First Broadcast of SBAS-SACCSA Test Signal in the Caribbean, Central America and South America

A. Cezon, I. Alcantarilla, J. Caro, J. Ostolaza, C. Soddu, L. Andrada, F. Azpilicueta

Abstract:	For the first time in the Caribbean, Central America and South America regions a GEO satellite SBAS test signal was received. The demonstration of a Satellite-Based Augmentation System of the SACCSA Project (SBAS-SACCSA) in test mode was broadcast during the Seventh Meeting of the Coordination Committee (RCC/7) of ICAO Regional Project RLA/03/902 – SACCSA (Solución de Aumentación para el Caribe, Centro y Sudamérica / Augmentation Solution for the Caribbean, Central and South America), held in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, from 14 to 15 October 2010. The RCC/7 Meeting was organized by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and hosted by Argentina State through ANAC (Administración Nacional de Aviación Civil / National Civil Aviation Administration). The demonstration of test signal was presented to participants at the RCC/7 Meeting of the following States and International Organization: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Spain, Venezuela, COCESNA, IFALPA and ICAO. This project is managed by ICAO and technically coordinated by AENA (Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea, Spain). To success in this relevant and historical event in the regions it has been important the support of ICAO, AENA and GESA laboratory (from the “Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina”), as well as the support of the Argentina State represented through ANAC. For years, ICAO has supported the GNSS implementation and promotes the studies to analyze the implementation of a specific SBAS in the Caribbean, Central and South America Regions, and this initiative is a huge step towards this objective. SACCSA project objective is to study the improvement of the air navigation environment in the Caribbean and South America (CAR/SAM) Regions with a SBAS solution. The project is founded by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) on behalf of the participants/member States/International Organizations of the SACCSA Project. As part of this project a feasibility analysis for a SBAS is performed, paying particular attention to the ionosphere, integrity and safety aspects. The success of the demonstration was possible thanks to the collaboration between GMV and Inmarsat companies, which involved integrating their different technologies. GMV provided its new SBAS processing centre, magicSBAS (www.gmv.com/magicsbas/magicsbas.htm), which accepts real-time data from any place in the world; while Inmarsat provided its SBAS signal generator and the space capacity – the navigation transponder on the Inmarsat-3F4 positioned over the Americas continent. The purpose of the transmission was to complete the integration of magicSBAS with Inmarsat GEO payloads and to show that the performance of SBAS-SACCSA test signals is affordable with minimum infrastructure investments. The presented technology constitutes a fundamental asset for those entities considering the deployment of an SBAS in any region. magicSBAS is an augmentation system demonstrator that collects GPS and GLONASS data (measurements and ephemeris) from a regional network of reference stations, computes satellite orbits and clocks, ionospheric and integrity information, and broadcasts messages to the final user in this case via GEO broadcast. Data from IGS, IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística), UNESP (Universidade Estadual Paulista), RAMSAC (IGNA: Instituto Geográfico Nacional de Argentina), and PRSN (Universidad de Puerto Rico) was used as reference stations for this demonstration. magicSBAS was adapted to CAR/SAM regions, including a first adaptation of the ionosphere algorithms for equatorial regions. The results presented in the paper are not representative of the performances that could be obtained from other medium latitude SBAS (like WAAS or EGNOS) as the iono algorithms in magicSBAS are not the same. Please, note that at equatorial latitudes the ionospheric activity can become a significant problem on GNSS and in particular to SBAS systems, so ionospheric algorithm plays a special role on this type of demonstrations. This paper describes the demonstration performed and presents the results obtained both in-situ in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina and also from the data collected in Madrid, Spain which was in the footprint of the GEO satellite. Additionally, data from different receivers in the regions were processed and SBAS messages were applied. The paper also includes an analysis of the performances obtained with those receivers when SBAS corrections are used and an extrapolation to the entire regions. Obtained performances in terms of accuracy, availability, continuity and integrity is being presented at user level and also at pseudorange level (satellite and IGP). The article shows the safety measures taken during the demonstration, not only for users in the targeted region but to other areas with their own SBAS. The paper identifies also the procedures selected to assess the correct implementation of the demonstration showing a set of results obtained during the mentioned GEO broadcast.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011) September 20 - 23, 2011 Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon Portland, OR
Pages:	2485 - 2494
Cite this article:	Cezon, A., Alcantarilla, I., Caro, J., Ostolaza, J., Soddu, C., Andrada, L., Azpilicueta, F., "First Broadcast of SBAS-SACCSA Test Signal in the Caribbean, Central America and South America," Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011), Portland, OR, September 2011, pp. 2485-2494.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In