SouthPAN satellite ground control centre installed in NZ

Lockheed Martin Australia, in collaboration with Av-Comm, has established a satellite ground control and uplink processing centre for the Southern Positioning Augmentation Network (SouthPAN) in Awarua, near Invercargill, New Zealand.

The opening of the new centre marks a significant achievement for the SouthPAN project, which is a collaborative initiative between Geoscience Australia and Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand to deliver satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) services to Australia, New Zealand and the surrounding maritime area. In 2022, Lockheed Martin Australia was awarded the $1.18 billion, 19-year contract to deliver SouthPAN.

SouthPAN uses Lockheed Martin’s second-generation SBAS to improve the accuracy and reliability of global navigation satellite system positioning across Australia and New Zealand, benefiting agriculture, aviation, construction, consumer, resource, road, rail, maritime, mining, utilities and more. Some SouthPAN services are already free and available to consumers, functioning with 99.5% reliability; the remainder of the network will be established over the next three years.

The new facility boasts two 11-metre satellite dishes and a control centre with dual radio frequency uplinks. Strategically located in Awarua to leverage Southland’s favourable geographic position for optimal satellite communication and coverage, it is the second of two SouthPAN satellite ground control facilities built for the New Zealand and Australian Governments.

“The Southland facility works in tandem with a newly built centre in Uralla, in NSW,” said New Zealand’s Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk, who opened the new centre.

“Partnering with Australia improves our resilience and means if one station is offline, there is a backup station which is crucial for safety of life applications, such as aviation.”

According to Penk, improved GPS accuracy has implications for almost every major sector — from agriculture to aviation, forestry and construction.

“New Zealanders use GPS services every single day, for everything from ordering food to navigating the city streets. GPS information is also used for critical technical applications like coordinating an emergency response and air traffic control,” he said.

“As the project develops, one of the most noticeable changes for the public will be less disruption to flights during bad weather, with a significant reduction in weather-related flight cancellations and delays. SouthPAN services will aid flight navigation, making it safer for planes to land when visibility is poor.”

Penk also cited an independent report estimating that SouthPAN will contribute $864 million to New Zealand’s economy over 20 years “through productivity-enhancing and labour-saving applications such as better resource management, more accurate maritime activities and real-time livestock monitoring through digital fencing tools”. It is expected this figure could grow as new technologies and innovations are developed to harness SouthPAN’s possibilities, he said.

“This is a key achievement in our ongoing commitment to delivering enhanced satellite-based navigation systems that will have substantial economic and social benefits for the region,” said David Ball, Regional Director of Space for Lockheed Martin Australia. “The new ground control and uplink processing centre in Awarua will play a pivotal role in increasing both the resilience and accuracy of satellite system positioning services across Australia and New Zealand as well as surrounding maritime areas.”

Martine Woolf, Branch Head of Geoscience Australia’s Space Division, will be speaking about SouthPAN at Comms Connect Melbourne on 17 October in her presentation ‘Improving the reliability of satellite-based positioning systems in Australasia with SouthPAN’.