Aireon has developed an Independent Position Validation solution that leverages both the aircraft’s transmitted ADS-B information and the overlapping space-based coverage provided by the Iridium satellite constellation to determine the validity of a reported ADS-B position.
Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) allows for accurate and reliable surveillance of aircraft that uses GPS to determine the aircraft’s position. Through ADS-B, the GPS position is transmitted to receivers and that information is conveyed to Air Traffic Control. But what happens when something goes wrong with GPS and the information being transmitted by ADS-B can no longer be trusted? If GPS signals are compromised — for example jammed or spoofed — it can lead to the aircraft not transmitting its position, or worse, transmitting the wrong location, which is of significant concern for everyone in the airspace, but particularly for aircraft operators and air traffic control organizations.
