CHENNAI: In a novel initiative, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) have developed a low-cost GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation) system-enabled receivers using which messages can be broadcast as far as 6,000 km in the sea. Field trials of this life-saving gadgets are likely to be held along the Chennai coast next month.
GAGAN is primarily developed for aviation sector, but efforts are being made to optimise its utility among a wide spectrum of users. As part of the mission, an Integrated Message Generation System for GAGAN Message Service (GAMES) has been developed in the form of simple dongles and bluetooth receivers with a foot-print covering entire Asia Pacific region. When deployed, India will be the first country to broadcast messages through a Satellite Based Augmentation System, SV Satish, Executive Director (Air Traffic Management), AAI, New Delhi, told Express.
This is seen as one-stop solution for deep sea fishermen, who often face danger and left at the mercy of sea when disaster strikes. Currently, there is no mechanism available where the fishers undertaking deep sea voyage for 10-15 days get updates from the ground. For instance, Cyclone ‘Ockhi’ that struck the Indian coast in November last year killed 365 persons, according to information shared by the ministry of home affairs in Parliament, making it the deadliest since the Odisha super cyclone of 1999 that claimed around 10,000 lives. Ockhi claimed 203 lives in Tamil Nadu and Kerala reported 60 dead and 102 missing.
Satish said AAI has provided necessary hardware and software updates. The prototype dongles or receivers were manufactured by Bengaluru-based firm Accord. “The GAGAN messages will be disseminated in number font and the decoding of the messages will be done by an application developed by INCOIS in nine regional languages. The biggest advantage with GAMES is 250 character message can be sent every minute compared to 25 character message using NAVIC,” he said.
TM Balakrishnan Nair, head of Ocean Science and Information Services Group, INCOIS, said that field trials will be conducted next month at different locations such as Chennai, Kochi, Karwar and Visakhapatnam.
“We can provide fishermen details on potential fishing zones, ocean state forecast information, cyclone warnings, Tsunami alerts, storm surge information and search and rescue information.”
S. Africa to Australia
■ GAGAN foot-print covers a vast area from South Africa to Australia and GAGAN can be utilised very effectively in the Asia Pacific region
■ GAMES concept is concerned with the provision of early warning messages to citizens or governmental/local authorities in case of a major event or disaster
■ GAGAN messages sent through 3 GEO satellites (GSAT-8, GSAT-10 and GSAT-15)
■ Each satellite can carry 220 bits/second. It can carry 3 times higher data than NAVIC
Services
■ Find potential fishing zones
■ Ocean state forecast information
■ Cyclone warnings
■ Tsunami alerts
■ Storm surge information
■ Search and rescue information.