The second meeting of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG-02) was held in Bangalore, India, during September 4-7, 2007 to review and discuss Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and their promising applications. The meeting was hosted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Participants included representatives from India, China, the European Union, Japan, Russian Federation, United States, Italy and international organisations including International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UN-OOSA).
Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates also attended and were recognised by ICG as new members. The meeting was attended by 147 participants from member states and associate members (Inter-governmental and non governmental organisations). On this special occasion, an industrial exhibition was put up by 10 Indian industries including ISRO at the venue of the meeting.
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Inauguration of ICG-02 |
ICG was established on a voluntary basis as an informal body to promote cooperation on matters of mutual interest related to civil satellite-based positioning, navigation, timing and value-added services, as well as the compatibility and interoperability of global navigation satellite systems, while increasing their use to support sustainable development, particularly in developing countries.
The promising applications of GNSS include safety and economic development, particularly the efficiency and safety of transport, search and rescue, geodesy, land management and sustainable development, and other activities. ICG-02 addressed the enhancement of universal access to, and compatibility and interoperability of global and regional navigation satellite systems and the integration of these services into national infrastructures, particularly in developing countries.
A major development at this meeting was the establishment of a Providers Forum to enhance compatibility and interoperability among current and future system providers, as a mechanism to continue discussions on important issues addressed by ICG that require focused inputs from system providers. Members of the Providers Forum that convened on the first day of the meeting included China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Russian Federation and the United States.
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| Dignitaries and delegates during the inaugural session |
The forum addressed key technical issues and operational concepts such as compatibility and interoperability, the protection of GNSS spectrum, orbital debris/orbit de-confliction, and other matters related to the work of ICG. Later, an Expert Meet which included presentations by GNSS service providers, State Members, Inter-governmental organisations, non-government organisations dealing with GNSS applications and Indian Industry representatives, was held.
During one of the sessions of the meeting, there were presentations on applications of natural disaster prediction, climate change and earth sciences research and use of the Indian Regional System for disaster warning to Indian fishermen. The session also discussed Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), Geodetic reference frames for different regions such as Africa and their coincidence with International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF).
Presentations were made on topics that included International Time Scales, United States Naval Observatory (USNO), its Coordinated Universal Timing (UTC) Steerage and GPS time keeping, Indian Standard Time (IST) and issues related to linking satellite system times etc. Importantly, they brought out the existing differences between the time scales for GPS, Galileo and GLONASS as against the UTC manufactured by BIPM in Paris. The important issues regarding the existing GNSS internal system times and their steerage to different time scales, the variety in time scales and proposed a flat atomic time (without leap second discontinuities) were discussed. The meet felt that recommendations regarding transfer of time scales through satellite links need to be pursued.
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Delegates attending the conference |
Other presentations related to ionospheric models and space weather effects, ionospheric/tropospheric models for India, tropospheric models developed by NOAA, compatibility and interoperability and signal and spectra for GNSS were also made. The compatability and inter-operability was noted to be not only a spectrum issue but is related to the choice of reference frames, time scales and their differences as well as the spectra and centre frequency.
In one of the sessions, seven presentations were made on the Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS)/Air Traffic Management (ATM) plan by the Airports Authority of India. This was followed by presentations by various industries working in GNSS field in India on the use of GPS for satellite position determination of Indian LEO spacecraft.
On the concluding day, the international committee addressed its work plan through the working groups focused on compatibility and interoperability, enhancement of performance of GNSS services, information dissemination and coordination and interaction with national and regional authorities and relevant international organisations. Suitable recommendations and plans to address the current and future work under each group were presented to ICG.
The International Committee accepted the invitation of the United States to host the third meeting to be held in 2008.