Author Archives: Galileo GNSS

Galileo provides healthy signals 97.33 percent of the time

Signal in Space Ranging Error (SISE) of the Galileo constellation from 2014 to the present.

SISE of the Galileo constellation from 2014 to the present.

Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system has undergone its first performance report since it started work at the end of last year, and it passed with flying colors.

The European GNSS Agency, GSA has published the first of its regular quarterly performance reports on Galileo. This European GNSS (Galileo) Initial Services Open Service report, now available online, covers the first three months of 2017 and documents the good performance of Galileo Initial Services to date.

The report shows the 11 satellites then operating in the Galileo constellation were able to provide healthy signals 97.33 percent of the time on a per satellite basis, with a ranging accuracy better than 1.07 m and disseminating global UTC time within its signal to within 30 billionths of a second on a 95 percentile monthly basis. Read more…

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First GNSS IS OS quarterly performance report now available

open service quarterly performance report. Q1 2017The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has published its first Galileo Initial Services Open Service (IS OS) quarterly performance report.

Following the Declaration of Initial Services in December 2016, the GSA will publish a new Galileo IS OS report after each quarter. These quarterly reports aim to provide the public with the latest information on the Galileo Open Service’s performance. Read more…

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Two More Satellites Formally Added to Galileo’s Satnav System

Galileo satellite in orbit

Galileo satellite in orbit

Two further satellites, GSAT0207 (SV ID 07) and GSAT0214 (SV ID 05), increasing the total number to 16, have formally become part of Europe’s Galileo satnav system, broadcasting timing and navigation signals worldwide while also picking up distress calls across the planet.

These are the 15th and 16th satellites to join the network, two of the four Galileos that were launched together by Ariane 5 last November (images), and the first additions to the working constellation since the start of Galileo Initial Services in December. Read more…

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ESNC Special Prizes Searching Secure Services

ESA_DLR-and-BMVI_2017Reliability is key in countless fields. Especially, the space sector and its multiple application fields are constantly in demand of reliable services and products. These ensure increased security for positioning, navigation and our digital society – and they must be qualified for the harshest environments on Earth and beyond. Galileo together with its exclusive service specifically dedicated to security, Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS), is the dependable service reaching out to new, ground-breaking applications. Read more…

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Winners of the European Inventor Award 2017 – Radio signals for better satellite navigation

Galileo_team_EIA17Space-based radio navigation positioning has made significant strides in recent decades. It is now poised to make a greater leap thanks to Galileo, Europe’s global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Signalling technology developed by a team of European engineers not only helps Galileo deliver better accuracy and clear up signal clutter; it also pushes satellite navigation and its features to the next level.

A European team, led by French engineer Laurent Lestarquit and his Spanish colleague José Ángel Ávila Rodríguez and including German Günter Hein and Belgian Lionel Ries, has a unique specialism: sending clear signals from space. A virtual cacophony of radio frequencies is sent down to earth from the more than 50 navigation positioning satellites currently in orbit – including those of the US-led Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) and more recently Europe’s Galileo system. This team has helped ensure that signals do not interfere with each other, and that users and developers alike will be able to profit from the next-generation positioning technology that Galileo offers.

The team’s contribution of modulation and spread-spectrum signal technologies forms one of the joint European satellite positioning system’s core components, delivering signals that enhance accuracy, save on satellite power and ensure interoperability with GLONASS and the current GPS and its possible upgrades. Read more…

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Safewayz, your safety app. Winner of Hackathon 2017

SafewayzAfter Hackathon 2017, we contacted one of the winners: the “Midnight Coders” team, who developed “Safewayz” app. After exchanging several messages they showed us their interest to publish an article on their succesful application in our website. We thought it was interesting to share with all of you how the idea was conceived and is currently being developed.

By Angelica Ferrer*:
The primary purpose of the app is a safety app that lets someone send an emergency request for police, fire, or ambulance directly into their system bypassing human intervention saving critical minutes in emergency response. A secondary feature of the app is a crowd-sourced safety map that lets users tag/identify safety hazards and ultimately will draw on open source prime data and provide a safe foot path, allow people who are not necessarily driving to avoid trouble. Read more…

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Hackathon 2017 expands Galileo community

Hackathon_2017This year’s Galileo Hackathon in Gdynia, Poland, brought together students, graduates, entrepreneurs and a handful of helpful high-level GNSS experts to develop innovative LBS applications exploiting the new level of accuracy made possible by Galileo.

As part of its effort to achieve the highest return on European GNSS investment, in terms of benefits to users and economic growth and competitiveness, the GSA has worked very hard to get Galileo into smartphones. It’s an effort that has paid off. Read more…

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