Benefits

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) allow users worldwide to pinpoint their locations or the locations of objects, other people and goods at any given moment. A simple concept, perhaps, but the range of possible uses for this sort of capability is enormous, spanning many domains, both pubic and private, from more transport and logistics to communication applications, land surveying, agriculture, fisheries, environmental protection, scientific research, tourism and leisure, and many, many others.

GALILEO helps people find what they are looking for © Peter Gutierrez

Satellite navigation can relieve traffic conditions by improving the efficiency of vehicle use. It can guide people with disabilities or locate shipments, animals and containers. It can facilitate civil protection operations in harsh environments, speed up rescue operations for people in distress, and provide tools for coastguards and border control authorities. It is also a formidable instrument for ‘time stamping' of financial transactions, scientific research in meteorology, geodesy, earth movement monitoring and many other activities.

GNSS is already a reality. The American GPS and Russian GLONASS are providing valuable services to users around the world. Now, Europe is moving forward with its own GNSS programmes.

Unlike the American and Russian system, GALILEO will be under full civilian control. With its full complement of satellites, more than the current GNSS systems, GALILEO will allow positions to be determined more accurately even in high-rise cities, where buildings obscure signals from today's satellites. Galileo will also offer several signal enhancements making the signal more easy to track and acquire and more resistant against interference and reflections. European GNSS will deliver much more precise and much more reliable services than the American and Russian systems. This means GALILEO and EGNOS will make possible a whole new and virtually limitless range of ‘reliability-critical' services, applications and business opportunities.

Considerable progress has already been made in this direction, based on the hard work of European public institutions, research establishments and industry. GALILEO and EGNOS now represent outstanding European flagship programmes, showing the way to an independent and state-of-the-art European GNSS, and representing a new cornerstone for the worldwide satellite radionavigation system of the future.