News in 2014
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Report on the Ninth Meeting of the International Committee
on
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG-9)
9 – 14 November 2014 Kuta, Prague, Czech Republic
INTRODUCTION
The Ninth Meeting of the International Committee on Global Navigation
Satellite Systems (ICG) was held in Prague, Czech Republic from 9 to 14
November 2014. The ICG has been formed as a result of recommendations of the
UN Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space (COPUOS), as ratified by the
General Assembly of the UN. The International Federation of Surveyors (FIG)
is an Associate Member of the ICG. I was there as the FIG representative to
UNOOSA. Unfortunately, Matt Higgins could not be present but he is FIG’s
co-chair for Working Group D on Reference Frames, Timing and Applications.
This meeting was the biggest ICG-meeting ever with more than 200 people
attended the meeting with representatives from all of the GNSS/RNSS
providers. There were also many representatives from other countries and
non-government organisations. It is interesting to see how many delegates
that are coming from Russia and China to these meetings as well as note how
these meetings are growing in terms of attendance.
JOINT STATEMENT FROM ICG-9
At the end of each meeting, the ICG issues a Joint Statement outlining
the highlights of the broad scope of work across the ICG. Various
presentations were made at the plenary sessions and working group sessions
of the meeting and they form a very useful snap shot of the state of the art
with the various GNSS and also with issues across key user groups. The Joint
Statement from ICG-9, Working Group Reports and all presentations are
available on the ICG Information portal.
(see
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/en/SAP/gnss/icg/meetings.html).
REPORTS ON THE STATUS OF ALL OF THE MAJOR GNSS SUB-SYSTEMS
The system providers are at the core of the overall work of the ICG and a
feature of the first Plenary Session of the ICG is a series of presentations
on the status of all of the major GNSS sub-systems. Presentations also
outline the views of each of the system provider nations on the issues of
Compatibility and Interoperability. At ICG-9, the reported status
System developments to note at ICG-8 include:
- European Community started by presenting the status of EGNOS (its
SBAS) and Galileo
- Galileo reported on a stable seven year perspective concerning
budget as well as a new governance
- There are 26 satellites ordered (4 IOV + 22 FOC) as well as
launcher service contracts including Soyuz and Ariane 5
- Galileo satellites 5 and 6 are in stable condition even though
not in expected orbit
- The services to be provided by Galileo include the Open Service,
Public Regulated Service, Search and Rescue Service, Commercial
Service
- The EGNOS data access service was declared operational in July
2012
- Web site: ec.europa.eu/galileo
- US presented the status of GPS
- The US policy is to provide continuous worldwide access for
peaceful uses, free of direct users charge as well as encourage
compatibility and interoperability with other GNSS services and
promote transparency in civil service provisioning
- On Oct 29 the forth GPS satellite was launched during 2014. Most
GPS launches in a single year since 1993. This means that currently
30 operational satellites are available. Global GPS civil service
performance commitment has been met continuously since December 1993
- Web site: http://www.gps.gov/
- The Russian Federation presented the status of GLONASS
- The civil services are free to use and available globally
- The GLONASS programme concept was adopted 3rd of March, 2012. It
covers 2012-2020 including a budget
- 28 satellites have been launched and 24 satellites are currently
operational with two GLONASS-M launches during 2014
- Web site: http://www.glonass-center.ru/en/
- China presented the status of Beidou
- Currently 14 operational satellites (5 GEO, 5 IGSO and 4 MEO)
- Further statements that Beidou provide continuous, stable and
worldwide services and that Beidou belongs to China as well to the
world!
- Web site: http://en.beidou.gov.cn/
- India presented the status on GAGAN and IRNSS
- GAGAN stands for GPS Aided GEO Augmentation Navigation System
- GAGAN is compatible and interoperable with other SBAS. Main
focus concerns civil aviation to ensure better air space management
and fuel efficiency
- GAGAN includes 3 GEO satellites, 3 uplink stations and 2 control
centres. Two of the satellites have been sent up and GSAT-15 to be
launched in 2-3 years from now
- IRNSS is an independent regional navigation system that will
include 7 satellites of which three are GEO and four are GEO
synchronous orbits. Full constellation is expected by the end of
2015
- Web site: http://irnss.isro.gov.in
- Japan presented their progress regarding the Quasi Zenith Satellite
System (QZSS). Basically very much the same as last year
- The first QZSS satellite Michibiki will be followed by three
more and the service will start latest 2018
- The Government of Japan has decided to accelerate the deployment
of the operational QZSS as expeditiously as possible
- In the future a seven satellite constellation shall be completed
to enable sustainable positioning
OTHER ISSUES TO NOTE FROM THE MEETING
There were many other presentations, discussions and decisions at the
meeting and the following is an outline of some that the author found
particularly interesting:
- FIG presentation on the FIG Manual from the FIG Technical Seminar on
Reference Frame at the working group C meeting. The cooperation ICG and
FIG was mentioned several times in plenary sessions as wellö
- The proposed UN resolution on Global Geodetic Reference Frame for
sustainable development was presented and a statement was made through a
recommendation
- The new ITRF realisation to be released during 2015
- IGS update and the IGS 20th anniversary
- Impact of a possible redefinition of coordinated universal time in
GNSS interoperability
- User perspective and applications describe through several
presentations
MEETINGS OF WORKING GROUP D AND ITS TASK FORCES ON GEODETIC AND TIMING
REFERENCES
The working group had three meetings during the week. The minutes from
Working Group D and other Working Groups will be available from the ICG web
portal in due course as well as other official documents as e.g.
recommendations and all presentations. The main outcomes from the Working
Group D were:
- The first key outcome from the meeting was the related discussion
and proved improvements regarding the time offset between Glonass time
and UTC as well as Beidou time and UTC
- The second key is the update on WGS-84 by the US as well as the
discussion on changing from classical horizontal datum to an ITRF based
realization
- The third key outcome is the discussion concerning the
implementation of the previous recommendations by ICG and the Working
Group D
- The fourth key outcome from the meeting was a series of
recommendations which were later accepted by the ICG and its Provider’s
Forum on the following topics:
- WG-D Recommendation #22 - ICG support to the UN General Assembly
Resolution on the Global Geodetic Reference Frame for Sustainable
Development
- WG-D Recommendation #23 – Improving the accuracy of multi-GNSS
orbit determination by the IGS, via detailed satellite information
NEXT MEETINGS OF THE ICG
The US will host ICG-10 in Boulder, Colorado on the 1-6 November, 2015.
Venue will be the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).
Russia expressed interest in hosting ICG-11 in 2016.
Japan expressed interest in hosting ICG-12 in 2017.
The report as pdf-file
Mikael Lilje
Chair of Commission 5
November 2014
25 November 2014
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