Navigation in the Arctic with GNSS high accuracy low power solution

In 2018, 46 reported shipping incidents occurred in the Arctic Circle due to extreme weather raising concerns about their potential environmental impact and related SAR challenges. The ESA-sponsored NARWHALS project using GNSS aims to improve positioning accuracy to enable safer shipping routes.

Source: Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality

The NARWHALS project aim is to investigate the feasibility of a solution for a more robust positioning, enabling safer routes for Arctic Shipping, whose environment is characterized by severe environmental conditions and fragmentary coverage of power supply. NARWHALS solution aims at enhancing the positioning accuracy integrating low power systems able to handle, forecast and interpret ionospheric data useful to mitigate the effect of the ionosphere on high accuracy positioning systems. The idea behind NARWHALS is to provide information useful for the mitigation of ionospheric effects to GNSS service providers operating in Arctic region. The main users of the service are: search and rescue, maritime, land, research institutes, government, and transportation teams.