Space-based surveillance enhances air space capacity and safety in remote and oceanic areas, while contributing to reduce the aviation environmental impact.
New generation surveillance technologies, such as the Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B), have improved airspace capacity and safety and have been identified as an enabler of the European Green Deal goals as regards aviation; however, they are primarily ground-based, leaving oceanic and remote areas uncovered despite the high traffic demand therein. Hence, these areas cannot benefit from the same surveillance advancements available in populated regions, negatively impacting airspace efficiency and increasing the aviation environmental footprint. Space-based ADS-B systems have improved situational awareness in oceanic and uninhabited areas by using low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, skipping the need for ground stations, but they are quite sensitive to Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) integrity issues, like those recently reported in the Baltic region.
The natural solution to cope with those issues consist of using space-based enhanced multilateration (E-MLAT) systems that leverage ADS-B LEO constellations to provide independent integrity assessment for space-based ADS-B using a variety of data measured abroad the satellites. The integration of E-MLAT with ADS-B will deliver a complementary stream of GNSS-independent surveillance data, enabling the definition of integrity parameters for space-based ADS-B data.
Several fast time simulations will be conducted in three realistic environments to showcase the operational benefits enabled by the proposed solution in terms of capacity and safety improvement, as well as reduced fuel consumption and flight duration.
The European Union Aviation Agency (EASA) will support the development of the solution with a view to aligning the solution with the envisaged evolution of the Single European Sky. Furthermore, the solution will support EUROCAE WG-51 in the integration of new capabilities to the composite surveillance systems set out in the standard ED-142A.
Benefits
Increased capacity of airspace sectors over oceanic or almost uninhabited areas.
Increased safety of air operations in airspace sectors over oceanic or almost uninhabited areas.
Reduced environmental footprint of air operations in airspace sectors over oceanic or almost uninhabited areas.
Improved passenger experience (e.g., shorter overseas long-haul flights).