Satellite infrastructure in Southland takes off

New satellite infrastructure officially opened in Southland is expected to help the New Zealand economy soar by benefiting a range of sectors, particularly aviation.  

Minister for Land Information Hon Chris Penk officially opened the new satellite uplink processing centre, which is part of the Southern Positioning Augmentation Network (SouthPAN), in Awarua on Friday 26 July.

As part of the official opening, the centre was blessed by Te Rūnaka o Awarua. 

The SouthPAN network is a joint initiative between Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) and Geoscience Australia. 

Minister Penk and officials from LINZ, Airways New Zealand and Space Operations spoke about the benefits of SouthPAN at Invercargill Airport. 

SouthPAN improves positioning accuracy from five to 10 metres to less than a metre, and in some cases to as little as 10cm.   

LINZ Director - SouthPAN Michael Appleyard says this precision will help a number of industries, including farming, forestry and aviation, take their productivity to new heights, helping lift the economy both here and Australia.  

The quantified benefits of SouthPAN to New Zealand are estimated at $864m over 20 years. 

“We’re already hearing the benefits from early users in the forestry and horticulture sector and look forward to seeing the impact SouthPAN has on the aviation industry once safety of life certification is achieved by 2028,” says Mr Appleyard. 

An independent report estimates SouthPAN will help cut flight delays by 65 percent and flight cancellations by 10 percent, as well as help many other industries improve safety.  

Airways Regulatory Assurance Manager Mark Blanchard says aviation will “benefit greatly from this new service”.  

“SouthPAN will open up the possibility for aircraft to get lower and closer to many of the runways at airports up and down New Zealand, more than they can presently. This will enable safe operations in weather conditions that presently would not allow the aircraft to land.” 

The Southland centre works alongside a newly-built centre in Uralla, New South Wales. The two centres ensure greater resilience of services in the event one goes offline – as required for safety of life certification.  

SouthPAN services are already free and open delivering a reliable 99.5 percent accurate service availability.   

The remainder of the network will be established over the next three years.  

SouthPAN is expected to be fully operational by 2028.