Ascending to the edge of the atmosphere

The Challenge

Determination of our location is increasingly important in our daily lives. Accurate location data not only informs the technologies utilised by individuals, businesses, educational institutions, and governments, but also supports research and entrepreneurial teams in innovating for the future.

A key technology used in determining our location is Ginan, a Global Navigation Satellite System&nbps;(GNSS) analysis software and toolkit. This can be used across a multitude of different industries and contexts, including helping researchers and scientists from the Bureau of Meteorology to better understand our weather systems. Some of the instruments used in tropospheric research, such as weather balloons, require high levels of accuracy at altitude, which can be difficult to achieve. Devices offering real-time corrections at centimetre-level accuracy can contribute to flight path, balloon location, and recovery, informing researchers in ways that benefit wider Australian society.

The Solution

Ginan is free-to-use GNSS software that operates in real-time and offers centimetre-level accuracy. Due to its adaptability and integration, Ginan can be applied to support innovative projects and programs as a positioning solution.

Geoscience Australia and FrontierSI worked together with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) to send Ginan on a data-gathering mission 30 kilometres up to the edge of space, ascending through the atmosphere to gather tropospheric data.

Sending Ginan to these extremities helps inform its future application in satellites and weather forecasting. In addition, the benefits to related sectors such as aviation and near-space exploration, also become clearer.

In this experiment Ginan was able to:

• Deliver positioning that agreed to within 6.4 centimetre horizontally and 12.2 centimetre vertically, when compared to ground truths that were independently post-processed.
• Contribute to a tropospheric research experiment;
• Provide valuable data that informs future Ginan applications in satellites and weather forecasting;
• Demonstrate the potential of low-cost, high accuracy positioning to enable applications and projects with diverse societal benefits.

The Impact

Ginan showcases the diverse benefits of low-cost, high-accuracy positioning software. Sending Ginan with a balloon to the edge of space demonstrated how the accessible and innovative software toolkit can contribute to scientific experiments. The Geoscience Australia team now has a better understanding of how Ginan can be integrated with other instruments and systems. Because Ginan is so adaptable, there is no doubt future trials will highlight other innovative applications in community, industry, academic and government contexts.

To read more about the experiment on sending Ginan to the edge of space, find the report here.