Category Archives: Galileo Receivers

Galileo Receivers

First position fix with Galileo satellite-5

Galileo’s fifth satellite (FOC), recently recovered from the wrong orbit, has been combined with three predecessors (IOV) to provide its first position fix.

Galileo fix using fifth satellite

Galileo fix using fifth satellite

Test receivers at ESA’s technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, and at the Galileo In-Orbit Test station at Redu in Belgium received the signals at 12:48 GMT on 9 December from the quartet of satellites and fixed their horizontal positions to better than 2 m. This achievement is particularly significant because the fifth satellite is the first of a new design of 22 Galileos set to be launched over the next few years. Read more…

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Galileo signal tracked by Rockwell Collins S-SDR receiver

Rockwell Collins, a pioneer in the development of commercial and military navigation technology over the past 35 years, has successfully received and tracked a Galileo satellite signal using a prototype Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver designed for secure military use.

“This milestone reinforces our belief that Rockwell Collins is uniquely positioned to produce a navigation receiver that will meet global needs,” said John Borghese, vice president of the Advanced Technology Center for Rockwell Collins. Read more…

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Public Consultation on Galileo Open Service Signal In Space ICD

The Galileo Open Service Signal In Space Interface Control Document (OS SIS ICD) contains the publicly available information on the Galileo Signal In Space. It is intended for use by the Galileo Open Service (OS) user community and specifies the interface between the Galileo Space Segment and the Galileo User Segment. Read more…

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First 50 Galileo fixes certified

Billions of satnav position fixes are performed daily, but determining your place in the world using Galileo system is quite new. So ESA offered to issue certificates for the very first 50 Galileo fixes, provoking responses from across the whole world.

The surprise was the extent of Galileo’s reach. While half the applications came from Galileo’s home continent, others came from the rest of the world, including Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, New Zealand, Russia, USA and Vietnam. Read more…

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Galileo maritime trial route

Results are being processed from the first Galileo maritime trials outside of mainland Europe. The long-range, high-latitude testing spanned the North Sea, following the same historical sailing route that Viking dragon-ships used 1200 years ago.

The Belgian frigate Leopold I-F930  during the first high-latitude trials of Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system sailed first from the Dutch marine base of Den Helder on 4 December 2013 to Stavanger in Norway. From there it progressed north in very rough seas with 10-m high waves, coming close to the Arctic circle on 17 December (a first for Galileo PRS observations) before heading homeward. Read more…

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ESA certifies first 50 Galileo position fixes

To mark the first anniversary of Galileo’s historic first satnav positioning measurement, ESA plans to award certificates to groups who picked up signals from the four satellites in orbit to perform their own fixes.

Galileo Satnav System

Galileo Satnav System

In 2011 and 2012 the first four satellites were launched, the minimum number needed for navigation fixes. On 12 March 2013, Galileo’s space and ground elements came together for the first time to perform the historic first determination of a ground location (the Navigation Laboratory of ESA’s Technical Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands). Read more…

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The Ionosphere effect to GNSS signals

Interference from the ionosphere can cause a significant error in GNSS observations. The impact of high solar activity and other disturbances in the ionosphere could potentially disable the use of GNSS and lead to low confidence in the use of GNSS for high accuracy applications.

Ionospheric scintillations are fluctuations in the phase and amplitude of the signals from GNSS satellites occurring when they cross regions of electron density irregularities in the ionosphere. Such disturbances can cause serious degradation on GNSS system performance, including integrity, accuracy and availability. At low latitudes scintillations occur very frequently due to ionospheric irregularities caused by high and inhomogeneous electron density. Read more…

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