Space: 26 Galileo satellites now in orbit for improved EU satellite navigation signal

Satellite positioning has become a vital part of our daily lives and is a key for farming, science, precise timing and emergency response.

We use it on our phones, cars, planes, trains, ships and thousands of other applications.

In 2016, Galileo, the European Global Navigation system launched its initial services.
see https://www.gsa.europa.eu/
iPhone6s/ 7 & 7Plus / 8 & 8Plus / iPhoneX are Galileo compatible

From Europa

Today four more Galileo satellites were successfully launched from the European spaceport in French Guiana on the European launcher Ariane-5.
Now with a constellation of 26 satellites, the EU's global satellite navigation system will provide a more precise signal across a range of valuable services.

Galileo has been providing positioning and timing services to around 400 million users since December 2016.
The launch today brings the constellation close to completion in 2020, which is when Galileo will reach full operational capability.
Once complete and with a record precision of 20cm, Galileo will be the most precise satellite navigation system in the world.

Space may be far away but its technology, data and services have become indispensable in our daily lives, be it in rescue searches, connected cars, smart watches, farming or plane navigation.
The European space industry is strong and competitive, creating jobs and business opportunities for entrepreneurs.
For the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027, the Commission is proposing to bring all existing and new space activities under the umbrella of one single €16 billion 'EU Space Programme'.

When emergency beacons are activated, fast detection is crucial.

Galileo is a key component of MEOSAR that will detect distress beacons close to real time and determine their position.

Vice-President of the Commission Maroš Šefčovič said: "Another milestone towards the full operational capability of Galileo in 2020! Space is becoming a new economic frontier, as it is vitally linked to a growing number of sectors and driving their profound modernisation.
In fact, 10% of the EU's GDP is dependent on space-related services.
We therefore need to strive for Europe's global leadership and strategic autonomy."

Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, who led the European Commission delegation to Kourou (French Guiana), said: “We can be very proud of our successful space activities.
Europe has become a true space power.
From the start of the mandate I had clear goals: develop the infrastructure on time and on budget, deliver first services and ensure rapid market uptake.
Today we can say – we made it.
But work and investment will go on under the new EU Space Programme."

Galileo currently provides three types of satellite navigation based services:

• Galileo Open Service: a free service for positioning, navigation and timing. The timing service is increasingly robust, accurate and fast (in order of nanoseconds) compared to other location systems. It enables the eCall system, which has been mandatory in all new cars in the EU since 31 March 2018, to communicate the vehicle's location to emergency services.

• Galileo's Search and Rescue (SAR) Service: localisation of distress signals from an enabled beacon. With the start of Galileo initial services in December 2016, the time it takes to detect a person lost at sea or in the mountains after a distress beacon is activated was reduced from up to 4 hours to about 10 minutes . The accuracy of localisation has improved too, from 10 km without Galileo to less than 2 km with Galileo. As of next year, the service will also send back a signal informing the person in danger that the distress signal has been picked up and localised.

• Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS): an encrypted service designed for public authorities for security sensitive use, for instance military operations. PRS aims at ensuring service continuity, even in the most adverse environment. It offers a particularly robust and fully encrypted service for government users during national emergencies or crisis situations, such as terrorist attacks.

Anyone with a Galileo enabled device is able to use its signals for positioning, navigation and timing.
Galileo services are based on highly accurate signals, but during the current initial phase they are not available all the time and therefore are used in combination with other satellite navigation systems such as GPS.
Every addition to the constellation gradually improves Galileo availability and performance worldwide.
Once the constellation reaches 30 satellites in 2020, Galileo will be fully operational and independent, meaning that a position could be established autonomously everywhere and anytime using Galileo satellites only.

Background

All Galileo satellites are named after the children whose drawings were selected as winning pictures in the Galileo Drawing Competition in 2011.
The 4 satellites launched on 25 July are named after Tara from Slovenia, Samuel from Slovakia, Anna from Finland and Ellen from Sweden.

Galileo is a civilian system under civilian control, which provides accurate positioning and timing information.
Galileo aims to ensure Europe's independence from other satellite navigation systems and its strategic autonomy in satellite navigation.
Europe's autonomy in this sector will boost the European job market, help the EU step up its role as a security and defence provider, and support emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, drones, automated mobility and the Internet of the Things.

Other EU space activities include Copernicus (free and open Earth observation data of land, atmosphere, sea, climate change and for emergency management and security), EGNOS (regional satellite navigation system) and Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST).

For the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027, the Commission has proposed a €16bn EU Space Prpgramme covering all existing and new space activities including maintaining the EU's autonomous access to space, supporting space start-ups, and developing new security components such as Space and Situational Awareness (SSA) and Governmental Satellite Communication (GOVSATCOM).

Links :

• Reuters : EU Galileo stance raises questions over security work post-Brexit - UK minister
• BBC : Europe's Galileo: Britain's blast-off / UK rebuffed over Galileo sat-nav procurement

Don't miss this week's deep red blood moon - The longest lunar eclipse of this century

Public Domain NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

From Forbes by Trevor Nace

Take a moment this Friday, July 27th and look up at the sky toward the longest lunar eclipse of this century, a magical deep red blood moon.
Earthlings around the world will be treated to a special event, a lunar eclipse lasting 1 hour and 43 minutes long, close to the theoretical longest lunar eclipse possible and the longest of the 21st century.

As the moon rises on Friday, July 27th in 2018 you will begin to see the process by which the moon hides beneath the Earth's shadow, what we call a lunar eclipse.

The areas in white indicate where the entire 103 minutes

of the total lunar eclipse will be visible July 27

see UKHO

What Is A Lunar Eclipse And How Is It Different From A Solar Eclipse?

You may have heard the terms lunar and solar eclipse used previously and not known exactly what it refers to beyond the general darkening of either the moon or sun.
In both instances what we're seeing on Earth is a shadow draped over the body.

Diagram of a lunar eclipse

NASA

 source : Le Monde

In the diagram above you'll see the arrangement of the sun, Earth, and moon during a lunar eclipse.
In this special arrangement, all three bodies are aligned in a straight line.
However, the alignment is sun > Earth > moon.
The sun is shining brightly on the Earth, but the moon has crept exactly behind the Earth to be in its shadow.
This means there is no direct sunlight reaching the moon, bouncing off the moon, and traveling down to Earth (the typical process that lights up the moon in our night skies).

Detail of diagrams of solar and lunar eclipses from 1431 to 1462.

Image taken from f. 8 of Physician's folding almanac, including John Somer's 'Calendar'

British Library

In comparison, below is a diagram of a solar eclipse.
In this instance, the bodies are all aligned similar to a lunar eclipse but there's one slight difference: the position of the Earth and moon are swapped.
This means the sun is shining brightly on the moon, but part of the Earth lies in the shadow of the moon, not receiving direct sunlight.
During this celestial event we see for a brief period the sun darkened by the shadow of the moon as we are in exact alignment sun > moon > Earth.

The correct demonstration of the Sun creating a shadow of the moon on Earth.

NASA

How Special Is This Week's Lunar Eclipse?

While we typically experience anywhere between one and four lunar eclipses per year, it is exceptionally rare to have such a long total lunar eclipse and during the month of July.

This Friday's total lunar eclipse means two things are taking place: The bodies are aligned in a straight line in the order of sun, Earth, and moon and at the same time there is a full moon.
A partial eclipse can be when the three bodies aren't fully aligned or if the moon isn't full at that point in time.

Another unique factor about the total lunar eclipse is that the Earth is close to the farthest it will be from the Sun, called the Aphelion.
The table below from timeanddate.com shows the aphelion occurred on July 6th, 2018.

The reason this lunar eclipse is the longest of the 21st century is because it passes through the center of Earth's shadow, increasing the time in which the moon is blocked from the sun.
The theoretical limit of a lunar eclipse is 1 hour and 47 minutes, which we will be just shy of at 1 hour and 43 minutes.

How Do I Track The Total Lunar Eclipse - When Is the Best Time To Watch It?

You're likely wondering when would be ideal to watch the total lunar eclipse and to get a sense of the trajectory of the eclipse on July 27th.
Timeanddate.com has a great way to track the lunar eclipse, you just enter in your location and it will populate everything you need to know about the moon's trajectory, timing, etc.

Screenshot of the July 2018 lunar eclipse path through London, England.

www.timeanddate.com

What Is A Blood Moon?

The lunar eclipse will also be a blood moon, which is a term for when the moon glows a deep red color.
The reason for this is due to sunlight scattering.
Since during an eclipse there is no direct sunlight hitting the moon, all of the light which reaches the moon and bounces back to Earth (allowing us to see the moon) is indirect.
The indirect light goes through Rayleigh scattering as it passes through Earth's atmosphere.
This, in effect, scatters the longer blue and violet wavelengths more than the shorter red and orange wavelengths.
Hence, more red/orange wavelength light reaches the moon and is bounced back to Earth, presenting to us a deep red blood moon.

The best part about lunar eclipses is that you don't need any special equipment or glasses as there's no blindingly bright sun to look at.
Simply step outside and look up toward the moon this July 27th summer night and witness the beautiful deep red glow of the blood moon lunar eclipse.

Links :

• CNET : Longest total lunar eclipse of the century to turn the moon red this month
• GeoGarage blog : Don't call it a blood moon. Or Supermoon. Or Blue ... / Total lunar eclipse will bring a moon triple treat ... / Total lunar eclipse for the winter solstice tomorrow

L'Austral grounding: loss of awareness during “blind pilotage”

Milford Sound, South of New Zealand with the GeoGarage platform (Linz chart)

From TAIC

At about 0530 on 9 February 2017, the passenger cruise ship L’Austral began its entry to Milford Sound with an authorised harbour pilot on board.
Because it was dark and there were no external visual navigation aids, the bridge team was using only the ship’s electronic navigation systems to conduct the pilotage.

As the ship was making a turn off Dale Point, the pilot lost awareness of exactly where the ship was, the direction in which it was heading and the effects of the wind and tide on the ship.

 Dale Point with the GeoGarage platform (Linz chart)

The L’Austral deviated well off the planned track and struck a stony bank near the shoreline of Milford Sound.
The ship suffered scraping and indentation of the hull on its starboard side, but the hull was not breached and nobody on board was injured.

General area of the accident

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (Commission report) found that the ship’s crew on the bridge noticed the ship was off its planned track, but did not bring this to the pilot’s attention until it was too late to avert the grounding.

Extract of chart showing route of the L’Austral

The Commission found that the bridge team were not making full use of the ship’s electronic navigation systems to ensure that the ship stayed on track.

 The L'Austral's course around Dale Point with rates of turn as ordered

The Commission identified three safety issues:

• the primary means for navigation on board the L’Austral, the electronic chart display and information system, was not being used to its full potential as a tool for planning and monitoring the ship’s passage, and the crew were not fully conversant with its safety features
• the standard of bridge resource management on board the L’Austral during the Milford Sound pilotage did not meet good industry practice
• conducting ‘blind pilotage’ with large ships in confined waters represented risks that had not been fully considered by Environment Southland, the regional authority that regulates maritime activity in the area.

The Commission repeated two previous recommendations to the ship’s operator (Compagnie des Iles du Ponant) and made one new recommendation to Environment Southland to address the safety issues.

Chartlets showing typical tracks for rounding Dale Point

The Commission had previously found that poor bridge resource management under pilotage was a factor contributing to accidents involving two other ships in New Zealand.
Their two reports had made several recommendations aimed at improving the standard of pilotage and making the transition of the pilot into the ship’s bridge team seamless.

Diagram showing ECDIS safety parameters

 
Diagram showing permanent ECDIS safety parameters on board the L’Austral

Key lessons arising from this inquiry were:

• a ship’s passage plan is more than just the planned track for the ship to follow. Every part of a ship’s voyage must be planned and all members of the bridge team be fully familiar with and agree to the plan. This is a cornerstone of good bridge resource management
• good bridge resource management relies on a culture where challenge is welcomed and responded to, regardless of rank, personality or nationality
• an electronic chart display and information system is a valuable aid to navigation. However, mariners need to fully understand and be familiar with all aspects of the system, particularly when using it for blind pilotage.

Links :

• Safety4Sea : Proper ECDIS settings in navigational waters
• Work Boat : Electronic chart display and ‘techno-rapture’

'The ocean is my home - and it's being trashed'

Sarah and Conor La Grue are on a quest to turn the 4,000 or so live-aboard yachts around the world into a research fleet.

These vessels would gather data for scientists and host their latest experiments. Sarah and Conor discuss their Given Time project here with science adviser, Dr Steve Simpson from Exeter University.

 see www.sailinggiventime.com

From BBC by Jonathan Amos

"If you opened your curtains in the morning and found that the grass was scorched, somebody had dumped a load of rubbish in your garden and animals were eating it - you'd be appalled. But that's what's happening in the oceans," says Sarah La Grue.

"The reefs are being scorched, there's rubbish on beaches and animals are eating it and getting tangled up in it. But we don't generally see much of this because it's in the oceans. Out of sight, out of mind."

Sarah is a yachtswoman who lives aboard her boat and is about to set out on a global voyage for science.
She and husband, Conor, have a vision to co-ordinate other like-minded sailors into a kind of research fleet to address some of the biggest issues facing our seas.
Their project - and the name of their 12m boat - is called Given Time.

The idea is to build a community of vessels that can gather data and conduct simple experiments, all at the behest of scientists.
Some of this information - water temperature, salinity, and turbidity - can be used to ground-truth oceanographic models and satellite observations.
Other data, such as fish tissue samples, can help build a picture of animal health and the waters in which they live.
Just documenting places visited would compile "baselines" from which future change can be properly assessed.

Sarah's and Conor's open-source, crowd-science project will run off a website and an app.
"Beta boats" are being recruited to trial the basic research programme.

The intention is that these vessels would then cascade the ideas and skills to other sailors wanting to join the programme.
"There's something like 4,000 long-term, live-aboard boats cruising the world," explains Conor.
"These are individuals, families, groups of friends; and they've made the oceans their home, and they want to look after them and get involved.
"These boats are increasingly going to some really interesting places - even into high latitudes like Antarctica and the North West Passage. These are places that professional research vessels may not often go, so we represent a fantastic additional resource."

Given Time is taking direction from scientific advisers, such as Dr Steve Simpson from Exeter University.
He envisages scientists plugging into the cruiser community to find boats in places of interest to their particular field of research.
Perhaps these scientists have a new instrument they want to trial or a new data-set they want to acquire.

A community yacht could make that happen quickly and cheaply.
"For us, ship time is the most expensive thing and that limits what we can do," says Steve. "And yet to understand the oceans, we really need big spatial coverage for our data-sets, and we need long time-series.
"So, the opportunity to work with people where the ocean is their home, to be gathering these global data-sets that build up year on year - that's a very exciting prospect."

"Beta boats" are currently being recruited to cascade the programme
Steve himself wants to use the boats as part of his research into ocean acoustics.

He's interested in underwater sounds to help interpret what's living in the oceans and how this environment is being affected by human-produced noise.
Yachts run silent, which makes it much easier to record and interpret the soundscapes picked up by his hydrophones.
"One of the real values of time-series like those cruisers could collect - is that we would see success stories," says Steve.
"An example: the beach clean-ups around the UK have demonstrated the impact of the 5p plastic bag charge.
"Since that charge came in, there's been a 40% reduction in plastic bags found on beaches. And you only know that because lots of people have been collecting data. That helps shore up policy."

Links :

• BBC : Cruising for global ocean science

Vessel tracking exposes the dark side of trading at sea

 “Some human rights abuses have been associated with transshipment.

By allowing fishing vessels to remain at sea for months or even years at a time, captains are able to keep their crew at sea indefinitely, resulting in de facto slavery”

From Eurekalert

Exchanging catches at sea, in unregulated waters, provides opportunities for illegal activities like drug smuggling and human trafficking

First ever large-scale analysis of fishing vessel interactions exposes the potential extent of the unmanaged exchange of goods at sea, raising global concerns over illegal fishing and human rights abuses.
The study, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, brings transparency to trading at sea.
It provides the first ever public view of the extent to which these exchanges could be occurring and exposes the need for a global collaboration to improve fisheries management.

"The practice of transshipment -- refrigerated cargo vessels meeting with fishing boats at sea to exchange seafood, crew, fuel or supplies -- is common in many fisheries as it enables fishing vessels to remain at sea while their catch is taken to market," says Dr Nathan Miller of SkyTruth, USA, who led the study.
"However, it lacks uniform regulation and transparent data. This hinders sustainable fisheries management as it makes it very difficult to monitor the amount of marine life being taken from the sea."

 Global patterns of transshipment behavior illustrating encounters (red) and loitering events (black). Highest densities appear in the Russian Far East and the Barents Sea, outside the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of South America, within the EEZs of African nations, and across the Equatorial Pacific.

The lack of consistent regulation enables illegally caught fish to enter the market.
It also creates the opportunity for other illegal activities relating to drugs and even people.
"Some human rights abuses have been associated with transshipment. By allowing fishing vessels to remain at sea for months or even years at a time, captains are able to keep their crew at sea indefinitely, resulting in de facto slavery," say Miller.

Global Fishing Watch’s new encounters layer reveals for the first time where and when thousands of vessels are involved in close encounters at sea.

The outcomes associated with this poor regulation motivated the researchers from Google, Skytruth and Global Fishing Watch.
They wanted to create a transparent and publicly available way of identifying and sharing transshipment behaviors on a global scale.

Geographic distribution of loitering events and encounters (combined).

Roughly 52% of the events occur in the high seas.

*Note that Russia is presented separately.

To do this, the team analyzed over 30 billion vessel tracking signals to identify potential transshipment encounters.
This included refrigerated cargo vessels loitering at sea long enough to receive a transshipment, or two vessels in close proximity long enough to transfer catch, crew or supplies.
"Our research is unique in its scale, but also in that we use a big data technology platform and satellite tracking data to provide the first public view of the potential extent of global transshipment," says Miller.

In the Indian Ocean, off the remote Saya de Malha bank, the refrigerated cargo vessel (reefer) Leelawadee was seen with two unidentified likely fishing vessels tied alongside.

Image Captured by DigitalGlobe on Nov. 30, 2016. Credit: DigitalGlobe © 2017

Analysis of the data showed that transshipment activities occur on a global scale, yet some areas had particularly high activity.
"Transshipment activities were observed in all ocean basins, but were most common in international waters," says Miller.
"Nearly half of the events we tracked occur on the high seas and involve vessels that are registered in countries which may differ from the vessel's owner and provide minimal oversight. This means that a vessel may be held to less strict standards and regulations than its home country would require."
"The prevalence of events outside of national waters in much of the world is juxtaposed by the prevalence of events in Russian waters, as well as those involving foreign vessels within the waters of western African nations," says Miller.
"While the activities within Russian waters predominate, the activities within the waters of western African nations are of considerable concern."

Illegal transshipment of fish between Saly Reefer and Flipper 4 fishing vessel.

(Photo courtesy of Greenpeace.)

As could be expected with such a large dataset, the limitations of the data also need to be taken into consideration before conclusions should be drawn.
"The use of the vessel tracking system, from which we derived these data, varies globally and among fleets. Operators can turn off the tracking device or broadcast incorrect identity information and crowded regions of the ocean can affect tracking accuracy. However, we can account for these limitations and our results change only modestly if we alter the parameters," says Miller.

Flag pairings for fishing and transshipment vessels involved in encounters, for the fishing vessel flags with greatest number of encounters.

Russian- and US-flagged fishing vessels predominantly associate with common-flagged transshipment vessels, whereas Asian-flagged fishing vessels associate with diversely flagged transshipment vessels. Values identify number of events involving each flag pair.

Overall, the results suggest that many transshipment events occur beyond any nation's jurisdiction, where the monitoring and regulation of fishing activity is limited.

The team hope their research will act as a starting point to encourage a more transparent and sustainable fishing practice.

"We hope our results will expose the potential association of transshipment with illegal fishing and other criminal activities, as well as stimulate discussion on sustainability and management of high seas fishing," says Miller.
"Tackling the sustainability and human rights problems associated with transshipment at sea will require global perspective and cooperation."

Links :

• Verdict : Human trafficking hidden by at-sea trading, prompting calls for regulation
• Inside Science : Mapping Fishing Vessel Traffic
• Skytruth : Machine learning and satellite data provide the first global view of transshipment activity
• GeoGarage blog : Clamp down on illegal fishing to curb human trafficking / The 'dark fleet': Global Fishing Watch shines a light ... / How illegal fishing is being tracked from space / New maps show the utterly massive imprint of ... / Fighting illegal fishing with Big Data / Global Fishing Watch lets you track 35000 fishing ... / Google's global fishing watch is using 'manipulated ... / Eyes in the sky: Green groups are harnessing data ... / The plan to map illegal fishing from Space /