The consultation workshop is intended to provide a brief overview of the status of the SAT-AIS initiative and to give European and Canadian industry (service providers and system/equipment providers) an opportunity to express their interest/ideas on SAT-AIS. After the introduction of the proposed SAT-AIS initiative by the ESA Executive in a general session, members of industry will be given the opportunity to present their capabilities to ESA delegates and executives in individual closed sessions.
AIS is a short range coastal tracking system used on ships. It was developed to provide identification and location information to vessel and shore stations with the aim of exchanging different types of data such as position, identification, course and speed among others. This allows vessels to anticipate and thus avoid collisions at sea by means of continuous traffic monitoring. Additionally, it offers important ship monitoring services to coast guards as well as search and rescue organisations. Space-based AIS (SAT-AIS) technology can detect far reaching vessels equipped with AIS tracking devices that would be impossible to detect by conventional shore-based systems.
In cooperation with the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), ESA organised a meeting in January 2010 to inform delegates from both Agency’s Member States on the status of the SAT-AIS initiative. ESA presented an information note to inform ESA delegates on the SAT-AIS initiative status and proposed way forward at the February meeting of the Joint Board on Communication Satellite Programmes (JCB). Following this presentation, a draft workplan was introduced and discussed with ESA delegates on 31 March 2010.
For more information see the contact links located in the column to the right.
