New Zealand to join satellite-based augmentation systems trial programme

On Friday, 17 February 2017 the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand announced that the New Zealand would be joining a satellite-based augmentation system trial programme (see third to last paragraph on page 2).

Related announcements were made by Hon Simon Bridges, New Zealand Minister of Economic Development and Minister of Transport (here), and the Australian Ministers of Resources, Hon Matthew Canavan, and Infrastructure, Hon Darren Chester (here).

Additional information is available on the New Zealand web sites of:

• Land Information New Zealand - news item
• the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment - see Summary of Initial Work Programme page 4
• the Ministry of Transport - positioning systems 
• the Civil Aviation Authority - New Southern Sky UPDATED 

See also previous post.

Australia funding a satellite-based augmentation systems test-bed and trial programme

Modern positioning infrastructure, such as the US-provided Global Positioning System (GPS), is something people are increasingly taking for granted yet it is also technology that is proving useful for many transport-related applications.

The accuracy and integrity of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), of which GPS is now but one example, can be improved through using satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) that broadcast correction messages using geostationary satellites. SBAS coverage is already provided over North America (WAAS), Europe (EGNOS), Japan (MSAS) and India (GAGAN) but not over Australasia.

On 17 January 2017 the Australian Ministers of Infrastructure and Resources announced that the Federal Government would be providing A$12m to fund a SBAS test-bed and trial programme.

Further information about this was provided in a statement released on the same day by the Chief Executive of Geoscience Australia and related questions and answers.

On 10 February 2017 Geoscience Australia announced that the test-bed would be provided by a consortium of Lockheed Martin from the USA, GMV from Spain and Inmarsat from the UK. Both Lockheed Martin and GMV have made press releases about this news.

CRCSI is going to be involved in organising the trial programme.

A change of focus for the blog - transport technology

While I continue to be fascinated by aeropolitical developments and on a personal note I have taken up flying again (this time with the Whangarei Flying Club), my professional interests are now more focused on developments in transport technology across all modes.

It seems likely that we are on the cusp of transport-technology disruption the likes of which we have not seen since the end of the nineteenth century. Topics like the "Internet of Things" and "Big Data" all have a transport dimension, and we are increasingly using such phrases as "Intelligent Mobility" and "Mobility as a Service".

It is an exciting time to be involved in transport policy as we work through the implications of the anticipated transport system changes.

As a consequence I will also now be using this weblog to provide links to some of the more interesting reports and articles on intelligent transport systems (ITS).