TITLE:
The CanX-7 Nanosatellite ADS-B Mission: A Preliminary Assessment
AUTHORS:
Ron Vincent, Richard Van Der Pryt
KEYWORDS:
ADS-B, Space-Based ADS-B, CanX-7, Air Traffic Control
JOURNAL NAME:
Positioning,
Vol.8 No.1,
February
25,
2017
ABSTRACT: The development of space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) will allow surveillance of aircraft in areas not covered by radar or ground-based ADS-B systems. In September 2016, the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment-7 (CanX-7) satellite was launched into a 690 km sun synchronous orbit with an ADS-B receiver payload. The first phase of ADS-B data collection took place over the North Atlantic between 4 and 31 October. A preliminary assessment of the data indicates that the average ADS-B signal strength is close to the calculated receiver detection threshold of D94.5 ± 0.5 dBm. The pattern of received ADS-B reception appears to be consistent with a signal propagation model developed for the CanX-7 mission. Future work includes the comparison of coincidental flight plan data for the operations area and an analysis of the payload antenna pattern.