Programme managers and technical experts overseeing four of the world’s regional satellite navigation augmentation systems met this week, with ESA coordinating the participation of stakeholders in Europe’s own EGNOS system. The Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) Interoperability Working Group (IWG) was hosted by the German Aerospace Center, DLR, at Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich in southern Germany, on 17–18 January. Russia’s Roscosmos space agency attended for the first time.There’s satellite navigation and then there’s satellite augmentation – where additional ground monitoring stations and satellite transponders are used to sharpen satnav accuracy and reliability across geographical regions.
The improvement makes satnav suitable for the vertical guidance of aircraft and a range of other precision applications.
