GPS World

Tag: GNSS Science Support Centre

  • Amateurs with smartphones help monitor GNSS signals in space

    Amateurs with smartphones help monitor GNSS signals in space

    This graphic represents measurements uploaded via the CAMALIOT app by thousands of volunteers. (Image: ESA)
    This graphic represents measurements uploaded via the CAMALIOT app by thousands of volunteers. (Image: ESA)

    More than 11,000 people around Europe and the world have turned their smartphones into GNSS monitoring tools by downloading the CAMALIOT app, so far delivering more than 53 billion measurements of meteorology and space weather patterns to researchers, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

    ESA asks CAMALIOT volunteers to leave their smartphones by a window each night with GNSS on. The phones record small variations in satellite signals, gathering data for machine-learning analysis. More than 50 smartphone models with dual-frequency receivers can use the app.

    CAMALIOT was developed through ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) with the support of the agency’s Navigation Science Office through its GNSS Science Support Centre. The combination of GNSS data, smartphone access and machine learning in support of science is a priority research line of ESA’s Navigation Science Office.

    GNSS signals undergo scintillation as they pass through irregular plasma patches in the ionosphere. This electrically charged upper atmospheric layer is continuously changing, influenced by solar activity, geomagnetic conditions and the local time of day. Dual-frequency GNSS receivers can compensate for this effect by comparing their two frequencies.

    As these signals head to Earth, they are also modified by the amount of water vapor in the lower atmosphere, helping to forecast rainfall in particular.

    “Fixed satnav stations already monitor these effects, but these smartphone-based measurements are boosting our coverage hugely. We’re very gratified by all the support we’ve received,” said Vicente Navarro, ESA navigation engineer. ”These results will then undergo a Big Data machine-learning analysis, seeking out previously unseen patterns in both Earth and space weather.”

    Formally known as the Application of Machine Learning Technology for GNSS IoT Data Fusion project, CAMALIOT is run by a consortium led by ETH Zurich in collaboration with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

  • ESA app turns smartphones into space monitoring tools

    ESA app turns smartphones into space monitoring tools

    Image: ESA
    Image: ESA

    A new Android app released by the European Space Agency (ESA) turns smartphones equipped with dual-frequency GNSS receivers into instruments for crowdsourced science.

    The CAMALIOT app, developed through ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) with the support of the GNSS Science Support Centre, is suitable for more than 50 smartphone models.

    Using the CAMALIOT app, the phones will record small variations in satellite signals, gathering data for machine learning analysis of meteorology and space weather patterns.

    As well as helping to create new Earth and space weather forecasting models, participants are also in with the chance to win prizes including new phones and Amazon vouchers. This four-month “citizen science” campaign runs until the end of July.

    “The precisely modulated signals continuously generated by the dozens of GNSS satellites in orbit are proving a valuable resource for science, increasingly employed to study Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and surface environments,” said ESA navigation engineer Vicente Navarro. “Our GNSS Science Support Centre was created to help support this trend.”

    For instance, tens of thousands of permanent GNSS stations are continuously recording GNSS data. As the satellite signals travel down to Earth they are modified by the amount of water vapor in the lower atmosphere, helping to forecast rainfall in particular.

    GNSS signals also undergo delay and fading — known as scintillation — as they pass through irregular plasma patches in the ionosphere. This electrically charged upper atmospheric layer is continuously changing, influenced by solar activity, geomagnetic conditions and the local time of day. Dual-frequency GNSS receivers can compensate for this effect by comparing their two frequencies.

    “The combination of Galileo dual band smartphone receivers and Android’s support for raw GNSS data recording is what opened up the prospect of supplementing data from these fixed GNSS stations with tens of millions of smartphones, vastly increasing our density of coverage,” Vincente said. “We took inspiration from the famous ‘SETI@home’ initiative, where home laptops help seek out signs of extraterrestrial life.”

    The results can then undergo a Big Data machine learning approach, seeking out previously unseen patterns in both Earth and space weather.

    “This is our first step in enlarging GNSS data acquisition using an internet of things data-fusion approach, employing novel sources such as fixed sensors and drones as well as smartphones,” Vincente said. “A wide range of other applications are also possible for the system, including improving the performance of GNSS systems.”

    Formally known as the Application of Machine Learning Technology for GNSS IoT Data Fusion project, CAMALIOT is run by a consortium led by ETH Zurich (ETHZ) in collaboration with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).

    “The CAMALIOT effort was underpinned by Element 1 of our NAVISP research programme, spurring innovation in satellite navigation,” said Pierluigi Mancini, ESA’s NAVISP program manager.

  • GMV leads development of ESA COVID-19 Space Hunting Platform

    GMV leads development of ESA COVID-19 Space Hunting Platform

    GMV will search using artificial intelligence for any correlations between COVID-19 spread and environmental parameters.

    Image: ESA
    Image: ESA

    The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched an internal initiative to cull ideas for supporting its member states in the study and analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under this initiative, an idea from the Galileo Navigation Science Office has been selected.

    The COVID-19 Space Hunting Platform is designed to facilitate access to and processing of existing COVID-19 databases for epidemiological studies, topping them up with data from ESA’s Earth observation satellites.

    The project will use artificial intelligence to look for correlations between COVID-19 spread and environmental parameters, such as humidity and temperature.

    The aim is to help researchers generate products and statistics that might be useful for decision-making purposes in terms of protection measures and lockdown, while also vetting the efficiency of the measures taken.

    Development of the COVID-19 Space Hunting Platform will be primed by the technology multinational GMV. The Universidad Politécnica de Valencia will also be taking part, with support for processing, data analysis and interaction with diverse epidemiological research groups. The university has defined a mathematical COVID-19 transmission model and has been publishing periodical updates and forecasts of its trend in Spain.

    In the medium term, the COVID-19 Space Hunting Platform could help in setting up a collaborative COVID-19 website for scientists to analyze existing data more efficiently, benefiting also from ESA’s data-processing software packages.

    The GSSC team will lead the program. (Photo: ESA)
    The GSSC team will lead the program. (Photo: ESA)

    The project will be carried out around the GNSS Science Support Centre (GSSC) platform, which hosts and indexes COVID-19 data. The three-month process will analyze public COVID-19 data and make this information available to the science community. This will lead to a first version with basic pandemic-propagation algorithms, updated thereafter to ensure the information is always precise and up to date.

  • New ESA facility puts satnav at the service of science

    New ESA facility puts satnav at the service of science

    News from the European Space Agency (ESA)

    Global satellite navigation systems are continuously bathing Earth in satnav signals. As well as helping in our daily lives, these signals are also tools for cutting-edge science. A new ESA facility, based at ESA’s astronomy centre near Madrid, is championing their use for everything from Earth monitoring to fundamental physics.

    A Surveyor uses a GNSS device to map urban assets with Galileo and EGNOS. (Image: ESA)
    A Surveyor uses a GNSS device to map urban assets with Galileo and EGNOS. (Image: ESA)

    The new ESA Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Science Support Centre is based at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre, ESAC, near Madrid. Run by ESA’s Galileo Science Office, the GSSC integrates IT and satnav infrastructure to deliver advanced data processing services to the scientific community.

    Precisely timed to a few billionths of a second and highly stable, satnav signals can be used as a point of reference for many scientific sectors, including Earth and atmospheric sciences, astronomy, highly precise timing metrology as well as the study of relativity and other fundamental physics topics.

    Current satnav infrastructure plans worldwide should see more than 120 satnav satellites in orbit in coming years. This number includes Europe’s own Galileo constellation — offering unique features such as its highly stable passive hydrogen maser atomic clocks, multiple transmission frequencies, robust modulation, wide bandwidth and onboard laser retro-reflectors, which permit exact pinpointing of the satellites’ position in space down to a few tens of centimetres.

    “The potential of satnav for science has been recognised for a long time,” explains Javier Ventura-Traveset, Head of ESA’s Galileo Science Office. “The Galileo Science Office was set up in 2016 as a joint initiative between ESA’s Science and Navigation Directorates, coordinating scientific opportunities through interaction with the scientific community and the independent GNSS Science Advisory Committee.

    “The opening of the new centre is the next step. It is ESA’s concrete answer to the need expressed by the scientific community for a one-stop-shop to offer researchers long-term GNSS data, products information, results of scientific experiments, plus services to enhance GNSS scientific research and collaboration.

    “The future evolution of the centre will be driven by the interaction and feedback received from the scientific community, maximizing synergies with other GNSS data service providers from other institutions and research organization.”

    Among the activities to be supported by the new GSSC are big data processing of large amounts of satnav data, crowdsourcing as a means of weather monitoring and a scientific assessment of satnav performance in Antarctica.

    It also supports the continuing measurements of general relativity using Galileo satellites 5 and 6 and serves as a global data centre for the International GNSS Service. The long-established Navipedia website, giving technical information on satnav, is also hosted by the GSCC.

    One enthusiastic early adopter is ESA’s Navigation Support Office, based at ESA’s ESOC mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, lending support to mission teams making use of satnav to steer satellites.

    ESA's GNSS Observation Network (EGON). (Image: ESA)
    ESA’s GNSS Observation Network (EGON). (Image: ESA)

    “The GSSC is a welcome addition to ESA’s activities in the science of satellite navigation,” says Werner Enderle, heading ESOC’s Navigation Support Office. “The GSSC already hosts GNSS products generated by the team at ESOC, including observations from our worldwide EGON GNSS Observation Network and precise satellite orbits generated by their state-of-the-art software. Our two teams look forward to this collaboration continuing for the benefit of ESA and the scientific community.”

    The GSSC will roll out access to data, products and services over the coming months.