High positioning accuracy from the Galileo satellite network – European GPS highly competitive in defense through quality services. The European Space Agency, ESA, recently announced the worldwide availability of its new High Accuracy Service. The new service ensured by real-time positioning corrections, which in turn are achieved by streaming data at higher speeds through the already available network of 28 Galileo system satellites, guarantees positional accuracy with a maximum deviation of just 20 centimeters in the horizontal level and 40 cm vertically.
The announcement of the availability of the HAS service came after several months of testing by ESA technicians at the ESTEC center in the Netherlands. According to Javier Benedicto, director of ESA’s maritime department, the Galileo network, in addition to extremely high accuracy, also offers its users high levels of security against interference and spoofing, through the sending of coded authenticity signals to each user. By placing even more satellites into orbit, according to Benedicto’s statements, and completing the composition of the Galileo network, even more improvements in the services provided will be unleashed. Currently the HAS service is provided via the E6 frequency of the standard Galileo network signal, which is not accessible by mobile phones (mobile networks) and off-the-shelf devices.
However, the Galileo network signal for accessing the HAS service is available via the internet to registered users (subscribers), so it will gradually become more widely available via mobile networks on a variety of devices. Owners of Galileo receivers receive signals from four or more satellites in order to accurately determine their position. The latter is provided by the network by comparing the reception times of the signals emitted by the satellites. In connection with open access to the Global Positioning and Navigation Satellite System, the HAS service offers high-speed and high-frequency determination correction signals. The update of the satellites’ position data is done every 30 seconds, while the measurement of the transmission and reception times of the signals is done every 10 seconds.
Currently the HAS service available is Service Level 1. In its final form, with further precision correction capabilities built in (Service Level 2), it will be released within the next few years. ESA is commercially promoting the Galileo satellite network, as the most accurate navigation and global positioning satellite system available on the global market today. The Galileo network already has three billion subscriber-users.
