EGNOS Performances assessment in maritime navigation

The maritime community is increasingly interested to guarantee the safety and security of shipping. In this context, the knowledge of accurate and reliable information about a ship’s position is a fundamental requirement for navigation and for avoiding accidents. This is valid for both maritime navigation and inland navigation. For this reason, the information about Position, Navigation, and Time (PNT) is necessary for the safety and efficiency of ship movement, especially in high-density traffic areas such as port entrances, channels or inland waterways. In this context, the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) has become the main source of PNT for maritime navigation. However, in some critical conditions, the use of GNSS alone have some shortfalls, especially in coastal navigation, with the consequent need to enhance accuracy and integrity information. Such enhancement can be available from augmentation techniques. Among them, the users can take advantage of Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (SBASs). In particular, in the current work, the performance of European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) augmentation are verified in terms of accuracy in position domain showing evident improvements, especially on vertical component of the position.