SATSA Contributes to South African SBAS Development

A European GNSS Agency (GSA) managed FP7 training and capability project (SATSA) has established a core of local expertise on Space Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) in South Africa. Together with the development of business case scenarios and cost-benefit analyses, it has set the basis for the establishment for SBAS in southern Africa.

On 26 September 2013, the final dissemination event of the SATSA (SBAS Awareness and Capacity Building for South Africa) project took place in Pretoria with the assistance of the main relevant South African authorities and other interested organisations. These included the South African Air Traffic and Navigation Service (ATNS-SA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the European GNSS Agency (GSA) and SATSA consortium partners.

The SATSA project was funded under the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7) and managed by the GSA. Spanish company GMV led the project consortium and other partners included NDConsult from the UK and the Italian Alpha Consult company.

SATSA aimed to support South Africa to build up local capability with regard to SBAS knowledge and technical know-how and enable the country to better manage SBAS in South Africa and, ultimately, across Africa. The training and support covered all aspects of SBAS from deployment to an operational service. The project also strived to raise awareness of SBAS capabilities across a wide range of application sectors such as precision agriculture and vehicle tracking.

SBAS complements existing global satellite navigation systems increasing their accuracy, integrity, continuity and availability. The European SBAS is EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service).

Training Sessions

The SATSA project undertook three main activities to achieve its objectives. Firstly a series of capacity building training sessions were provided on GNSS and SBAS issues to relevant partners including the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), ATNS-SA, its Aviation Training Academy (ATA) and the CAA amongst others.

Working sessions were also provided with the help of the relevant GMV training tools, such as magicSBAS, ECLAYR and magicGEMINI, which allowed hands-on exercises covering many of the concepts described during the training sessions.

Finally, training trials were conducted during 2013, with the goal of enabling SANSA to operate a SBAS Central Processing Facility, such as magicSBAS, and become aware of the range of services and the performance that SBAS technology can bring to South Africa, not only for civil aviation but also in other applications that require improved accuracy in positioning.

The training sessions, which involved personnel from SANSA, ATNS-SA, the CAA, the Peace Parks Foundation and the vehicle tracking company Tracker, were very successful and demonstrated the clear benefits of implementing an SBAS in South Africa. Through the training South Africa has developed a local core of SBAS experts.

Cost – benefit analysis

The SATSA project has also proved, through a cost/benefit analysis using data generated by the trials, that the development and implementation of a local SBAS for satellite navigation systems would greatly benefit the South African aviation sector.

In addition to quantifiable benefits to be derived from SBAS implementation, there are also a range of unquantifiable benefits. These include increased safety including, for example, in general aviation. Another major such benefit is the possibility of the opening of smaller airfields, currently limited to daylight operations in good weather due to a lack of sophisticated instrumentation, to regular scheduled flights. This takes advantage of the greater accuracy offered by SBAS to allow aircraft to operate safely in more adverse conditions. The CAA has estimated that there are some 15 to 20 airfields in South Africa in this category.

Furthermore, there is also the potential for SBAS to stimulate industrial and economic growth. This could happen both through the stimulation of aviation operations and through application of the technology to other sectors. SBAS technology is also applicable to precision agriculture, road and rail transport, ports and maritime operations, asset tracking and infrastructure construction, among many others.

SATSA has clearly demonstrated the feasibility and benefits of establishing a SBAS in South Africa through trials and a thorough analysis of business cases and cost/benefit. The establishment of a SBAS Test Bed prototype could be the next step in realising the South African roadmap to operating a full SBAS.