Saab and Avinor announced that the northern Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS-B) region of the Norway National Wide Area Multilateration (WAM) system is now operational.

The system will enable Avinor to implement a new reduced separation procedure, thereby increasing traffic capacity between the Svalbard archipelago and the mainland.

Avinor, who is responsible for the 45 state-owned airports and air navigation services for civilian and military aviation in Norway, is installing Saab’s WAM surveillance system, which features virtualised central processing and ground stations that are shared between systems. The system features three ADS-B only regions, partly to address areas where WAM is not possible due to site limitations. The Svalbard region provides surveillance to the northernmost permanent community on the earth.

Saab’s new Cooperative Surveillance System (CSS), is ideal for creating a national WAM in Norway, because of the need to phase in different geographical and service regions. It is the flexibility of CSS that allows one region to go into operation while the others are still being built.

“We have worked together with Avinor to set a new standard for cooperative surveillance technology. Bringing this ADS-B region in the extreme north into operation demonstrates the system’s ability to function in harsh conditions, and it’s flexibility in deployment approaches,” says Mike Gerry, head of Saab business area Industrial Products and Services.

(defenseworld)

North of Norway over the Norwegian and Greenland Seas, the magnetic bubble surrounding the Earth dips inward, allowing space particles to funnel in toward the planet.

NASA and United States scientists will join those from Norway, Japan, Canada and other countries during the next two years to investigate the physics of heating and charged particle precipitation in this region called the geomagnetic cusp — one of the few places on Earth with easy access to the electrically charged solar wind that pervades the solar system.

The Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI) – Cusp is a series of international sounding rocket missions planned for launch in 2018-2019. Together, the rockets provide unprecedented coordinated studies of near-Earth space at the polar regions. In addition to helping us understand the fundamental processes of our neighborhood in space, such knowledge is needed for safe navigation and communication near the poles, where solar activity can disrupt radio signals.

“The magnetic cusp is a unique place in near Earth space — where energy from the solar wind can come directly down into Earth’s atmosphere. This energy heats the atmosphere by hundreds of degrees, inflating it and driving fierce winds of both neutral atmospheric and ionized gases. The cusp thus provides a unique laboratory for understanding how planetary atmospheres are modified by the intense energy inputs from their stars,” said Doug Rowland, a space scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and principal investigator of the Visualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral Atom Sensing-2 experiment or VISIONS-2 scheduled for launch in December 2018.

Eight missions with 11 rockets will launch from two sites in Norway — Andøya Space Center and Svalbard Rocket Range. The first mission — a NASA mission called the Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment, or AZURE — launches in March 2018.

In some cases, launches will be conducted nearly at the same time from Andøya and Svalbard, providing simultaneous observations at different altitudes and latitudes for the first time. Sounding rockets launched from these sites are able to fly into the cusp and measure the solar particles streaming from the sun.

“During the polar night mid-winter, in December and January months when seven of the missions will be conducted, it is dark all day in Svalbard. The cusp is then visible to the naked eye. Svalbard is well equipped with ground-based radars and all-sky cameras to determine the launch conditions for cusp rockets,” said Jøran Moen with the University of Oslo and principal investigator of the Norwegian Investigation of Cusp Irregularities-5 or ICI-5 mission in December 2019.

The Grand Challenge will provide significant advances in understanding of near-Earth space beyond what each partners’ independent projects could achieve individually.

“For the first time ever, we aim to coordinate launches of sounding rockets through the cusp region from both Andøya and Svalbard,” said Moen. The main advantage is that we will obtain multidimensional information when combining observations for several rocket trajectories. We also will make data accessible through the Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing system, or SIOS. Our aim is to significantly increase the number of scientists who can dive into the exploration of the unique data sets to come, thus increasing the academic capacity to discover new physics.”

“Making sure that the appropriate ground based systems and modeling communities were included as early as possible has been a very important issue during the GCI – Cusp build-up,” said Kolbjørn Blix, GCI – Cusp program manager and director of space systems at Andøya Space Center. Planning began in 2012, he said.

In addition to AZURE, VISIONS-2 and ICI-5, other NASA Grand Challenge missions are the Twin Rockets to Investigate Cusp Electrodynamics or TRICE-2 (led by the University of Iowa, launching December 2018), The Cusp Alfven and Plasma Electrodynamics Rocket or CAPER-2 (led by Dartmouth University, launching January 2019), and the Cusp-Region Experiment or C-REX 2 (led by the University of Alaska, launching November 2019), which also includes three Canadian instruments from the University of Calgary (also flying on VISIONS-2).

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will fly the SS-520-3 in January 2019, which investigates the ion outflow mechanism in the cusp.

“It is quite exciting for us to participate in the GCI – Cusp with advanced science payloads on SS-520-3,” said Yoshifumi Saito, JAXA project principal investigator. “Participation in GCI – Cusp is a unique opportunity to dramatically increase our knowledge about the cusp by conducting comprehensive observations including ground-based radar and optical observations as well as GCI – Cusp sounding rockets.”

An international undergraduate student mission called G-Chaser, coordinated through the Colorado Space Grant Consortium, will also be conducted in January 2019. University students from the United States, Norway and Japan will fly several experiments to conduct measurements and technology development in the upper atmosphere in the region near the cusp.

Participating universities include the University of Tokyo; University of Oslo; Arctic University of Norway, Tromso; Capitol Technology University, Laurel, Maryland; Penn State, State College, Pennsylvania; University of New Hampshire, Durham; University of Puerto Rico; Virginia Tech, Blacksburg; and West Virginia University, Morgantown.

(NASA, N.Sc2)

In the last 18 months, a number of new designs have been launched in the market for high-speed crew transfer – the latest is based on an evolved version of a hullform used on the Royal Norwegian Navy’s fast missile craft

Umoe Mandal in Norway has developed a further version of its Wavecraft Voyager family, the Voyager 38 X, a high-performance crew transfer vessels for the offshore oil and gas sector.

Based on technology originally developed and used by Umoe Mandal for military applications, the Wavecraft Voyager 38 X was designed to reduce transit time, enhance passenger comfort, safety and efficiency and reduce costs compared with existing designs.

The Royal Norwegian Navy’s Skjold-class missile craft make use of the same air-cushion catamaran/surface-effect ship technology. The same hullform was also used on the Royal Norwegian Navy’s Oksøy-class minehunters and minesweepers. As with the commercial versions of the design, the reduced wetted surface of the hullform significantly reduces wave resistance compared to a conventional hull configuration.

The Voyager 38X makes use of enhanced air-cushion catamaran/surface-effect ship technology combined with a sophisticated motion control system that compensates for vertical wave motion, offering comfortable transit and safe access to other vessels and installations offshore. The vessel can be fitted with a gangway and a SeaSpyder personnel transfer system.

The vessel is designed to transport 150 passengers and a crew of six at speeds of up to 55 knots, with excellent seakeeping, even in high sea states, good fuel efficiency and reduced emissions.

The Voyager 38 X can be delivered in accordance with the requirements of all major classification societies and complies with US Coast Guard and ABS A1 HSC Crew boat, Circle E + AMS + DPS-2 classification. Applying the latest in high-speed diesel engine and SCR technology, the Voyager 38 X meets stringent environmental standards and complies with EPA Tier 4 requirements.

In December 2017, the company announced that, as part of the MAROFF-2 programme for research, innovation and sustainability in the marine and offshore industries, Umoe Mandal had been granted funding for further development of the Wavecraft design concept for the offshore oil and gas sector.

Umoe Mandal said it would focus on optimising the concept, focusing on the most important hull parameters in order to reduce the weight of the hull and hence reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Other focus areas will include enhanced propulsion solutions and fire safety. The company said it planned to use a number of different techniques, including simulation, model testing, computational fluid dynamics and finite element modelling.

The overall objective of the project is to further develop the surface-effect ship and air-cushion catamaran technology used in the Wavecraft in order to develop a more competitive vessel with regard to construction and operating costs.

Umoe Mandal partnered with the Research Council of Norway on an earlier MAROFF project developing the Wavecraft concept for use as a high-speed crew transfer vessel for the renewable energy industry. The MAROFF programme aims to support and provide funding for Norwegian companies and research institutions.

Earlier in 2017, Umoe Mandal developed other versions of the Wavecraft, including the Voyager 32 and Voyager 38W2W (in which W2W stands for walk-to-work) for the offshore oil and gas sector.

The company has also incorporated class 2 dynamic positioning into its designs. This optional feature is intended to meet customer and regulatory requirements whilst improving the safety of crew transfer to/from rigs and other offshore installations. As the company also noted, DP2 will also provide Wavecraft vessels with greater operational freedom in congested environments, such as in offshore windfarms or where other vessels and installations may be present.

(N.Sethu, osjonline)