Positioning for a Better Future

Positioning data is now fundamental to a range of applications and communities worldwide. It increases productivity, secures safety and propels innovation.

Accurate positioning enables GPS on smartphones, provides safety-of-life navigation on aircraft, increases water efficiency on farms, helps to locate vessels in distress at sea, and supports intelligent navigation tools and advanced transport management systems that connect cities and regions.

Geoscience Australia received $160.9 million in the 2018-19 Federal Budget to support the development of an operational Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) over four years.

The Australian SBAS will augment Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals to deliver a satellite positioning capability across all of Australia and its maritime zones with decimetre accuracy. It will also support the aviation, maritime and road transport sectors which have a requirement for high-integrity positioning-guaranteed performance with metre level accuracy.

An Australian SBAS will overcome the current gaps in mobile and radio communications and, when combined with on-ground operational infrastructure and services, will ensure that accurate positioning information can be received anytime and anywhere within Australia and New Zealand.

The project will see Australia and New Zealand join countries such as the United States, Europe, Russia, India and Japan, which have all invested in capability that delivers satellite-based corrections via an SBAS.

SBAS test-bed

Geoscience Australia is also leading a separate initiative to test a SBAS for Australia and New Zealand. This project was funded in the 2016-17 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. It is testing two new satellite positioning technologies including next generation SBAS and Precise Point Positioning, which are providing positioning accuracies of several decimetres and one decimetre respectively.

Geoscience Australia is collaborating with Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) on the SBAS test-bed to improve the positioning capability of both countries. Geoscience Australia and LINZ are working closely with FrontierSI who are overseeing the evaluation of the effectiveness of a SBAS for the region, and building expertise within government and industry.

FrontierSI (the successor entity of the CRC for Spatial Information) has called for organisations from across the aviation, road, rail, maritime, spatial, construction, mining, utilities and agriculture sectors to participate in the test-bed. Information is available via the FrontierSI website.

To keep informed of the progress of the SBAS test-bed, sign up to the NPI newsletter, at: https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/positioning-navigation/positioning-for-the-future/satellite-based-augmentation-system#subscribe