ASECNA, in conjunction with NIGCOMSAT and Thales Alenia Space, provides the first African early SBAS open service, opening a new era of satellite navigation performance augmentation in the Africa & Indian Ocean region
ASECNA, NIGCOMSAT Ltd and Thales Alenia Space take a crucial step towards the provision of satellite navigation services in the Africa & Indian Ocean region
The Agency for Air Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar, ASECNA, has started to broadcast a SBAS (Satellite-Based Augmentation System) signal over the Africa and Indian Ocean (AFI) region.
This is the first SBAS open service in this part of the world via the NIGCOMSAT-1R Satellite managed and operated by Nigerian Communications Satellite under the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy of Nigeria.
The 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 metre, 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 new 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 EGNOS developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) acting under delegation of the European Commission and operated by the European GNSS Agency GSA.
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 satellite-based augmentation system for the continent,” says Dr Abimbola Alale, CEO of NIGCOMSAT.