Among the myriad benefits introduced by the first-ever, space-based ADS-B network, increased opportunities to critically examine air traffic surveillance on a comprehensively global scale is one of the most significant. To advance aviation safety scholarship—and to expand research opportunities for the benefit of the entire aviation community—a new partnership between Aireon and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) will provide the institution with access to our global, space-based ADS-B data.

I graduated from Purdue University two years before Apollo 11 landed on the Moon.  My first job was in St. Louis with McDonnell Douglas, which is now Boeing. My supervisor had me look into Venus swingby missions to Mars.  Eight months later, the company needed help in Houston on the Apollo program and I was now their interplanetary expert. 

 Aireon’s system testing continues to validate the thoroughness and reliability of the Aireon payloads currently on-orbit.  A unique feature of the system is that each Aireon payload has a footprint on the earth’s surface which reflects each payload’s coverage. Adjacent payloads can have overlapping footprints, which creates added reliability, redundancy and safety. But how so? In the areas where the overlap occurs, the Aireon system picks up two or more measurements of the same information. These measurements can be used to perform Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) calculations that Aireon has incorporated into a position validation algorithm.

This past fall, Aireon participated in and sponsored an event called, The International Symposium on Enhanced Solutions for Aircraft and Vehicle Surveillance Applications in Berlin, Germany. The Aireon team shared three papers at this conference which reveal some of the results of the most recent AireonSM system performance tests. We’d like to share these papers containing exciting performance results with you in a three-part blog series. Click here to read the first edition.