA and LPV-200 up to 72ºN in Norway and Finland is planned for 2018 according to the EGNOS SoL Implementation Roadmap.

Watch this: EGNOS is growing

Regarding the issue of emergency response times, Calini said that, with the increased positioning accuracy provided by Galileo integrated into COSPAS-SARSAT, users would benefit from reduced detection times, improved localisation, increased availability and the return link function. “If a person in distress knows that their message has been heard and that help is on the way, this is very important. This is a key differentiator of Galileo,” he said.

In his address at the workshop, Eric Guyader, Galileo Programme Administrator at the European Commission, said that since 2013, the European Commission has been developing modernisation plans for Galileo, to ensure that the system can respond to new challenges in the use of GNSS. He said that the EC’s approach is to capture the strategic priorities of the Member States, including in the Arctic, and to understand the changing GNSS environment.

Regarding the specific challenges posed by the Arctic region, he said that the Commission is in open dialogue with countries in the region to establish priorities. He said that Galileo provides good service overall in both navigation and SAR, and that, in combination with GPS and GLONASS, it would offer excellent service.

Guyader said that the Galileo modernisation includes plans for Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM), and emergency warning service and an ionosphere prediction service, which will make it possible to quickly react to sudden signal degradation.

In another presentation, a representative from academia noted that ionospheric scintillation, or the rapid modification of radio waves by small-scale structures in the ionosphere, was an important concern in the Arctic, primarily for service availability and continuity, rather than integrity. He said that dual-frequency GNSS offered a possible solution, as it would allow users to directly and robustly estimate ionospheric delay.

A potential solution to the problem of poor visibility of GEO satellites was offered by Kjersti Moldekelev, Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Space Centre. Moldeklev said that the company Space Norway was planning to launch HEO satellites in 2022, which would provide broadband access to the Arctic region. She said that if these HEO satellites were to carry SBAS payload, this would give the EU a foothold in the Arctic. "This will definitely be a solution for communications challenges in the region and perhaps for navigation challenges also,” she said.

Local stakeholders in Arctic navigation were well represented at the workshop, including the Finnish Defence Forces, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, and companies such as Finnair, KNL Networks, and Reaktor. The stakeholders actively contributed to the workshop by giving keynote addresses, participating in panel discussions, and working in expert groups to build a roadmap towards resolving the challenges of Arctic navigation.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

Participants in the Challenges in Arctic Navigation workshop in Olos, Muonio, Finland on April 16-18 discussed how GNSS can address some of the difficulties posed by navigation in the Arctic, in addition to how satellite navigation itself can be improved in the region, which is also a challenging environment for GNSS.

The Challenges in Arctic Navigation workshop was held under the Finnish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council. The workshop was organised by the Ministry and Communications (Mrs Seija Miettinen-Bellevergue) and the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (Prof. Heidi Kuusniemi) and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A number of challenges to both conventional and satellite navigation were highlighted during the conference. These range from severe climatic and ice conditions, to the long distances involved in navigating in the region, all of which result in longer emergency response times for search and rescue. The challenge of sparse telecommunications coverage in the Arctic was also highlighted.

Low EGNOS coverage due to the poor visibility of geostationary (GEO) satellites received a lot of attention. This was highlighted as a significant obstacle to the expansion of SBAS-based navigation in Arctic aviation. Specifically, poor EGNOS LPV 200 coverage in the North and the Arctic means that it is not possible to use this service for landing aircraft. New satellite constellations in low-Earth or highly elliptic orbits were seen as a promising solution. Some participants also noted specific challenges with the reception of GNSS signals at Auroral latitudes.

In addition to GNSS and telecommunications, navigation in the Arctic also benefits from other space-based technologies, especially in the maritime domain. "Sea currents are chaotic and not well predictable if satellite images are not available," Veli Luukkala, Chief Officer at Arctia Icebreaking Ltd., said.

While acknowledging these challenges in his address at the conference, Gian Gherardo Calini, the GSA’s Head of Market Development, also stressed some of the opportunities offered by EGNSS for different applications. The ones coming from implementation of EGNOS based procedures in aviation are: improved accessibility and operational capability, reduced environmental impacts and costs, infrastructure rationalisation, and increased safety. With regard to the low level of EGNOS coverage, he said that extension of the commitment areas for APV-I, NPA and LPV-200 up to 72ºN in Norway and Finland is planned for 2018 according to the EGNOS SoL Implementation Roadmap.

Watch this: EGNOS is growing

Regarding the issue of emergency response times, Calini said that, with the increased positioning accuracy provided by Galileo integrated into COSPAS-SARSAT, users would benefit from reduced detection times, improved localisation, increased availability and the return link function. “If a person in distress knows that their message has been heard and that help is on the way, this is very important. This is a key differentiator of Galileo,” he said.

In his address at the workshop, Eric Guyader, Galileo Programme Administrator at the European Commission, said that since 2013, the European Commission has been developing modernisation plans for Galileo, to ensure that the system can respond to new challenges in the use of GNSS. He said that the EC’s approach is to capture the strategic priorities of the Member States, including in the Arctic, and to understand the changing GNSS environment.

Regarding the specific challenges posed by the Arctic region, he said that the Commission is in open dialogue with countries in the region to establish priorities. He said that Galileo provides good service overall in both navigation and SAR, and that, in combination with GPS and GLONASS, it would offer excellent service.

Guyader said that the Galileo modernisation includes plans for Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM), and emergency warning service and an ionosphere prediction service, which will make it possible to quickly react to sudden signal degradation.

In another presentation, a representative from academia noted that ionospheric scintillation, or the rapid modification of radio waves by small-scale structures in the ionosphere, was an important concern in the Arctic, primarily for service availability and continuity, rather than integrity. He said that dual-frequency GNSS offered a possible solution, as it would allow users to directly and robustly estimate ionospheric delay.

A potential solution to the problem of poor visibility of GEO satellites was offered by Kjersti Moldekelev, Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Space Centre. Moldeklev said that the company Space Norway was planning to launch HEO satellites in 2022, which would provide broadband access to the Arctic region. She said that if these HEO satellites were to carry SBAS payload, this would give the EU a foothold in the Arctic. "This will definitely be a solution for communications challenges in the region and perhaps for navigation challenges also,” she said.

Local stakeholders in Arctic navigation were well represented at the workshop, including the Finnish Defence Forces, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, and companies such as Finnair, KNL Networks, and Reaktor. The stakeholders actively contributed to the workshop by giving keynote addresses, participating in panel discussions, and working in expert groups to build a roadmap towards resolving the challenges of Arctic navigation.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

Participants in the Challenges in Arctic Navigation workshop in Olos, Muonio, Finland on April 16-18 discussed how GNSS can address some of the difficulties posed by navigation in the Arctic, in addition to how satellite navigation itself can be improved in the region, which is also a challenging environment for GNSS.

The Challenges in Arctic Navigation workshop was held under the Finnish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council. The workshop was organised by the Ministry and Communications (Mrs Seija Miettinen-Bellevergue) and the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (Prof. Heidi Kuusniemi) and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A number of challenges to both conventional and satellite navigation were highlighted during the conference. These range from severe climatic and ice conditions, to the long distances involved in navigating in the region, all of which result in longer emergency response times for search and rescue. The challenge of sparse telecommunications coverage in the Arctic was also highlighted.

Low EGNOS coverage due to the poor visibility of geostationary (GEO) satellites received a lot of attention. This was highlighted as a significant obstacle to the expansion of SBAS-based navigation in Arctic aviation. Specifically, poor EGNOS LPV 200 coverage in the North and the Arctic means that it is not possible to use this service for landing aircraft. New satellite constellations in low-Earth or highly elliptic orbits were seen as a promising solution. Some participants also noted specific challenges with the reception of GNSS signals at Auroral latitudes.

Challenges and opportunities were discussed in Arctic navigation in Olos, Muonio

In addition to GNSS and telecommunications, navigation in the Arctic also benefits from other space-based technologies, especially in the maritime domain. "Sea currents are chaotic and not well predictable if satellite images are not available," Veli Luukkala, Chief Officer at Arctia Icebreaking Ltd., said.

While acknowledging these challenges in his address at the conference, Gian Gherardo Calini, the GSA’s Head of Market Development, also stressed some of the opportunities offered by EGNSS for different applications. The ones coming from implementation of EGNOS based procedures in aviation are: improved accessibility and operational capability, reduced environmental impacts and costs, infrastructure rationalisation, and increased safety. With regard to the low level of EGNOS coverage, he said that extension of the commitment areas for APV-I, NPA and LPV-200 up to 72ºN in Norway and Finland is planned for 2018 according to the EGNOS SoL Implementation Roadmap.

Watch this: EGNOS is growing

Regarding the issue of emergency response times, Calini said that, with the increased positioning accuracy provided by Galileo integrated into COSPAS-SARSAT, users would benefit from reduced detection times, improved localisation, increased availability and the return link function. “If a person in distress knows that their message has been heard and that help is on the way, this is very important. This is a key differentiator of Galileo,” he said.

In his address at the workshop, Eric Guyader, Galileo Programme Administrator at the European Commission, said that since 2013, the European Commission has been developing modernisation plans for Galileo, to ensure that the system can respond to new challenges in the use of GNSS. He said that the EC’s approach is to capture the strategic priorities of the Member States, including in the Arctic, and to understand the changing GNSS environment.

Regarding the specific challenges posed by the Arctic region, he said that the Commission is in open dialogue with countries in the region to establish priorities. He said that Galileo provides good service overall in both navigation and SAR, and that, in combination with GPS and GLONASS, it would offer excellent service.

Guyader said that the Galileo modernisation includes plans for Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM), and emergency warning service and an ionosphere prediction service, which will make it possible to quickly react to sudden signal degradation.

In another presentation, a representative from academia noted that ionospheric scintillation, or the rapid modification of radio waves by small-scale structures in the ionosphere, was an important concern in the Arctic, primarily for service availability and continuity, rather than integrity. He said that dual-frequency GNSS offered a possible solution, as it would allow users to directly and robustly estimate ionospheric delay.

A potential solution to the problem of poor visibility of GEO satellites was offered by Kjersti Moldekelev, Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Space Centre. Moldeklev said that the company Space Norway was planning to launch HEO satellites in 2022, which would provide broadband access to the Arctic region. She said that if these HEO satellites were to carry SBAS payload, this would give the EU a foothold in the Arctic. "This will definitely be a solution for communications challenges in the region and perhaps for navigation challenges also,” she said.

Local stakeholders in Arctic navigation were well represented at the workshop, including the Finnish Defence Forces, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, and companies such as Finnair, KNL Networks, and Reaktor. The stakeholders actively contributed to the workshop by giving keynote addresses, participating in panel discussions, and working in expert groups to build a roadmap towards resolving the challenges of Arctic navigation.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

From automatic steering to farm machinery guidance, variable rate application, yield and soil monitoring and livestock tracking, precision agriculture depends on the precise positioning provided by GNSS.

However, in order to get the level of precision these types of farming applications demand, GNSS signals must be augmented. In Europe, this augmentation is provided by EGNOS.

Although EGNOS is widely available, there are remote and rural areas in Europe where coverage is lacking. Other augmentation providers may provide coverage in the areas, however typically they are expensive, sometimes due to high subscription fees, and are not easy to tailor to the agricultural needs. To help fill the needs of such small farms, the Horizon 2020 AUDITOR project is developing a ground-based GNSS augmentation system that will deliver high-performance and cost-efficient services and applications for the agriculture industry.

“The purpose of this project is to develop an improved GNSS ground-based augmentation system using modern and proven algorithms in highly configurable, cost-effect receivers,” says Project Coordinator Esther Lopez. “As a result, AUDITOR will enable cost-effective precision agriculture services for farmers, especially those with small and mid-sized farms in areas where EGNOS availability is limited.”

The future of farming

The AUDITOR system is based on a radio frequency (RF) dual-band multi-constellation GNSS front-end and an embedded digital processing platform. The front-end receiver acquires the GNSS signals and embeds all analogue and digital hardware required to convert the RF signal to digital samples. The digital processing platform then converts and customises the signals for the AUDITOR systems. The system serves as the basis for providing higher-level services for the end user via cloud-based web and/or mobile applications.

Once finalised, AUDITOR is set to be used in a range of precision agriculture applications. For example, with AUDITOR applications, farmers will be able to accurately measure spatial variability in soils and crops. This information, expressed in the form of yield maps, allows a farmer to precisely apply fertiliser, water and pesticides – thus reducing production costs and the farm’s environmental impact. AUDITOR’s high-accuracy positioning will also enable the use of autonomous mobile robotic units for identifying weeds, pests and diseases.

“Producing precise maps of the soil and crops, as well as the spatially varying application of fertiliser that these maps enable, is completely dependent on the availability of an augmented GNSS signal,” says Lopez. “Thanks to AUDITOR, even areas in Eastern and Southern Europe that once were unable to get the required precise GNSS signal can reap the benefits of precision agriculture.”

With the ever-increasing requirement for augmented yield and profitability and energy and cost savings, the future of farming is precision agriculture. By focusing on providing the augmentation needed to enable existing precision agriculture applications in Europe alone, Lopez is confident that AUDITOR will be well-positioned to compete on the market.
A version of this article originally appeared on the EU’s CORDIS website.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

From automatic steering to farm machinery guidance, variable rate application, yield and soil monitoring and livestock tracking, precision agriculture depends on the precise positioning provided by GNSS.

However, in order to get the level of precision these types of farming applications demand, GNSS signals must be augmented. In Europe, this augmentation is provided by EGNOS.

Although EGNOS is widely available, there are remote and rural areas in Europe where coverage is lacking. Other augmentation providers may provide coverage in the areas, however typically they are expensive, sometimes due to high subscription fees, and are not easy to tailor to the agricultural needs. To help fill the needs of such small farms, the Horizon 2020 AUDITOR project is developing a ground-based GNSS augmentation system that will deliver high-performance and cost-efficient services and applications for the agriculture industry.

“The purpose of this project is to develop an improved GNSS ground-based augmentation system using modern and proven algorithms in highly configurable, cost-effect receivers,” says Project Coordinator Esther Lopez. “As a result, AUDITOR will enable cost-effective precision agriculture services for farmers, especially those with small and mid-sized farms in areas where EGNOS availability is limited.”
The future of farming

The AUDITOR system is based on a radio frequency (RF) dual-band multi-constellation GNSS front-end and an embedded digital processing platform. The front-end receiver acquires the GNSS signals and embeds all analogue and digital hardware required to convert the RF signal to digital samples. The digital processing platform then converts and customises the signals for the AUDITOR systems. The system serves as the basis for providing higher-level services for the end user via cloud-based web and/or mobile applications.

Once finalised, AUDITOR is set to be used in a range of precision agriculture applications. For example, with AUDITOR applications, farmers will be able to accurately measure spatial variability in soils and crops. This information, expressed in the form of yield maps, allows a farmer to precisely apply fertiliser, water and pesticides – thus reducing production costs and the farm’s environmental impact. AUDITOR’s high-accuracy positioning will also enable the use of autonomous mobile robotic units for identifying weeds, pests and diseases.

“Producing precise maps of the soil and crops, as well as the spatially varying application of fertiliser that these maps enable, is completely dependent on the availability of an augmented GNSS signal,” says Lopez. “Thanks to AUDITOR, even areas in Eastern and Southern Europe that once were unable to get the required precise GNSS signal can reap the benefits of precision agriculture.”

With the ever-increasing requirement for augmented yield and profitability and energy and cost savings, the future of farming is precision agriculture. By focusing on providing the augmentation needed to enable existing precision agriculture applications in Europe alone, Lopez is confident that AUDITOR will be well-positioned to compete on the market.
A version of this article originally appeared on the EU’s CORDIS website.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).