ASECNA, in
conjunction with NIGCOMSAT and Thales Alenia
Space, provides the first African early
SBAS open service
September 11, 2020
The Agency for Air
Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar,
ASECNA,
has started to broadcast a SBAS (Satellite-Based
Augmentation System) signal over Africa & Indian
Ocean
(AFI) region, providing the first SBAS open
service in this part of the world via
NIGCOMSAT-1R Satellite
managed and operated by Nigerian Communications
Satellite Ltd under Federal Ministry of
Communications and Digital Economy of Nigeria.
This early open service is
provided as part of the « SBAS for Africa &
Indian Ocean » programme which
pursues the autonomous provision over the
continent of SBAS services, to augment the
performances of
the satellite navigation constellations GPS and
Galileo. With improved accuracy to within a
meter, and
boosted integrity, availability and continuity
of safety-related applications, these SBAS
services will improve
flight safety and efficiency in Africa, and also
benefit to the economy in many areas as land,
sea and rail
transport, as well as mass market applications,
supporting user safety, cost-effectiveness and
sustainable
development.
The launched open service
essentially aims to carry-out technical trials,
and to undertake with partner
airlines field demonstrations for aircraft and
rotorcraft, to demonstrate the benefits of the
future operational
safety-of-life SBAS services, expected from
2024. It will also include early Precise Point
Positioning (PPP)
and emergency warning service to populations,
which performance will be proven through other
demonstrations.
The signal-in-space is
generated by a dedicated system testbed,
developed as part of the “SBAS for Africa
and Indian Ocean” preliminary design phase,
financed by the European Union and awarded to
Thales
Alenia Space, Joint Venture between Thales (67%)
and Leonardo (33%). The “SBAS for Africa and
Indian
Ocean” is based on the European EGNOS1developed by the European Space
Agency (ESA) acting under
delegation of the European Commission and
operated by the European GNSS Agency GSA.
The system prototype uses
as reference stations network the SAGAIE network
deployed by CNES and
ASECNA with the support of Thales Alenia Space.
The signal is broadcasted
via the SBAS payload on NigComSat 1R GEO
satellite of the Nigerian
Communications Satellite Ltd and an uplink
station deployed in Abuja (Nigeria). It is
compliant to the
Standards and Recommended Practices of the
International Civil Aviation Organisation, and
the Minimum
Operational Performance Standard developed by
the RTCA (Radio Technical Commission for
Aeronautics)
organisation. It will be visible in the whole
Africa and Indian Ocean, up to the West
Australian coast, and
also in Europe.
“We are proud to be part of
this ambitious program to provide satellite
navigation services in the Africa and
Indian Ocean region. The use of our
geostationary communication satellite
NIGCOMSAT-1R navigation
payload to broadcast the first signal will be
Africa’s premier contribution to SBAS as a
regional satellitebased augmentation system for
the continent” declared Dr. Abimbola Alale,
MD/CEO of NIGCOMSAT Ltd.
“Our longstanding expertise
acquired with the development of EGNOS1 SBAS in
Europe and KASS SBAS
in Korea combined with our new leading-edge
satellite positioning technologies makes Thales
Alenia
Space the ideal partner to best support
countries to implement their own SBAS
efficiently. The equatorial
region represents also a key engineering
challenge for such a system due to difficult
ionosphere conditions,
for which Thales Alenia Space has developed a
proven solution”, declared Benoit Broudy, Vice
President of
the Navigation business at Thales Alenia Space
in France.
“The provision of the first
African SBAS early service is a crucial major
step forward in the development of
satellite navigation in the AFI Region, and in
the deployment of the “SBAS for Africa and
Indian Ocean”
system, the navigation solution for Africa by
Africa. It demonstrates the ambition and
commitment of
ASECNA to enhance air navigation safety for the
benefit of the whole continent, in line with my
vision for
the unification of the African Sky”, stated
Mohamed Moussa, Director General of ASECNA.