What is EGNOS ?
When you get a GPS navigation signal, how do you know you can trust it? asks Laurent Gauthier, the EGNOS project manager at the European Space Agency. EGNOS will tell you whether you can trust the signal. It will tell you that you are at a particular spot with a high degree of certainty and definitely within an area enclosed by a circle with the spot at the centre. In effect, it will give you your position and say by how much it could be out. EGNOS is Europe’s first venture into satellite navigation. It will augment the two military satellite navigation systems now operating, the US GPS and Russian GLONASS systems, and make them suitable for safety critical applications such as flying aircraft or navigating ships through narrow channels. Consisting of three geostationary satellites and a network of ground stations, EGNOS will achieve its aim by transmitting a signal containing information on the reliability and accuracy of the positioning signals sent out by GPS and GLONASS. It will al
