Two new 11-metre satellite dishes that support the joint Australia-New Zealand Southern Positioning Augmentation Network (SouthPAN) have been switched on in Southland, New Zealand.
SouthPan, which is being developed for the two governments by Lockheed Martin Australia and New Zealand under a $1.18 billion contract, will deliver a signal augmenting GPS and Galileo over the Australasia region, improving accuracy from 5-10 metres, to within as little as 10 centimetres.
"As the project develops, one of the most noticeable changes for the public will be less disruption to flights during bad weather, with a significant reduction in weather related flight cancellations and delays. SouthPAN services will aid flight navigation, making it safer for planes to land when visibility is poor," said the New Zealand Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk.
“Improved GPS accuracy has far-reaching benefits for the economy with implications for almost every major sector, from agriculture, to aviation, forestry, and construction," he added.
The new site in Southland, on the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island, complements a site in Uralla, New South Wales.
Some SouthPAN services are already free and available to consumers, functioning with 99.5 per cent reliability. The remainder of the network will be established over the next three years.