GALILEO Local Component for nowcasting and forecasting of Atmospheric Disturbances (GALOCAD)

Atmospheric effects on GNSS signal propagation remain an important error source for GNSS applications. In particular, high-accuracy real-time positioning is affected by small-scale irregular structures in the ionospheric plasma or in the neutral atmosphere water vapour. For example, the occurrence of local irregular structures in the atmosphere due to disturbed space weather conditions induce ‘out of tolerance’ errors which is a major concern for Galileo services offering certified accuracy levels to their customers.

The main objectives of GALOCAD are:

• Research on the effects of atmospheric/ionospheric disturbances on the integrity of high-precision GALILEO applications and development of services that can help mitigating such effects.
• Develop a prototype GALILEO local component (over Belgium) which will assess in real time and forecast a few hours in advance, the effects of the atmosphere on GALILEO high accuracy positioning. In other words, this local component will provide tools for GALILEO integrity monitoring with respect to ‘atmospheric threats’ which should lead to improved GALILEO products reliability.

Funding: EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA),  Contract Ref. GJU/06/2423/CTR/GALOCAD