Vidal Ashkenazi, founder and CEO of Nottingham Scientific Ltd (NSL), has been awarded an OBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours List for Services to Science.
An OBE is a Queen’s honor given to an individual for a major role in any activity such as business, charity or the public sector. OBE stands for Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
“I am absolutely delighted to have been awarded an OBE,” Ashkenazi said. “However, even more importantly, at long last this award recognizes the contribution of scientists and technologists to society in terms of satellite positioning, navigation and timing.
Vidal has been involved with the geodetic aspects of positioning by using satellites from the earliest days. In 1976 he was invited by the U.S. National Geodetic Survey (NGS) to assist with the development of geodetic coordinate systems, the framework that is still used today by satellite navigation (satnav) and mapping systems.
Ashkenazi was an academic at the University of Nottingham from 1965 to 1998, and the founding director of the Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy, one of the leading space geodesy research institutes in the world. He supervised around 50 doctoral (Ph.D.) students, many of whom now occupy senior positions in universities and industry around the world.
In the late 1990s, Ashkenazi became aware that, although GPS was designed and developed as a military system, its main advantage to the U.S. was economic. This was the message he delivered when he was invited in 2003 to address the Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels, and hence the need for the European Union to have its own satellite navigation system. Europe’s Galileo system entered into service in December 2016.
Following his academic career, Ashkenazi founded Nottingham Scientific Ltd (NSL) to commercialize the innovation and expertise developed and Nottingham and other UK universities.
Vidal Ashkenazi, who has doctorates in philosophy and physical science from Oxford University, is a member of a large number of professional organizations, and has received distinction awards from several of them, most notably the Royal Institute of Navigation.
He has published several hundred papers in professional journals, and acted as a consultant to a large number of government and commercial organizations in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Vidal Ashkenazi is a recognized figure on the international scene of conferences and congresses, to which he is invited regularly either to deliver keynote presentations or to organize and chair round-table panel discussions.
He is also a long-standing member of the GPS World Editorial Advisory Board.
The Dutch state-owned rail company NS Groep N.V. is deploying a real-time remote diagnostics monitoring system. As a core component of NS’ overall real-time monitoring architecture, the system allows railway operators to streamline maintenance costs and provide efficiencies across their fleet by automating manual tasks.
NS in the Netherlands will join a growing number of large rail operators that have implemented GNSS solutions, in this case the Trimble R2M system. Others using R2M include South West Trains in the United Kingdom, Irish Rail, SNCF France, SBB Switzerland and VR Finland.
R2M processes diagnostic data from rail vehicles in real time. It provides a comprehensive view of the overall fleet’s status including specific vehicle faults. The system also identifies potential faults that may arise while analyzing and detecting anomalies in on-vehicle component behavior to identify component issues and the possible impact this behavior may have on the vehicle and overall fleet.
With the R2M software, NS will be able to aggregate data from a range of on-train and wayside sources and provide real-time information to the NS Train Helpdesk to monitor the fleet status. Information will also be available to fleet analysts, work-planning engineers and mechanics to support the operational repair process of NS in real time.
BlueBird Aero Systems has won a contract to supply a target variant of an unmanned air vehicle to the Israeli Air Force (IAF), to enable it to train its air defense units.
The IAF selected BlueBird’s ThunderB after it completed a series of test flights in which it reached a speed of 150 kilometers per hour and a ceiling of 15,000 feet.
The target version of the ThunderB will carry a simple optical payload.
The ThunderB is a small-sized tactical UAV (28 kilograms, 4-meter wingspan), with intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) capabilities previously found only in much larger UAVs, usually with weight of above 200 kilograms. It is suitable for ISTAR because of its long endurance capability (6–24 hours), its extended control range and its cooled/uncooled infrared and optional laser pointer payload.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced the highest wave on record: a behemoth that towered 19 meters (62.3 feet, or about five building storeys) above the North Atlantic. Examination of data sent by an automated buoy showed the monster wave rose on Feb. 4, 2013, at a remote spot between Britain and Iceland.
The mighty wave occurred after a strong cold front came through the area, producing winds up of 43.8 knots (81 kilometers, 50.4 miles per hour). The previous record height for a wave was 60 feet in December 2007, also in the North Atlantic.
Automated buoys are vital tools for oceanographers, sending back data on sea currents, temperatures and swells for seafarers, climate researchers and others. Many buoys are GPS-equipped to measure water height. We suspect this one was, though it has not been confirmed. GPS World carried a story about NavCom GPS-equipped ocean buoys in May 2006.
The North Atlantic, from the Grand Banks underwater plateau off Canada to south of Iceland and west of Britain, is the world’s biggest breeding ground for giant waves.
Details of the new record and definition of significant wave height are available here.
Spirent Communications is making available PT TestBench software, designed to help technology, system and application developers build more accurate positioning functions more quickly. The testing, analysis and reporting package automates testing of GPS and other GNSS receivers, so higher quality systems are brought to market faster and more reliably.
Photo: Spirent Communications
Until now, there have been no standards for GNSS receiver performance assessment, leaving developers to create test plans themselves from scratch. PT TestBench embodies more than 30 years of Spirent GNSS testing expertise, enabling all users to setup, run, iterate and interpret time-consuming tests with a single mouse click, the company said.
“PT TestBench will transform GPS/GNSS receiver testing, and will help developers to focus on delivering better end-user experience,” said Romain Zimmermann, Spirent product manager.”It can also assess receiver designs against real-world GPS jamming and spoofing signals.”
PT TestBench works with existing Spirent equipment including 6300M, 6700, 7000 and 9000 simulators. It enables users to:
Select the right GNSS tests: Pick from test suites covering fundamental GNSS tests and real-world vulnerabilities and threats.
Automatically run and repeat tests: Define test repeatability for faster testing and statistically meaningful results.
Save time on setup and interpretation: GNSS scenarios and test cases are built in, with pass/fail analytics based on user-defined or default standards.
Test for the latest GNSS challenges: Access Spirent’s constantly updated library of observed, real-world signal interference and threats, including solar weather, scintillation and spoofing.
By adding the GNSS Vulnerabilities and Threats test suite, PT TestBench users gain 12 months’ access to PT Cloud — a continuously updated cloud library of real-world GNSS threats. It offers multiple instances of captured real-world intentional interference waveforms, GNSS segment errors and receiver transitions, as well as jamming and spoofing events, plus the latest observed space weather and scintillation. Together, these instances provide an excellent means to build robust testing into a user’s GNSS simulations.
To complement PT TestBench, Spirent Professional Services are available to integrate devices under test in PT TestBench, and if a user’s particular application requires modified test cases, they can tailor solutions to match a specific need.
For more information on how to create a GPS/GNSS test plan, Spirent offers a free guide for engineers integrating positioning, navigation or timing features into new devices.
The next GPS World webinar will discuss signal interference in product development and integration, from board-level GNSS receivers to system-level GNSS receivers in different application platforms. Register at no-cost for “Signal Interference: Detection and Mitigation,” which will be held at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST, 7 p.m. CET) on Feb. 2.
As the number of GNSS signals being tracked increases, so does the potential for interference to dismiss the performance gains of using those additional signals. To maximize performance and efficiency, prepared PNT users need their equipment to be able to detect when interference is present and mitigate it.
Developers, integrators and users need mitigation tools to protect and preserve GNSS measurement quality, maintaining high-quality multi-frequency multi-constellation positioning performance even in challenging RF environments. This is essential particularly on the integration journey, especially during prototyping and when encountering unforeseen interference events in field testing, in order to produce fully successful integrated products.
Patrick Casiano of NovAtel’s Applied Technology Group will speak on this topic, and other speakers to be announced. GPS World Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Alan Cameron will moderate.
Casiano has responsibility for NovAtel’s Applied Technology Group with a mandate to test and evaluate the strengths of products, both proprietary and competing, through tests in vertical segment-specific use contexts. He has led the development of unique projects on single-board computing platforms and integration of mobile IP technology for remote monitoring; streamlined recurring test methodology templates; and applied user experience and customer principles to create specific targeted content to customers in particular phases of their product integration.
The one-hour webinar also will include a follow-up Q&A session with the speakers.
At a Dec. 15 ceremony in Brussels titled “Galileo Goes Live,” two high officials of the European Commission issued the Galileo Initial Services Declaration.
The declaration means that the Galileo satellites and ground infrastructure are now operationally ready. These signals will be highly accurate but not available all the time, since the constellation is not yet complete and users cannot always count on four satellites being visible at one time at all points on the Earth.
Galileo Goes Live! ceremony in Brussels: European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, responsible for the Energy Union, and Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, count down to hit the “Go” button. Photo: Galileo
Simultaneously, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) awarded the Galileo Service Operator (GSOp) contract, with a value of up to 1.5 billion euros, to Spaceopal, a joint venture between Telespazio and the German Space Agency (DLR).
The Galileo constellation currently consists of 18 satellites in orbit. However, two of these are in an orbit not totally useful for positioning and navigation. Four more, launched in November, may or may not have completed their on-orbit testing (a series of notice advisory to Galileo users or NAGUs has appeared relating to the flag status of each satellite; see details at the end of this story) but have not yet been integrated to the operational constellation. This is expected to take place in spring 2017.
During the initial phase, the first Galileo signals will be used in combination with other satellite navigation systems, like GPS. In coming years, new satellites will be launched to enlarge the constellation, gradually improving Galileo availability worldwide. The constellation is expected to be complete by 2020 when Galileo will reach full operational capacity (FOC) of 30 satellites: 24 satellites plus six orbital spares, intended to prevent any interruption in service.
Paul Verhoef, the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) director of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, stated, “Today’s announcement marks the transition from a test system to one that is operational. Still, much work remains to be done. The entire constellation needs to be deployed, the ground infrastructure needs to be completed, and the overall system needs to be tested and verified.
“In addition, together with the commission we have started work on the second generation, and this is likely to be a long but rewarding adventure.”
Galileo Initial Services are managed by the GSA. The overall Galileo programme is run by the European Commission, which has handed over responsibility for the deployment of the system and technical support to operational tasks to the ESA.
Operator Contract. The GSOp contract runs for 10 years and covers operation and maintenance of the Galileo satellite system and its committed performance level: in particular, the operations and control of the system, the logistics and maintenance of the systems, and infrastructure as well as the user support services.
“With its emphasis on service performance, this contract will shape the future of Galileo. We look forward to building a strong partnership with Spaceopal as Galileo moves towards full operational capability under the responsibility of the GSA from January 2017,” said GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides.
Under GSA management, the contract awarded to Spaceopal specifically includes:
Secure operations of Galileo from two mission control centres (GCC), located in Germany and Italy, and the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC) for user support services in Spain;
Management of the Galileo Data Distribution Network (GDDN);
Integrated logistics support and maintenance for the entire space and ground infrastructure;
Monitoring of the system performance;
Support for the completion of the Galileo infrastructure and associated launches.
Spaceopal has served as the contractor for Galileo operations since 2010 under the Galileo Full Operational Capability (FOC) Operations Framework Contract.
Products and Services. The first Galileo smartphone by Spanish company BQ is now available on the market, and other manufacturers are expected to follow suit. Application developers can now test their ideas on the basis of a real signal.
With the declaration, Galileo will start to deliver, in conjunction with GPS, the following three types of services free of charge. Their availability will improve as more satellites are launched.
The Open Service is a free mass-market service for users with enabled chipsets in, for instance, smartphones and car navigation systems. Fully interoperable with GPS, combined coverage will deliver more accurate and reliable positioning for users.
Public Regulated Service is an encrypted, robust service for government-authorized users such as civil protection, fire brigades and the police.
Search and Rescue Service is Europe’s contribution to the long-running Cospas–Sarsat international emergency beacon location. The time between someone locating a distress beacon when lost at sea or in the wilderness will be reduced from up to three hours to just 10 minutes, with its location determined to within 5 kilometers, rather than the previous 10 kilometers.
Advisory Updates. USABINIT NAGUs were issued for 11 satellites: 0101, 0102, 0103, 0203, 0204, 0205, 0206, 0208, 0209, 0210 and 0211.
USABINIT, or Initially Usable, notifies users that a satellite is set healthy for the first time. 0104 had a power problem and is operating on E1 only. 0201 and 0202 were launched into lower orbits.
0207 and 0212–0214 are still undergoing commissioning and drifting to their designated orbital slots.
Ground control upgrade for GPS III approved
The U.S. Air Force approved Lockheed Martin’s design to upgrade the current GPS satellite ground control system with new capabilities that will enable it to operate more powerful and accurate GPS III satellites.
The successful Critical Design Review (CDR) for the Contingency Operations (COps) contract, completed on Nov. 17, gives Lockheed Martin a green light to proceed with software development and systems engineering to modify the existing GPS ground control system, called the Architecture Evolution Plan (AEP) Operational Control Segment.
The AEP is currently maintained by Lockheed Martin and controls the 31 GPS IIR, IIR-M and IIF satellites in orbit today.
The COps modifications will allow the AEP to support the more powerful, next-generation GPS Block III satellites, enabling them to perform their positioning, navigation and timing mission, once they are launched. COps is envisioned as a temporary gap filler prior to the entire GPS constellation’s transition to operations onto the next generation Operational Control System (OCX)Block 1, currently in development.
On Oct. 15, under a separate contract, Lockheed Martin completed the Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Upgrade #2 (CUP2) project — part of a multi-year plan to refresh the AEP’s technology and enhance the system’s ability to protect data and infrastructure from internal and external cyber threats, as well as improve its overall sustainability and operability. CUP2 is now fully operational and managing the current GPS constellation.
Lockheed Martin also is under contract to develop and build the Air Force’s first 10 GPS III satellites, which will deliver three times better accuracy, provide up to eight times improved anti-jamming capabilities, and extend spacecraft life to 15 years, 25 percent longer than the newest GPS satellites on-orbit today.
GPS III’s new L1C civil signal will make it the first GPS satellite to be interoperable with other international global navigation satellite systems.
GPS funded at $847 million for FY 2017
On Dec. 23, 2016, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2017. The act includes policy and funding guidance for the GPS program of $847.362 million. This total excludes $13.171 million requested for the GPS IIF program, which requires FY 2017 funding for on-orbit support and contract closeout.
Procurement of GPS III satellites is budgeted at $34 million, development of GPS III satellites is at almost $142 million and the next-generation ground control system (OCX) is budgeted at $393 million, which comes with certification and congressional briefing requirements. The amount includes funding for the GPS Enterprise Integrator.
The GPS Enterprise Integrator project includes efforts necessary to accomplish the critical integrating function with the entire GPS user community. The Enterprise Integrator maintains the GPS architecture and system definition, controls and validates interfaces, ensures compatibility of Generation II and III systems, and develops and manages plans for execution and fielding of the GPS enterprise.
The final defense budget item is $278 million for development of new military GPS user equipment.
Besides the NDAA, other areas that include funding for GPS and related programs are Transportation (including WAAS), to support designated civil elements of the Air Force GPS program, along with civil GPS augmentations and related activities.
The Department of Transportation this year requested civil funding for GPS through the Office of the Secretary instead of through the FAA. Also, the request does not include funds for the Nationwide Differential GPS (NDGPS) program in FY 2017.
Virtual Halo is a new personal protection app for the iPhone and Apple Watch, aimed at increasing safety around the world.
Photo: Virtual Halo.
The app has three key features.
SOS is designed as a personal panic button. When pressed in the iPhone app or on the Apple Watch, an emergency notification is sent by the Virtual Halo cloud to the user’s emergency contacts, providing the nearest street address and a link to the user’s location on their map.
The Check In feature lets emergency contacts know the user is OK; optionally, the user can include a custom message and location.
With the Going Out feature, adventure sports enthusiasts let the app know their intended destination and when they’ll be back. If they don’t disable the app by their preset time, the Virtual Halo service sends a text to their emergency contacts letting them know the user went out, the activity they were participating in, that they expected to be back by the specific time and that they haven’t returned; it also provides the user’s last known location.
New cars for the Russian market must be equipped with the automatic ERA-GLONASS emergency call system.
For certification of these in-vehicle systems, both conformance and performance tests are mandatory, in line with the Russian GOST R 55534 specification.
The Rohde & Schwarz CMW500 is being used to test the ERA-GLONASS system.
For both types of tests, the Russian Certification Center Svyaz-Certificate uses standard-compliant test solutions from Rohde & Schwarz. Manufacturers and component suppliers can use the same test solution in pre-tests to speed up certification for their products.
Now, for the newly required performance test, the center is using the GNSS simulator in the R&S SMBV100A vector signal generator.
Accuracy Requirements. During performance testing, it is verified whether the GNSS receiver of an ERA-GLONASS emergency call system fulfills the accuracy requirements of the specification.
In case of an emergency, the call system should not only correctly transmit position data according to a specified protocol to the public safety answering point, but position data must also be accurate so that the first responder can locate the accident vehicle quickly.
ERA-GLONASS module manufacturers and test houses can use the R&S SMBV100A during pre-tests to create reliable and reproducible conditions similar to those in official certification tests, according to Rohde & Schwarz, to minimize the risk of failing tests during certification.
The U.S. Army continues to expand the use of DT Research’s DT311 series of ultra-rugged tablets into additional army facilities to support training missions and other logistics. In 2016, the U.S. Army awarded DT Research three rugged tablet contracts.
DT Research is a designer and manufacturer of purpose-built computing solutions for vertical markets. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, with offices in China and Taiwan.
“We are honored to have the U.S. Army choose our rugged tablets again,” said Daw Tsai, president of DT Research. “The U.S. Army has strict requirements for advanced durability, powerful computing, robust connectivity, and fully integrated data capture options for the rugged tablets they use. We are proud to meet these high standards and deliver a specialized tool that will serve the U.S. Army well in their diverse environments.”
LizardTech, a provider of software solutions for managing and distributing geospatial content, has received Certificates of Networthiness (CoN) for GeoExpress 9.x and Express Server 9.x from the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM).
The CoN signifies that GeoExpress and Express Server are configured to the current Army Golden Master (AGM) baseline and comply with all U.S. Army and Department of Defense (DoD) standards for security, compatibility and sustainability.
A CoN is required for all enterprise software products in the Army Enterprise Infrastructure Network and applies to the U.S. Army as well as National Guard, Army Reserve and DoD organizations using the Army network.
GeoExpress is LizardTech’s flagship software product, enabling geospatial professionals to manipulate digital satellite/aerial image and lidar data and compress them to industry-standard MrSID or JPEG2000 files for easy and cost-effective processing, storage and transmission.
Express Server software is the LizardTech solution for high-performance cataloguing, delivery and publication of geospatial data that lets users access geospatial data on any device with any connection.
“Receiving Certifications of Networthiness for our most recent geospatial software products is a significant achievement and a testament to LizardTech’s continued engagement with the U.S. Army and other U.S. DoD user communities,” said Terry Ryan, LizardTech federal government sales manager. “These CoNs give our users confidence that LizardTech solutions will meet their IT safety and stability requirements, and we look forward to supporting our users at home and abroad.”
The current CoN applies to all 9.x releases of the GeoExpress and Express Server software. LizardTech has pursued and received CoNs for earlier versions of GeoExpress and Express Server, demonstrating a long-term commitment to ensuring U.S. Army forward-deployed personnel have rapid access to geospatial imagery and related data when and where they need it.
ArcticDEM provides insight into effects of climate change and enables communities to take early action
The ArcticDEM project is a collaboration between government agencies, the Polar Geospatial Center and Esri to achieve goals set by a 2015 executive order by President Barack Obama calling for enhanced coordination of national efforts in the Arctic to reverse the trend of climate change.
Coupled with the accessibility of Esri’s online platform, ArcticDEM can meet the need for high-quality elevation data in remote locations and provide accurate measurement of topographic change.
ArcticDEM Strip Density. Photo: ArcticDEM
“This new Arctic elevation data is another demonstration of the power of technology and innovation in deepening the ways we can appreciate the immense value of our shared Arctic,” said Ambassador (ret.) Mark Brzezinski, executive director of the Arctic Executive Steering Committee at the White House.
New elevation models on Esri’s public online portal show stunning surface detail from Baffin Island, Svalbard Islands and Iceland. In many locations, the models are created images collected on multiple dates, allowing anyone to see the landscape changes over time, such as the rate at which glaciers are receding.
Since the Arctic region is uniquely challenged by the effects of climate change, including melting ice, this elevation data provides a great resource for enabling better planning and adaptation. For instance, elevation models can help local communities monitor coastal erosion in order to identify important structures at high risk of storm damage.
“Esri is excited to provide this continually updated elevation data as easy-to-access web services and apps,” said Peter Becker, ArcGIS product manager, Esri. “These new detailed surfaces, which provide a much better picture of how the Arctic region is rapidly changing, allow more effective risk management for Arctic communities.”
Explore visualized data from the ArcticDEM project at the ArcticDEM Explorer.
