Spaceopal launches NAVCAST precise point positioning service

The NAVCAST website. (Image: Spaceopal)

Spaceopal has launched NAVCAST, a GNSS precise point positioning (PPP) service featuring high-accuracy positioning enhancement for end users worldwide. NAVCAST aims to actively support and to accelerate widespread adoption of Galileo.

NAVCAST provides Galileo and GPS real time orbit and clock corrections based on an algorithm RETICLE (REal-TIme CLock Estimation), developed by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR e.V.).

Galileo and GPS observations, from more than 100 receivers of the worldwide IGS network, are used to estimate the current corrections which are broadcast to registered users relaying on the standard NTRIP protocol.

NAVCAST corrections improve the user error down to the centimeter level, making it attractive for a large number of applications, the company said.

Users can appraise the accuracy levels and convergence times achievable using NAVCAST (Galileo + GPS) corrections combined with a precise point positioning (PPP) engine, on the Spaceopal website. The underlying PPP engine (dual-frequency, ionosphere-free observations) estimates the local troposphere delays and fixes the carrier-phase integer ambiguities.

NAVCAST can be considered as proof of concept and Spaceopal’s contribution to high-accuracy GNSS services. NAVCAST corrections, which are broadcast over the Internet, could be in future via satellite constellation (such as MEO satellites).

From November 2010 until end of June 2017, Spaceopal was the prime contractor responsible for Galileo operations under the Galileo Full Operational Capability (FOC) Operations Framework contract, the company said. Spaceopal GmbH will continue to operate the Galileo satellite fleet under the Galileo Service Operator (GSOp) contract. Spaceopal is actively supporting the completion of the system to expand the services up to full operational capability by 2020.