In a move to enhance maritime security and operational safety, global maritime organization have released on May 20 new guidance for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, reports Shipping Telegraph.
The 22-page guidance document — “Industry Guidance on the Safe Management of Vessel Transit through the Strait of Hormuz” — aims to assist in planning and safely managing vessel transits into, within or out of the Gulf region during periods of heightened regional security risk.
Thedocument was issued jointly by major industry organisations including International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), BIMCO, Intercargo, Intertanko, IMCA and OCIMF
Vessels may face a high workload and high-stress operating environment, including GNSS jamming or spoofing.
ArkEdge Space successfully launched its micro-satellite AE1a on March 30, and has begun initial checkout following the establishment of communications through test radio signals.
AE1a is a technology demonstration satellite developed to advance maritime digitalization by enabling wide-area, real-time vessel tracking and communications. The satellite adopts ArkEdge Space’s standardized 6U satellite bus in its large-antenna configuration. In addition to demonstrating a deployable antenna for VDES (VHF Data Exchange System) applications, AE1a will improve and validate core technologies for a VDES receiver.
AE1a will operate in coordination with AE1d, which began operations in January 2025, and AE3Va, which began operations in June 2025, forming a three-satellite constellation for demonstration across wide-area maritime areas.
AE3Va continues to acquire AIS signals across multiple sea areas, including waters around Japan and vessel-congested areas along critical shipping lanes. Accumulated reception data is being systematically verified and analyzed.
Going forward, the program will advance from reception-focused demonstration to two-way communications, including transmission from orbit. This will enable satellites to deliver operational information directly to vessels, expanding the scope of VDES demonstration and advancing progress toward concrete use-case validation across the maritime sector.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and its members have produced an informational poster for ship crews that highlights strategies when GNSS signals are jammed or denied.
The Navigating in Areas of Unreliable Satellite Signals poster is available for free on the ICS website. Crews are welcome to download and print it for display near the conning position on board navigation bridges.
Modern maritime operations depend heavily on GNSS. From open-ocean routing to precise harbour maneuvers, satellite-based positioning data is deeply embedded in ship systems, port logistics, traffic monitoring and safety infrastructure.
This reliance, however, has created a growing vulnerability. Incidents of GPS jamming and spoofing, once a military concern, now increasingly affect merchant ships at sea and near ports. Without proactive preparation and mitigation, interference with satellite navigation threatens vessel safety, global trade efficiency, port operations and maritime security.
To support crews facing these incidents, the poster helps bridge officers identify the signs of compromised satellite signals and recommends best practices to maintain safe navigation.
“The safety of our seafarers, ships, and the environment is critical,” said Gregor Stevens, ICS Nautical Director. “With ever-increasing frequency of jamming and spoofing of GPS, this new free resource helps seafarers recognize the warning signs and provides guidance on navigating these waters safely.”
The Coastal States of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea have published an open letter to the international maritime community insisting on the protection of GNSS-based navigtion. The countries point the finger squarely at the Russian Federation for causing disruption in both critical navigation and timing services for sea vessels.
“Modern maritime transport is fundamentally built on the reliability of satellite-based navigation,” reads the letter. “For over three decades, global shipping has advanced by developing vessel operations to increasingly depend on the position, timing and navigation data provided by satellite systems. This shift has brought great efficiency but has also created a new dependency.
The letter highlights the importance of GNSS as a critical safety requirement, not only ship navigation but also precise time synchronization vital for systems such as the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS).
Risks to the Automatic Identification System
Another GNSS service, the Automatic Identification System (AIS), plays a key role in traffic coordination, situational awareness and emergency response. “Spoofing or falsifying AIS data undermines maritime safety and security, increases the risk of accidents, and severely hampers rescue operations,” the letter states.
“We are now facing new emerging safety situations due to growing GNSS interference in European waters, particularly in the Baltic Sea region. These disturbances, originating from the Russian Federation, degrade the safety of international shipping. All vessels are at risk.”
The countries ask for cooperation developing alternative terrestrial radionavigation systems as a GNSS backup. They also want vessels crews properly trained to operate safely during navigation system outages.
“Maintaining trust in maritime navigation requires more than technology – it demands responsibility, transparency, and decisive action,” the letter states. “We must ensure that our seas remain safe, including when systems fail or face disturbances.”
NAL Research, SGM Technology AS and Tschudi Shipping Company have formed a strategic collaboration to develop a new line of navigation and tracking products designed for the commercial shipping industry, using Iridium’s low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network.
This joint effort comes amid a rising need for reliable asset tracking and secure navigation tools in high-risk maritime regions, where threats to GNSS signals — such as jamming, spoofing and other forms of interference — are increasing on a global scale. Maritime authorities in some areas have reported a 350% increase in vessels affected by such disruptions in the past six months, according to NorthStandard. The technological interference has caused real-world consequences, including shipping collisions, operational delays, financial setbacks for global trade, and safety risks for crews at sea.
“As a fifth-generation shipping company, we’ve witnessed the evolution of maritime navigation, but never before have we faced technological threats such as GPS jamming and spoofing,” said Felix Tschudi, chairman of Tschudi Group. “These disruptions pose a serious risk to vessel safety, crew welfare, and the reliability of global trade routes. The industry must act collectively to address these vulnerabilities to protect maritime personnel and assets.”
The partnership’s initial focus is on integrating NAL Research’s decades-long expertise in assured positioning, navigation, and timing (APNT), tracking, and connectivity with the Iridium PNT service. This service provides a resilient, fully authenticated L-band signal engineered to withstand spoofing and jamming. The venture is also drawing upon SGM’s more than 15 years of experience in maritime technology and Tschudi Shipping Company’s international operations, bolstered by 140 years in commercial shipping and logistics. Together, their aim is to deliver high-reliability navigation solutions for environments where GNSS signals are compromised. Trials of the new solution are now underway.
“Protection against GPS vulnerabilities is no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity to ensure operational success and asset safety,” said NAL Research President Robert Bills. “Through this collaborative effort, we are aiming to achieve complete global situational awareness and increase safety at sea for our commercial maritime customers, even in the most remote and challenging situations.”
“In today’s maritime landscape, the threat of GPS jamming and spoofing is no longer theoretical — it’s a growing reality. Ensuring navigational safety is critical, not just for protecting cargo and vessels, but for safeguarding the lives of seafarers who rely on precise and trustworthy systems every day,” said Steffen Grefsgård, CEO of SGM Technology AS.
GNSS jamming is causing confusion for ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, reports gCaptain. The regional threat levels are labeled “significant” because of air strikes between Iran and Israel, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC). Maritime threat levels are marked as “elevated”.
The JMIC highlighted GNSS jamming problems around the Port of Bandar Abbas and throughout the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf regions. Nevertheless, commercial shipping traffic has continued at normal rates.
Naivgational error is considered the cause of a collision June 17 between two tankers in the Gulf of Oman. The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Front Eagle, with 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude bound for China, hit the Suezmax tanker Adalynn 15 nautical miles off Fujairah. There was fire on both ships, but no injuries. The Front Eagle appeared to be onshore in Iran days before the collision.
Nearly 1,000 ships in the Gulf have been affected by mass interference since the start of the Iran-Israel conflict on June 12, according to shipping analysis firm Windward. Recent tracking data has shown unusual positioning errors, with vessels appearing to be in impossible locations.
TerraStar-C PRO is the first global correction service from Hexagon to incorporate RTK From the Sky technology to achieve RTK-level accuracy in three minutes with 99.999% availability
In late 2020, Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division announced its technological breakthrough of global RTK From the Sky, demonstrating a future where instantaneous PPP and global RTK-level accuracy is possible.
Integrating this innovation into the core of TerraStar-C PRO, NovAtel’s corrections service, is the first phase in implementing RTK From the Sky technology into the company’s diverse portfolio of correction services for users worldwide.
As a result, TerraStar-C PRO has become the fastest global correction service to provide centimeter-level accuracy, not just in open-sky environments but also across challenging conditions created by buildings and foliage, according to Hexagon | NovAtel.
“RTK From the Sky technology is the foundation that enables our global correction services to be world-leading across agriculture, automotive, defense, survey, marine and autonomous applications,” said Michael Ritter, Autonomy & Positioning division president and CEO. “Our dedication to research culminated in an industry-changing technology; we’ll continue that commitment by providing the best positioning experience in speed, accuracy, availability and reliability anywhere in the world.”
TerraStar-C PRO now converges in less than three minutes by utilizing quad-band receiver and antenna technology to leverage modernized BeiDou III, GPS III and Galileo E6 signals. The resulting process generates state-of-the-art corrections for all GNSS frequencies.
Hexagon is a consistent innovator in GNSS, as seen in its role in developing RTK and PPP solutions. With this next-generation modernization of PPP correction generation and algorithm development, the company continues this tradition in providing the highest quality and best performing global positioning experience to users with land- and air-based applications.
“It’s been a privilege to collaborate across the division to develop RTK From the Sky technology and leverage our collective expertise in correction generation, PPP algorithms and the entire positioning ecosystem,” said Leos Mervart, head of PPP algorithm development at Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division. “I’ve worked with PPP technologies since the beginning of my career and am proud to say that this is a new era of what global positioning can look like.”
The TerraStar-C PRO improvements are accessible now through the 7.08.10 firmware release for users on OEM7700, OEM719 and OEM729 cards and their associated enclosures for land and air applications.
Future firmware releases will include global RTK From the Sky technology throughout Hexagon’s correction service portfolios for its global client base, including precision agriculture and marine applications.
To learn more about TerraStar correction services or to request a free 5-day trial, visit NovAtel.com/TerraStar.
The GAJT-410MS provides anti-jamming to marine vessels. (Image: NovAtel)
Hexagon | NovAtel has released the GAJT-410MS in response to the increase of interference and jamming in marine environments worldwide. The GAJT-410MS is the company’s latest addition to its proven GPS Anti-Jam Technology (GAJT) for the commercial and defense marine markets.
The low size, weight and power (SWaP) variant protects civil and military operations from interference and jamming, with jammer direction-finding capabilities for enhanced situational awareness in the marine environment.
The GAJT-410MS provides dynamic protection on both GPS L1 and L2 bands, as well as Galileo E1, QZSS L1 and L2 and SBAS L1 to combat intentional and unintentional interference. If a vessel experiences jamming, the device’s direction-finding capabilities provide improved situation awareness of their RF environment to identify and locate the source of the jamming signals.
The commercial off-the-shelf, non-ITAR solution is easy to install or retrofit onto existing fleets, enabling assured PNT for continuous operations, cybersecurity and safe navigation at sea, NovAtel said.
Interference, both benign and malicious, is a challenge facing civilian and military operations. Commercial marine applications like shipping, tankers and bulk carriers are under threat from interference targeting their navigation and cybersecurity. Without assured positioning, these vessels can drift off-course and place the vessel, crew and cargo at risk.
Nearshore marine applications like survey, construction and piloting also require reliable positioning for uninterrupted operations in crowded waterways and RF environments. Interference mitigation and jammer direction-finding for advanced situation awareness ensure users acquire assured positioning, navigating and timing (PNT) while identifying and limiting risk from interference sources.
“Assured navigation and cybersecurity defenses are growing priorities for marine users as global threats from interference and jamming increase,” said David Russell, marine segment portfolio manager for Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division. “The GAJT-410MS is an anti-jam solution protecting vessels from interference and jamming disruptions to ensure continuous operations wherever your application takes you. With GAJT, your position, navigation and timing are protected and assured.”
The GAJT-410MS is the latest iteration of proven, high-performance anti-jam products from NovAtel. It includes flexible mounting options, jammer presence and direction-finding capabilities for advanced situation awareness.
Geospatial data is key to logistics, including for the huge increase in e-commerce we are experiencing following the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown.
The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works. — Jeff Bezos
This past year has been a boon for the e-commerce industry. It increased from 4% of retail sales a decade ago and pushed past 20% in 2020, reaching nearly $800 billion — a 32% jump in 10 years.
Online businesses climbed to all-time highs. A few examples stand out. Amazon’s stock increased in value 83% over the course of last year. That type of growth happens with startups and small-cap companies but is usually unheard of with large blue-chip stocks.
Along with Amazon’s growth last year, FedEx had $69 billion in annual sales. DoorDash, an e-commerce food delivery company, has a market valuation of $45 billion, making it larger than Domino’s Pizza, Texas Roadhouse and Yum! Brands combined; and Yum! Brands owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
The e-commerce global trend in online sales is expected to reach $4.9 trillion in four years based on only 2.14 billion online shoppers. That is less than one-third of the world’s population. There is a lot more room to grow. This past year moved the trend several years forward.
Where are all those goods stored?
Photo: Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jasen Moreno-Garcia/U.S. Navy
Each consumer requires an average logistics space of 35 square feet. In the United States alone, there are more than nine billion square feet of warehouse space, and when online sales increase another 10% it will require 3 to 4 billion square feet more of space to keep up with demand.
The increase in freight driven by this trend is captured in the chart below published by the Federal Reserve, with data provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The blue line is increasing freight transportation services, while the red line indicates on-hand inventories.
As transportation increases and becomes more reliable — a reflection of the overall health of the logistics supply chain — the amount of on-hand inventory decreases, allowing sellers to free up space and save money, or offer greater variety knowing that stocks can readily be backfilled.
However, when inventories get too low, the system is subject to severe supply shocks, making prices more sensitive to the law of supply and demand. The grey-shaded areas on the chart are economic downturns officially recognized as recessions.
If delivery took six-to-eight weeks these days, it would signal a crisis somewhere in the world.
21st-century logistics
Goods from global corporations now arrive at each customer’s doorstep. This is 21st-century logistics. Home delivery in two days or less is the expectation. The compression of time in this industry is astounding when compared to “the way things used to be.” The way things are compared to the way things used to be reminds me of hearing my grandparents talk about life before automobiles.
Back in my day, ordering from a catalog required calling the company and speaking to a representative. The call had to be made from a corded landline, and long-distance charges might apply. If ordering a gift for someone in the household, it was difficult to be clandestine with everyone nearby. The other option was to mail in an order form. Either way, delivery took a minimum of six to eight weeks, and sometimes more. If delivery took that long these days, it would signal a crisis somewhere in the world.
Knowing where to pre-position supplies ahead of anticipated demand is a geospatial problem. Most think of this in terms of sales to customers and deliveries ahead of seasonal demands, but many countries in the world are facing this dilemma right now figuring out the best way to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. That challenge is taking place in your own community and has been a long-standing public health challenge.
Beginning in the mid-2000s, geospatial information systems (GIS) were brought in to help control outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus. In 2014, I took a Penn State geospatial intelligence course. The final exam addressed the geospatial challenges of fighting an epidemic. Theoretically, it was difficult to get the required goods to the right place at the right time. But now, it’s not an exercise, and getting it right is not an option.
If you have received the COVID-19 vaccine, you can appreciate the pharmaceutical industry for developing vaccines in record time. However, getting the vaccines to everyone is a logistics challenge, and GIS is the unsung hero. Logistics is the life blood of empires — it is the game of kings and generals. With it, wars are won and commonwealths prosper; without it, empires crumble to dust.
How Geospatial Data Guides the Goods
Back to the traditional understanding of supply chains from seller to buyer. The needs of the buyer are simple: faster, better, cheaper. For the seller, it is much more complex, and considerations deal heavily with location.
Where is the best place to have a distribution center?
Is it more important to be close to a multi-modal transfer station, or to population centers, or are land prices more important?
What about access to highways?
What are the trade-offs in delivery times being further away from the population?
Is the trade-off worth it for the cost of land and lower taxes?
Geospatial data can answer all of these questions, even going so far as to run “what-if” scenarios.
At the local level, transportation logistics schedules the most efficient routing to deliver more packages along the shortest path. This saves time and fuel, as shown in the image below using Maptitude software. Radiuses can also be calculated based on drive times instead of distances.
Caliper truck routing software can be used for planning deliveries that account for vehicle capacities, time windows, multiple depots and more. (Image: Caliper)
Navigation routing applications are dynamic, and pick-ups are automatically routed to drivers while out on delivery runs. Dynamic routing avoids delays such as accidents and road closures.
This same type of technology is used for emergency services to respond to a call. Ambulances, police and fire trucks all use dynamic routing to get to distress calls as soon as possible.
Global transportation logistics also need to account for international laws and regulations as cargo passes through each country. These regulations can be onerous, but the logistics industry has worked out the legalities to ensure a seamless, uninterrupted flow from ship to train to airplane to truck and to final delivery. It is symbolized by the universal 40-foot international shipping container standardized throughout the world.
At each facility, inventories are tracked. Each item passing through receives a time and location stamp. Estimated delivery times are sent via text message to your mobile device or email. When the item is out for delivery, it is possible to watch it on a map as the delivery truck makes its way towards your location. When the item is delivered to your doorstep, a picture of it is sent to your phone with an alert that the package was delivered.
Only a few days earlier, the manufacturer — perhaps on the other side of the world — placed the item in a box and taped it shut; even though you ordered it in your language, the order received by the manufacturer was in their language. The package started its journey to you at the next scheduled pickup, maybe within an hour of you placing the order. Shortly afterward, your order was on a ship or an airplane. As you went about your usual business, the incredibly efficient system of e-commerce sped your package around the world to deliver it to your doorstep.
Logistics has undergone a revolution built upon the most advanced technological innovations: robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, mobile devices, cloud computing, electronic payment processing, and a vast geospatial framework.
In fact, it is a continuously operating, seamless, geospatial mesh running on a global scale across all time zones that allows the industry to function. Every aspect of the logistics supply chain relies upon GIS in some way, from land, air and sea navigation from global location-based systems down to inside a warehouse for storage and retrieval of merchandise. Modern-day logistics is a geospatial industry connecting goods and services to consumers, putting the GIS in lo-gis-tics.
Image: U.S. DOT
Can GIS predict the future?
Regarding whether GIS can predict a market correction… I’ll not make a prediction, but the Transportation Services Index (TSI) for March is due to be released today, May 12. If it is down from February, it would mean two months of back-to-back decline. April’s numbers won’t come out until June. However, here is an indicator of where things currently stand. The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, CA, the largest shipping ports in the United States is five days behind schedule, which is down from over 10 days in January.
The TSI is a leading indicator of the economy. When 20% of sales are online in a consumer-based economy, the wellbeing of the commonwealth is measured one delivery at a time.
“Trade isn’t about goods. Trade is about information. Goods sit in the warehouse until information moves them.” — C. J. Cherr
William Tewelow
William Tewelow works for the Federal Aviation Administration. He is a graduate of the FAA management fellowship program. He served on special assignment to the U.S. Department of Transportation leading a national strategic geospatial initiative for the White House Open Data Partnership. He is a Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP) and a speaker for the Maryland STEMnet Scholar program.
He was among the first in the nation to earn a Geospatial Specialist Certification from the U.S. Department of Labor while working at NASA Stennis Space Center. He has degrees in Geographic Information Technology, Intelligence Studies, and is completing a masters degree in Organizational Management.
William is a 23 year veteran for the U.S. Navy serving as a Geospatial Specialist, Imagery Intelligence Specialist, a Naval Aviator, a Meteorologist, and a Tactical Oceanographer. He is married, enjoys writing and traveling.
His favorite quote is, “A man’s mind changed by a new idea can never go back to its original dimension.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes
Movement, closeness, privacy — many things we took for granted a few months ago have become luxuries after the onset of COVID-19. To get an understanding of the scale and impact of the virus, we can look at global movement trends of people and merchandise using GNSS technology.
Marine
Before the coronavirus pandemic, globalization seemed to be increasing endlessly. Now, we face new trade restrictions, protectionist policies, and a global economic downturn that threatens to stunt growth for years to come.
In April, the World Trade Organization (WTO) forecast that global trade would fall by between 13% and 32% in 2020, surpassing the “great trade collapse” of 2009 spurred by the global financial crisis.
However, the situation isn’t completely bleak. According to a recent Tradeshift report, global trade decreased by 14.8% in the second quarter of 2020, putting us on the optimistic end of the WTO estimate. June saw a rise in trade activity, suggesting that we may be recovering from the initial effects of the pandemic.
Cargo vessels, tankers, tugs, and other kinds of commercial ships are equipped with satellite navigation devices that can receive information from GNSS satellites to compute precise location and time. Maritime tracking insights obtained via GNSS/GPS signals are a great method for measuring the impact of the coronavirus on trade.
Photo: shaunl/E+/Getty Images
GPS data from MarineTraffic shows that ship arrivals decreased in nearly all of China’s ports from January to March.
Source: MarineTraffic
Just as trade shipping began to pick up in China, the United States and Europe were hit hard by the pandemic. However, shipments have now begun to climb worldwide to compensate for cancellations earlier this year.
The cruise industry, on the other hand, shows little indication of recovery. Cruises were the fastest growing segment of the travel industry over the past five years — until the pandemic hit.
On June 19, the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a “no sail order” for cruise ships. The order has been extended through Sept. 30. Furthermore, the cruise industry’s reputation has been damaged by multiple outbreaks on ships, most recently the MS Roald Amundsen of Norway. At least 43 people were infected on the MS Roald Amundsen, and Norway has now banned cruise ships with more than 100 passengers from disembarking at Norwegian ports.
Maritime intelligence company VesselsValue is using AIS data to map cruise ship activity throughout the pandemic. They have noted that while cruise ships typically sail at 13.5 knots to 15 knots, average speed has dropped to 11 knots in 2020 as ships attempt to lower fuel costs. Port-to-port sailings have declined for the 10 most popular cruise routes.
Source: VesselsValue
Source: VesselsValue
Most of the port-to-port sailings that constitute the 2020 columns in the above graph actually represent ships being repositioned for a break in service, also called a “layup.” Layups can cost cruise companies millions of dollars per month, but with no sail orders and port closures, they are a necessary expense.
According to the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, a real-time monitoring system that evaluates government policies, April marked the strictest lockdown measures across all 133 available coastal countries. The tracker uses a stringency index between 0 and 100 based on national containment and closure policies.
Source: Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker
Air
Commercial air traffic has decreased as well. According to GPS flight tracking service Flightradar24, the number of global daily flights was slashed by nearly two thirds between March and April. While there were 15,012 flights in the air at 15:00 UTC on March 7, there were only 5,275 at the same time on April 7.
Global air traffic March 7, 2020. (Source: Flightradar24)
Global air traffic April 7, 2020. (Source: Flightradar24)
There were 55% fewer flights in the last week of March 2020 than in the last week of March 2019. While all types of air traffic have been reduced for fears of infection, the coronavirus has especially decimated demand for passenger flights. Passenger airlines across the world have canceled flights and cut capacity for the foreseeable future. Some passenger airlines have even switched to transporting cargo in a desperate attempt to avoid bankruptcy.
Looking at regional tracking data can further illuminate the impact of COVID-19 on air travel. Travel restrictions and border closures were enacted en masse in late March, though some nations adopted more stringent policies than others.
Europe
The number of flights in Europe has plummeted since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. There were 2,400 fewer flights in Europe on April 7 than March 7.
Air traffic over Europe March 7, 2020. (Source: Flightradar24)
Air traffic over Europe April 7, 2020. (Source: Flightradar24)
North America
Though air travel has been disrupted across North America, the United States remains significantly more busy than its neighbors. The March 7 image shows 8,400 flights while the April 7 image shows 2,950 flights, most of them concentrated over the United States.
Air traffic over North America March 7, 2020. (Source: Flightradar24)
Air traffic over North America April 7, 2020. (Source: Flightradar24)
East Asia
The decrease in air traffic over East Asia has been severe and persistent. Since China and its neighbors began to experience a trade downturn as early as the third week of January, we can compare January 7 to April 7 to capture the effects of the coronavirus. As of late July, air traffic at China’s busiest airports was still down approximately 60% from normal levels.
Air traffic over East Asia January 7. (Source: Flightradar24)
Air traffic over East Asia April 7. (Source: Flightradar24)
Ground
Google has released — and continues to update — a series of community mobility reports that chart movement trends in public spaces. The reports are a compilation of GPS data for Google users across the world.
Mobility changes are particularly stark for regions hit hard by the coronavirus. New York state showed a 46% reduction in visits to transit stations and a 42% reduction in visits to workplaces in June and July compared to pre-pandemic baseline levels. New Yorkers are also visiting parks 74% more often.
Screenshot: Google
Screenshot: Google
Trends in the United States as a whole are also dramatic.
Screenshot: Google
Screenshot: Google
Israeli journey-planning app Moovit is using mobile phone data to document trends in public transit ridership. Many of the world’s largest metropolitan cities experienced a steep decline in ridership between mid-January and late March. Millions of people that rely on mass transit have had to cope with cumbersome rules and the danger of catching the virus itself. Efforts to reduce overcrowding on trains and buses have translated into reduced capacity requirements and therefore, lengthy wait times. The rise of remote work has also lowered public transit ridership.
Screenshot: Moovit
Italy was hit particularly hard – and early – by the pandemic. Two large outbreaks occurred in Northern Italy in late February, prompting widespread closures and government-mandated quarantines in Lombardy and 14 neighboring provinces. Public transit ridership plummeted when the quarantine took effect in early March.
Screenshot: Moovit
Usage of GPS-reliant ride-hailing apps has also dropped severely. Daily installs of China’s three biggest ride-hailing apps were down 75% the week of February 10 compared to the same week in 2019.
Source: Sensor Tower
American ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft have seen similar losses. However, business for food delivery apps like Uber Eats and Grubhub are on the rise as more people stay home instead of grocery shopping.
The impacts of COVID-19 have been less severe — but still significant — for the trucking industry. The U.S. trucking industry is an economic powerhouse, typically generating over 700 billion in annual revenue and transporting 72.5% of American freight. The American Transportation Research Institute generated a truck activity index based on GPS data across six states from the week of February 9 to the week of February 12. The data shows an initial spike in trucking operations due to increased demand for consumer goods and medical supplies. However, as stay-at-home orders and restrictions ceased business operations across the country, truck activity declined.
Source: American Transportation Research Institute
Coronavirus safety restrictions adopted by countries across the world have generally begun to loosen up, for better or for worse. It will be interesting to see how the coming months unfold through the lens of GNSS data.
Roi Mitt works for Regulus Cyber, a company researching GPS cybersecurity and offering various software products to protect the integrity, reliability and security of GNSS devices. The company’s products are designed for multiple industries using GPS-based time and location, in order to ensure a future in which GNSS technology is safe and reliable to use.
New service provides PPP convergence for centimeter-level accuracy on land, air and marine applications around the world
Research from Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division has resulted in breakthrough innovations in precise point positioning (PPP) that enable nearly instant global centimeter-level accuracy. These developments pave the way to bring “RTK from the Sky” performance to worldwide users through correction service products and GNSS receivers from Hexagon.
RTK from the Sky technology provides the quick accuracy of an RTK solution with the high accessibility and availability of PPP. Users will no longer have geographic or regional infrastructure restrictions — they will be free to operate anywhere around the world with the same premium level of positioning performance.
RTK from the Sky technology removes the traditional PPP barrier of long convergence times as well as internet and radio communication limitations, delivering instantaneous convergence anywhere in the world. This breakthrough establishes the foundation for assured positioning with no downtime in marine, agriculture, and autonomous applications.
To achieve these results, there must be masterful attention to detail throughout the entire positioning ecosystem: no errors conveniently cancelled and no errors ignored. All errors are carefully estimated and removed from the final GNSS position faster and more reliably than ever before.
This end-to-end fine-tuning of measurement quality and error mitigation establishes the foundation for RTK from the Sky performance. No matter the location or application, users will be able to rely upon the highest availability and accuracy of corrections anywhere in the world, without the convergence time, Hexagon said.
“In 2020, PPP has become RTK — without the mobility limitations,” said Sandy Kennedy, VP of Innovation at Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division. “RTK from the Sky has been a very satisfying development. To see this kind of positioning performance available anywhere in the world is the realization of the next step of innovation for GNSS.”
RTK from the Sky technology will be the foundation for future correction service products and applications from Hexagon built for diverse applications.
The American Transportation Research Institute released data showing that trucks are continuing to move — in many cases faster than usual — to respond to the demands placed on the industry by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“ATRI’s real-time GPS data comes from more than a million trucks, allowing us to analyze freight flows, and so far in March, what we are seeing is an unprecedented level of truck movement,” said ATRI President and COO Rebecca Brewster. “Not only are trucks continuing to move, but they are doing so at speeds well in excess of normal traffic patterns.”
For example, according to ATRI’s data, at the intersection of I-85 and I-285 in Atlanta, known locally as Spaghetti Junction, afternoon rush hour truck speeds are typically less than 15 MPH due to congestion. Last week, truck speeds averaged 53 MPH.
“Spaghetti Junction is typical of what we’ve seen across the country, especially in areas hit hard by the virus and subject to quarantines and lockdowns,” Brewster said. “As other traffic dissipates, trucks continue to move, delivering much-needed relief supplies to markets, hospitals, gas stations and other essential businesses.”
Among the hardest hit states, New York, California and Illinois, the data is showing similar changes.
In New York, along I-495 in Queens, the afternoon rush hour typically sees average truck speeds of 16 MPH. Speeds have now more than doubled, averaging 38 MPH, still below the posted speed limit but certainly an improvement.
In Los Angeles, at the intersection of I-710 and I-105, truck speeds during highly congested morning rush hours are normally less than 25 MPH between the hours of 6 and 8 a.m. Truck speeds are now averaging 53 MPH in the morning as Californians stay home but truck deliveries increase.
At the Byrne Interchange in Chicago, where I-290 intersects with I-90/I-94, morning truck speeds are now averaging 43 MPH, more than twice the typical morning rush hour speed of 20 MPH.
According to ATRI’s analysis, the results can be explained by several COVID-19 related factors:
The dramatic reduction in commuter traffic allows trucks to operate at higher speeds, particularly during traditional rush hours.
Continuous 24/7 truck operations generate higher average truck speeds across nearly all hours of the day.
ATRI’s analysis used truck GPS data from more than a million heavy-duty trucks and the locations examined included some of the nation’s top truck choke points.
“Normally, ATRI’s bottleneck data is used to show us where the problems are on our highway system,” said American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear, “but during this period of extreme uncertainty, the data is showing us where the solution is — in the back of America’s trucks as professional drivers continue to quickly and safely deliver life-sustaining medical supplies, food, fuel and other essentials to Americans when they need it most.”
ATRI is the trucking industry’s 501c3 not-for-profit research organization. It is engaged in critical research relating to freight transportation’s essential role in maintaining a safe, secure and efficient transportation system.
