The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) has awarded GMV a framework contract to advance the Galileo Reference Centre (GRC), a key facility for monitoring and evaluating the performance of the Galileo satellite navigation system. Located in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, the GRC independently assesses Galileo’s operations, signal quality, and user-level service performance and compares its performance with that of other GNSS.
The upcoming GRC V2 version will introduce real-time monitoring capabilities, enhancing EUSPA’s ability to oversee GNSS services. This evolution will support additional Galileo services, including:
Signal Authentication Service (SAS): Strengthening trust in Galileo signals.
Time Dissemination Service: Enabling precise synchronization for critical infrastructure.
Search and Rescue (SAR): Improving emergency response operations.
Emergency Warning Satellite Service (EWSS): Facilitating public alerts for natural disasters and emergencies.
Key operational improvements in GRC V2 include:
Enhanced monitoring using data from multiple institutions.
Real-time processing for faster user notifications.
Seamless system upgrades without disrupting operations.
Advanced cybersecurity measures integrated into a platform-as-a-service model.
The upgraded GRC is expected to be operational by 2026 without impacting ongoing functions.
The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) and Naviair — a company that specializes in air navigation and related infrastructure services and is owned by the Danish state and represented by the Ministry of Transport — have partnered to strengthen the monitoring capabilities of the Galileo search and rescue (SAR) service by adding a new site in Greenland.
The partnership between EUSPA and Naviair will expand the ground segment and current SAR capabilities. As part of the agreement, Naviair will contribute to the Galileo Programme objectives by procuring, deploying, hosting, and operating a reference beacon (REFBE) near the Kangerlussuaq Airport in Greenland.
The new SAR/Galileo site and REFBE will be located around the margins of the declared service coverage area and will be fully integrated into the SAR ground segment, bringing the number of REFBEs to eight. The REFBEs provide data for service performance monitoring.
There are currently five REFBEs in the European coverage area and two in the Indian Ocean coverage area.
The REFBEs are fitted with vertical linear polarized antennas that transmit timely, synchronized signals equivalent to a standard 406 MHz Cospas-Sarsat beacon. This, combined with their well-known position, enables specific SAR/Galileo Service performance indicators to be derived.
The new site will be ready by the fourth quarter of 2023.
The SAR/Galileo component of the EU Space Programme plays a crucial role in the detection of emergency signals transmitted by distress beacons in support of the internationally recognized SAR Cospas-Sarsat program. As part of this program, the Galileo SAR Service utilizes SAR instruments onboard Galileo satellites, medium-Earth orbit local user terminals, and a network of SAR REFBEs located across Europe.
In 2022, the Galileo GNSS continued to provide the world’s most precise satellite navigation information, to a user base that stands at more than 3.5 billion worldwide. Furthermore, provided services continue to improve and expand, with plans for high-accuracy positioning and signal authentication now reaching fruition.
The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) continue to enjoy an effective collaboration on the many development, deployment, and evolution activities of the Galileo Programme — each according to their respective responsibilities for service provision and system development with the European Commission (EC) acting as the program manager.
Ranging accuracy performance from January to September 2022.
Positioning-related MPLS from January to October 2022.
New Services Launched in 2022
Excellent Performance
Service delivery operations and maintenance of operational systems are managed by EUSPA, which supervises many contracts that carry out the day-to-day activities from dedicated control and monitoring centers throughout Europe. In 2022, Galileo timing, navigation, and SAR/Galileo services were delivered with excellent performances that continue to exceed the formal declarations for minimum performance levels (MPL), which were increased in January, both in terms of absolute accuracy and overall service availability. The entry into service of two additional satellites in May and August, have further consolidated the overall service availability to end users.
Galileo FOC Batch 3 satellite under testing.
Expansion of Service Portfolio
The service provision teams have been able to focus on improvements to, and expansion of, the service portfolio.
The I/NAV improvement will positively impact end users by enabling a faster time to first fix, and updates to the data validity status flags will lead to better protection of users against expired navigation data. These changes are implemented in updates of the onboard software of the satellites being rolled out across the constellation. At present, seven operational satellites have been successfully updated; the complete software upgrade campaign is planned to be completed this summer.
Galileo’s new High Accuracy Service will provide free precise point positioning (PPP) corrections, in the Galileo E6-B data component and by terrestrial means, for Galileo and GPS (single and multi-frequency) to achieve real-time user position improved by up to 10 times. The infrastructure to support an initial service (Phase 1) is nearing completion, and the formal declaration of the service capabilities is planned for early this year.
To provide users with a method of authenticating the received Galileo signals, especially the satellites ephemerides and the Galileo timing parameters, the new Open ServiceNavigation Message Authentication (OSNMA) service enables a receiver to confirm that a navigation message originated from the EU Galileo infrastructure. Many application areas are expected to benefit from this capability, including smart tachographs, telematics and logistics, UAVs, location-based services, and timing services. Having successfully demonstrated the technology behind the service in 2022, including a public observation phase, the roll-out of the Initial Service is planned to take place by the end of the year.
A fourth Medium Earth Orbit Local User Terminal (MEOLUT) in La Réunion will extend the SAR/Galileo Forward Link Service Coverage Area over the Indian Ocean as part of the SAR/Galileo full operational capability (FOC) declaration expected in the first quarter of 2023. The Cospas-Sarsat commissioning of this new station was completed in September 2022, and operational data is already being distributed to Cospas-Sarsat.
Reference documents for the above services can be found at the EUSPA European GNSS Service Centre website, including technical notes, interface control documents and service declaration documents.
SAR/Galileo-related metrics from January to October 2022.
Extension of the SAR/Galileo Forward Link Service Coverage Area over the Indian Ocean.
FOC Infrastructure Development Nears Completion
Satellite Production
The production of the third batch of Galileo FOC satellites advanced further in 2022 with the completion of the environmental tests and the system compatibility test campaigns at the European Space Agency Test Centre in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. After 10 years of successful testing, on Oct.18, 2022, the last Galileo FOC satellite (flight model number 34) left the test center to return to the premises of the satellite manufacturer, OHB Systems, in Germany. Testing of the remaining 10 satellites has confirmed that they have been correctly built and will perform well in orbit. The acceptance review of the last couple of satellites will take place this summer.
At the beginning of 2023, the plan is to start in-orbit testing of a quasi-pilot signal on the E5 frequency using the Galileo GSAT201/202 satellites in elliptical orbit. The provision of a signal offering coarse acquisition in Galileo E5-A/GPS L5 can be a distinguishing feature for Galileo with respect to all other constellations to further improve the capability to acquire the E5 signal at low complexity. Following in-orbit testing, the strategy for roll-out of this capability will be assessed with the involvement of receiver manufacturers.
New SAR Galileo MEOLUT facility in Réunion island.
Access to Space
The discontinuation of Soyuz launch services from the Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana, because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, has caused delays in the two Galileo launches that had been planned for 2022. The Launch 12 campaign had to be interrupted and in March 2022 the FM25 and 26 satellites were put in storage at the Kourou launch base, then returned to Europe in November.
Ariane 6 is the baseline launcher for Galileo satellites to ensure European independent access to space. The remaining Batch 3 satellites will be launched with the Ariane 62 launcher vehicle, the two strap-on solid booster variants of Ariane 6, now undergoing the final stages of development led by prime contractor Ariane Group. Ariane 6’s maiden flight is scheduled to take place in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Ground Segment
An upgrade of the ground control segment, in charge of command and control of the satellite constellation, is being developed by the industrial consortium led by GMV. The upgrades will address resolution of hardware and software obsolescence including cyber security, operability improvements, and a security monitoring overlay.
With the planned increase in the number of satellites in orbit, an additional telemetry tracking and control facility (TTCF) is being deployed in Kourou leading to seven operational TTCF stations in early 2023.
The ground mission segment, in charge of navigation control, is undergoing a complete technological refresh, including hardware/software virtualization performed by an industrial consortium led by Thales France. This upgrade will provide additional robustness, including a system extended contingency mode resilient to outages lasting up to seven days and a new state-of-the-art cyber security monitoring system. It will also provide ranging authentication through encrypted codes on the E6-C signal component for the implementation of the Commercial Authentication Service. Global coverage will be further increased with the introduction of two Galileo sensor stations in Wallis (Pacific Ocean) and Bonaire (Caribbean Sea), for a total of 15 sites around the globe.
OSNMA-related metrics from January to October 2022.
G2G Development Started
Galileo’s second generation (G2G) will introduce many innovative technologies to offer unprecedented precision, robustness, and flexibility.
2022 was a key year for the evolution of G2G activities with the fast development cycles of the first batch of G2 satellites, beginning development of the associated G2G in orbit validation (IOV) ground segment and system test beds, and the consolidation of the G2G final system capabilities — including the coordination of the mission/service roadmaps with the EC, EUSPA, and the EU Member States delegates.
Ariane 62 launcher.
G2G Satellite Manufacturing
From the satellite development point of view, the two parallel contracts to develop and manufacture each of the six G2G batch one (G2SB1) satellites are progressing in a fast development environment, with the first hardware units ready for integration and testing.
Following the completion of preliminary design review, these two contracts (for six satellites each) are preparing for unit-level validation/testing, which will lead to the critical design review.
These satellites will provide the following key innovations:
Reconfigurable fully digital navigation payload
Point-to-point connection between satellites by inter-satellite-link for command and control, and ranging functionalities
Electric propulsion for orbit-raising capabilities
Advanced jamming and spoofing protection mechanisms to safeguard.
The Galileo signals will improve with:
On-board authentication capabilities
Increased ground-to-space data rate
Improved time reference (number of clocks and advanced clock monitoring functions).
G2G IOV Procurements
2022 was also the year in which two key events took place with respect to G2G in-orbit validation (IOV) ground segment and system test bed procurements:
Finalization of the procurement cycle, now in the final evaluation/award phase, to be kicked off in the first quarter of this year
Confirmation of the IOV design through different coordinated actions with the EC and EUSPA, including the G2 system preliminary design review.
The contracts will provide Europe with the following capabilities:
G2SB1 satellite launch and early orbit phase, in-orbit testing and enhanced legacy services provision
G2 new capabilities in-orbit validation, including prototyping and validation of all the novel technologies that can exploit the full capabilities of the G2SB1 satellites.
Eleven contracts will be issued to manage in synchrony all the G1 and G2 assets for the coming years:
G2 IOV ground control segment (G2 GCS) for satellites monitoring and control
G2 IOV ground mission segment/secured facility (G2 GMS-GSF) for the production, dissemination and monitoring of all enhanced legacy services and the dissemination of new G2 advanced capabilities for validation
G2 IOV security monitoring (G2 SECMON), for the cyber/security monitoring of the system
G2 filling device (G2 FD), to ensure proper initialization of system assets
G2 system test bed (G2STB), to generate and monitor new G2 capabilities for validation of the G2G mission/services
G2 PRS test bed (G2PRSTB), similar to G2 system test bed but focused on advanced PRS capabilities for validation purposes
G2 security chain (G2SC), a test bed to ensure proper satellite-ground segment qualification before launch
Four system engineering support contracts (G2 SETA), where the main GNSS technical experts from different industries in Europe provide their support to ESA and EUSPA in their different fields of expertise.
These contracts are complemented by a significant set of system research and development and test tools, such as test user receivers and radio frequency constellation simulators.
G2G batch number one (G2SB1) satellites.
Galileo Second Generation System PDR
The Galileo Programme is not only focusing on short-term G2G development activities, but also looking forward to the future in terms of the consolidation and definition of G2G final operation capabilities. During the second half of 2022, more than 200 public representatives from the EC, EUSPA, ESA and Member States held countless meetings in the frame of the G2G system preliminary design review, which concluded in early December 2022.
As part of this review, the long-term implementation (G2G in orbit capability, or IOC, and final operational capability, or FOC) was reviewed and an agreement was reached on future steps. The evolution of Galileo capabilities will not only provide better services through advanced technical solutions, but will also ensure continuity of service and enhanced backward compatibility for first-generation legacy users.
Conclusions
The efforts of ESA and EUSPA continue with the aim of providing users continuous and stable services and evolving space and ground infrastructure to maintain Galileo competitiveness with the other global navigation satellite systems.
For analogous updates on the other three GNSS constellations, please see:
The AMRO 2021 exercise tested the rescue of 200 cruise-ship passengers using Galileo SAR. (Photo: EUSPA)
News from the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA)
In freezing arctic waters 60 nautical miles off of Svalbard, a search-and-rescue enactment proved the capabilities of Galileo as a life-saving system.
The Arctic Mass Rescue Operation (AMRO 2021) took place on Oct. 8, organized by the Norwegian authorities. The scenario surrounded a cruise ship that caught on fire with around 200 passengers onboard, located northwest of Spitsbergen far from roads, cabins, rescue crews and other infrastructure.
The vessel’s crew activated a Galileo-enabled EPIRB compatible with Galileo’s Return Link Service. Once activated, it took only 2:20 minutes for the Galileo System to track down the ship with an accuracy below one kilometer and deliver an SOS acknowledgement to the active EPIRB.
Once the Mission Control Centers received the distress signal and established the location, two Super Puma helicopters from the Governor of Svalbard, a Sea King from the 330 squadron of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, and a Norwegian coast guard support vessel were scrambled to support the massive evacuation of the passengers.
‘’The AMRO 2021 exercise was an excellent opportunity for the European Union Agency for the Space Programme to showcase the power of Galileo SAR and the robust performance of Galileo at high latitudes in comparison to other GNSS constellations,’’ said Guerric Pont, Head of Galileo Department at EUSPA.
The Galileo RLS allows people in distress to receive an automatic acknowledgment that their signal has been picked up by the first responders. Galileo’s contribution to the Medium Earth Orbit Satellites Search and Rescue System (MEOSAR) — managed by the international COSPAS-SARSAT program — translates into 2,000 lives saved per year.
In support of Galileo’s SAR operations, the Copernicus Marine Service provides authorities and rescue centers input such as wave height, sea current direction as well as and water temperature among others.
“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.
Lost and found
Taking video from an airplane window 300 feet up carries its share of risks, discovered Brazilian documentary filmmaker Ernesto Galiotto. The bad news: A strong wind snatched his iPhone 6 from his hand. The good news: GPS enabled him to recover the phone, which suffered only a minor crack in its protective cover. The best news: The phone captured the entire 15-second drop on video. The incident happened over Peró beach 75 miles east of Rio de Janeiro, reported Brazilian news outlet G1.
Photo: Land Life Company via Trimble
Finding particular trees in the forest
Locating and documenting a single tree in a forest planting can be difficult. Technicians at Land Life, an Amsterdam-based land restoration company, have switched from using QR codes and readers for tree identification to GNSS. By replacing the QR codes with accurate GNSS positioning, Land Life produced a four-fold increase in monitoring productivity. The company measures sapling height and health and combines that data with tree species, location, soils and environmental conditions to support planning and care. Field teams now use a Trimble R1 GNSS receiver to stream positioning data via Bluetooth to their smartphones.
Screenshot from video of Escoffier’s rescue/VendéeGlobe
Answering an SOS
Yacht skipper Kevin Escoffier faced disaster during the Vendée Globe solo round-the-world sailing race. His yacht was pounded apart in raging seas 840 nautical miles southwest of Cape Town, South Africa. Once his raft hit the water, its rescue beacon activated. Through the Cospas-Sarsat service, the signal moved from Galileo satellites to ground stations in Toulouse, France, to Canberra, Australia, then to race directors, who sent the closest competitor to assist.
India will be free of toll booths in two years, said Nitin Gadkar, the country’s transportation minister. According to the Times of India, the government will roll out GPS-based tolling across its national highway sytem. Tolls will be deducted directly from drivers’ bank accounts based on distance traveled. While commercial vehicles registered after January 2019 have tracking systems, the government has yet to outline plans to install GPS receivers in older private vehicles.
“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.
Photo: i viewfinder/Shutterstock.com
It’s their land, too
Animal tracking is helping biologists see how many animals rely on wildlife crossings over or under highways. In the United States, specially designed crossings protect pronghorn antelope (Wyoming), panthers (Florida), mule deer (Nevada), moose (Utah) and grizzly and black bears (Montana), while crossings in Asia benefit rhinos, tigers and elephants. With crossings, mortality drop as much as 90%, says The Washington Post. In New Mexico, state agencies and tribes are tagging animals with GPS collars to identify roads that hinder migration. Meanwhile, engineers in Southern California are designing the world’s largest animal crossing, an $87 million overpass that will span a 10-lane Los Angeles freeway for the region’s mountain lions.
Tesla, come to me
Photo: Tesla
The new Tesla Smart Summon feature in Autopilot v10 autonomously drives the car to meet its owner, such as in a parking lot. Smart Summon has been used more than 550,000 times, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter. But it has a few glitches: Owner tests have resulted in fender-benders, near crashes, ignored stop signs and a police run-in. And don’t test it with another Tesla nearby — the cars get confused.
Help, I’m shark bait!
Photo: European GNSS Agency
The Galileo Search and Rescue (SAR) service was demonstrated Sept. 26 off the coast of Belgium. In Operation Shark Bait, a volunteer “victim” — Australian broadcaster Tara Foster — operated her Galileo-enabled SAR beacon from a life raft off the port of Ostend. The service quickly triggered, with the rescue initiated in under four minutes.
Wheelchair navigation
A new app launched in Portsmouth, England, helps people with limited mobility plan their travel routes. The Route4U pavement navigation app benefits both wheelchair and pram (stroller) users, allowing them to discover safer, more accessible routes across the city. The app indicates pavement obstacles, surface quality, curb heights and widths, inclines and travel distances.
Operation Shark Bait showed how this vital service can quickly trigger a rescue operation and save lives at sea. Despite a grey day and choppy sea conditions, an emergency rescue was initiated in just over three and a half minutes after intrepid “volunteer victim,” Australian broadcaster and explorer Tara Foster, operated her Galileo-enabled SAR beacon from a small life raft buffeted by the waves just offshore from the port of Ostend.
Operation Shark Bait was a specially designed demonstration of the capabilities of the Galileo SAR service that took place around the new state-of-the-art Belgian Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Ostend with an invited audience of VIPs and media. The whole operation was streamed live over YouTube and the Europe By Satellite (EBS) TV service.
The Shark Bait test took just over three and a half minutes to locate the PLB developed under a GSA Horizon 2020 project. (Photo: GSA)
The scenario was simple. Tara was left alone at sea in a small life raft, but with a 406-MHz Cospas-Sarsat personal locator beacon (PLB). On activating the beacon, the stopwatch started. The time to receive the distress signal, compute her position and alert the relevant rescue authorities was recorded. The Belgian fast rescue boat ORKA R6 then dashed out to sea to pick her up.
Subsequently, a NH90 Cayman SAR helicopter from the Belgian 40th squadron was also scrambled to help transfer “injured” Tara to hospital.
Shark Bait was a great success with just 3 minutes 32 seconds elapsing from Tara activating her Galileo-enabled personal locator beacon (PLB) to the moment commanders at MRCC could dispatch the ORKA to her location.
The location, with an initial accuracy of 100 metres, is provided by the Galileo receiver inside the PLB to the Galileo satellites in view. The Galileo satellites then forward this information to the Cospas-Sarsat infrastructure, where the position is validated.
“The PLB used was developed under one of our Horizon 2020 projects and is the first Galileo-enabled beacon on the market,” said Fiammetta Diani, head of market development at the GSA.
Time saver, life saver
The day started at the MRCC in Ostend with a visit to the operations centre, an inspection of the ORKA Fast Rescue Boat and a chance to talk to Tara Foster before she was “castaway” on the waves.
Dries Boodts, deputy nautical director at MRCC, described the role of the center, which has a single focus on safety at sea. “The globe is divided into Search and Rescue Regions (SRRs),” Boodts said. “The MRCC oversees the Belgian maritime region that extends up to 47 miles off the Belgian coast.”
The region includes major shipping lanes and two large offshore wind energy parks. The MRCC deals with around 450 incidents each year involving a range of craft and issues from collisions at sea to war munitions recovery. It can call on an assortment of assets including its own rescue craft, police and navy vessels and the Belgian air force and the MRCC collaborates extensively with authorities in neighbouring countries.
Galileo is Europe’s contribution to upgrading Cospas-Sarsat, the global satellite-based search-and-rescue system. Since its introduction in 1981, Cospas-Sarsat is estimated to have saved 45,000 lives.
The current MEOSAR (Mid-Earth Orbit Search and Rescue) upgrade is based on the EU’s Galileo satellite constellation that carries a dedicated Cospas-Sarsat payload for the 406-MHz distress beacons that give users free access to global system.
The addition of Galileo (and other GNSS satellites) to the system has already enabled a dramatic increase in performance in terms of better accuracy to locate activated distress beacons and vastly improved global coverage.
“With the Galileo system, all parts of the world will be covered at least every 10 minutes — previously this was up to four hours — and guaranteed location accuracy is reduced from 10 to 2 kilometers,” explained Jolanda van Eijndthoven from the European Commission.
As well as the 23 SAR payloads currently provided by Galileo, with more to come, the EU also provides ground infrastructure including MEO Local User Terminals (LUTs) to pick up the signals relayed from the satellites. These LUTs are not just in Europe, and a fourth facility is o be opened soon on La Reunion island to improve coverage across the Indian Ocean.
Return link reassurance
From the end of the year the Galileo system will also provide a Return Link Service (RLS) that will be able to send an acknowledgement to the victim that their distress signal has been received and help is on its way. This new ability to provide reassurance should deliver a valuable psychological lift to victims and further boost survival rates.
“The PLBs developed under our Horizon 2020 projects will be the first ones on the market to have the RLS capability,” said Fiammetta Diani.
Back on dry land, Tara confessed that the simulation had felt very real to her. “The scariest part was the transfer to the helicopter from the rescue boat,” she said. “The winch was like a lift without a floor and very fast! Stepping from the flimsy life raft to the ORKA was also not easy – those waves were high!”
“The operation went just like clockwork,” concluded Paul Flament Head of the Galileo and EGNOS unit at the European Commission’s DG GROW.
Galileo SAR is Europe’s contribution to the COSPAS-SARSAT network, a distress alert detection and information distribution system best known for detecting and locating emergency beacons activated by aircraft, ships and hikers.
By providing COSPAS-SARSAT with the coverage capacity of the Galileo constellation equipped with SAR transponders, Europe is helping to reduce the detection delay of a distress signal from up to several hours to 10 minutes.
A return link, a signal informing the person in distress that the signal has been received and localized, will be added to the system by the end of 2018.
Beacon Awareness Day
The Galileo SAR launch day, April 6, is Beacon Awareness Day in the United States. It’s also named 406 day. 406 stands for 4/06 — the date in U.S. format — and the 406-MHz frequency of the SARSAT beacons.
For Twitter and social media, special hashtags #406day, #406day17 and #savedbythebeacon already exist. The program has added the hashtag #getabeacon to complement it.
The following video about the program focuses on maritime operations, which account for 75 percent of the alerts.
Coming to the Rescue
With Galileo, the time to identify the location of a beacon signal is reduced from several hours to a few minutes. At sea, this makes SAR rescue operations easier thanks to a narrowed “search box,” since the vessel in distress has less time to drift.
On land, the quick acquisition of a precise position enables rescue teams to more quickly reach the operation zone and assist the victims.
In the air, Galileo contributes to fulfilling International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requirements for implementing the next-generation emergency management system Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS). In particular, it enhances location of an airplane in distress, which will be mandatory on Jan. 1, 2021.
The Search And Rescue transponders on Galileo satellites can pick up signals emitted from any 406-MHz distress beacon anywhere in the service coverage area and transmit this information to the dedicated ground stations (MEOLUTs). The SAR/Galileo infrastructure is interoperable with GPS and GLONASS SAR transponders.
Once the beacon is located by the MEOLUTs, the location data is sent to the COSPAS-SARSAT mission control centre (MCC), which distributes it to the relevant rescue centres. The rescue centres, under the responsibility of national competent authorities and administrations, then coordinate the required rescue efforts.
Improving COSPAS-SARSAT
Galileo plays an important role in the Medium Earth Orbit Search And Rescue system of COSPAS-SARSAT (MEOSAR), and provides a ground segment coverage of 40 million square kilometers over Europe as a contribution to MEOSAR global coverage.
Thanks to the advanced European technology used, integration of Galileo into COSPAS-SARSAT improves the system by:
enabling faster detection and localization of distress signals anywhere in the service coverage area, reducing the delay between beacon activation and distress localization
making it easier to find the source of a signal by significantly boosting precision in comparison to the current situation
increasing availability and improving detection of signals in difficult terrain or weather conditions.
The Galileo Search And Rescue service is one of the three services launched in December 2016 with the Initial Services. The SAR service represented just 1 percent of total Galileo program costs, but should result in thousands of lives being saved, according to the head.
