Research Online: Search-and-rescue/Galileo system deployment and performance

By Carmela Ruta, Francesco Paggi and Monica Gotta, Thales Alenia Space-Italia; D. Oskam, Airbus Defence and Space; and Rafael Lucas Rodriguez and Igor Stojkovic; European Space Agency / Presented at the European Navigation Conference, Switzerland, May 2017

The European Space Agency, Thales Alenia Space-Italy and Airbus Defence and Space contributed to the Search and Rescue/Galileo Forward Link system deployment and performance evaluation with a full-scale System Performance Validation test campaign, aimed at evaluating the performances of the SAR/Galileo system, in terms of distress detection rate, localization probability and localization accuracy.

Forward Link Message Detection probability in 10 minutes.

The paper describes SAR/Galileo principles and the COSPAS-SARSAT MEOSAR concept (detection and localisation of distress events based on MEO satellites). It presents the space and ground segments of the Galileo infrastructure that enables the SAR/Galileo Forward Link Service provision and the main inherent performances of the system. The SPV test campaign is described in terms of objectives and organization; the main results are presented, and the foreseen milestones for SAR/Galileo deployment are summarized.

Global availability of 5 km beacon localisation accuracy (95%) in 10 minutes.