Regarding MH370, long term I think there will be a way found to ensure a signal is sent that pilots can‘t turn off.
Benefits to whom? In Canada, this will eventually replace ground radar and provide radar-like coverage where it does not exist today. Transatlantic separation will be reduced (3mi rather that 5mi?), which will increase capacity substantially, a problem today. In Europe, not so much due to existing dense radar coverage.
This won‘t bring anything to low-level GA until or unless inexpensive diversity installations needed by Aireon are on the market. The first will likely be uavionix in 2021.
Reading this article about space based ADS-B I struggle to see the benefits, apart from being able to track a plane when out over the oceans.
The article talks banally about opportunities but what are they? Eurocontrol will still bill IFR charges for the filed great circle route.
And in an MH370 scenario the transponder will just be turned off anyway…
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f13/iridium-next-close-to-completion-199362.html
I have used the exiting Iridium constellation for some time and it is very good. In fact the streaming cost isnt to bad if you are highly selective, use compression and strip out all the annoying stuff which is entirely possible. Start streaming video and it is a fearsome price of course.
Interestingly the air time for Inmarsat is far more competitve. I wonder why Iridium seem to have the aviation market more sewn up when it comes to ADS-B?
DavidC wrote:
Will Aireon be able to reliably detect ALL GA aircraft that are equipped with 1090MHz ADS-B out?In areas of the UK/Europe with poor surface radar coverage, such as the Welsh/Scottish valleys, the Alps etc, will other agencies have access to this data feed in order to supplement conventional equipment? I did ask UK D&D at an exhibition recently, but apart from a general technology update throughout Swanwick next year, their representative didn’t really seem to know.
That is the idea. NATS is a shareholder in Aireon. How they implement it in the their existing systems who knows. I think initially the focus would be on using it for Shanwick oceanic.
Aireon uses the Iridium satellites so it should have global coverage.
Whether or how the data will be made available, I have no idea. Obviously they will charge for it.
Does Aireon really track all ADS-B equipped aircraft worldwide?
Aireon is a satellite based receiver system, fitted to the latest generation of Iridium satellites, that receives signals from ADS-B out equipped aircraft and forwards them to air traffic control. Part owned by ATC businesses (ANSPs) in Canada, Australia and UK which control traffic across vast areas of land and sea, it promises to provide continuous surveillance. This will allow higher density/optimised routing for long haul jets, such as transatlantic, with reduced traffic separation compared to today. Coverage is pretty much pole-to-pole worldwide, 24×7. It’s possible that data feeds might even make it to FlightRadar24 and/or its competitors.
Their press release states that it will “provide real-time air traffic surveillance and tracking to 100 percent of ADS-B equipped aircraft on the planet”. Airliners are typically fitted with transponder antenna both on top and underneath, so they can be detected by other aircraft for TCAS as well as by ground radar. GA aircraft typically only have a single antenna underneath.
Will Aireon be able to reliably detect ALL GA aircraft that are equipped with 1090MHz ADS-B out?
In areas of the UK/Europe with poor surface radar coverage, such as the Welsh/Scottish valleys, the Alps etc, will other agencies have access to this data feed in order to supplement conventional equipment? I did ask UK D&D at an exhibition recently, but apart from a general technology update throughout Swanwick next year, their representative didn’t really seem to know.
Peter wrote:
I am still puzzled at the funding model for this space monitoring
The above article answers this question. Besides the tracking of flights like MH370 outside radar coverage which will likely be regulated for the airlines just to avoid repetition of the $$million$$ spent looking for MH370, SBA coverage will significantly reduce separation requirements over the N. Atlantic. The airlines will certainly shuffle up to the bar to pay for additional transatlantic slots.
UK NATS are already at it.
https://www.aviationtoday.com/2019/03/26/space-based-ads-b-will-change-atc-nats-uk-north-atlantic/
Furthermore, I’ve personally spent much of the last year flight checking new UK military ADS-B infrastructure.The FAA is starting to think about the US ADS-B future including SBA (space-based ADS-B). Of course in the context of conspicuity which is off-topic, rather than wx. Still, worth keeping an eye on what they come up with …
Satellite ADS-B
[ post moved from ADS-B thread ]
IMHO, ADS-B will never be mandatory in the UK for Class G – same as transponders.
Installation will happen naturally among the group which travels more, but there are still large communities which don’t – in all of Europe.
I am still puzzled at the funding model for this space monitoring but I guess they worked out that IF position reporting is to be made mandatory (widely expected after MH370) and given that ADS-B cannot be monitored terrestrially over the open oceans, yet ADS-B is the most obvious equipment for airliners, the space solution only has to undercut the likes of Inmarsat (satcomms).
MH370 could have been monitored via Inmarsat but the airline chose to save money by not using the satcomms system, and got partially tracked only because the Rolls Royce engine leasing contract requires the installation of its own Inmarsat box which the crew could not switch off from the cockpit (or didn’t know about it). I guess Inmarsat is not cheap if a long haul airline decides to not pay for it.
However Iridium is also reportedly supported by US Govt contracts and the US should find worlwide traffic monitoring a useful intelligence function 
