Story ID: 
ASECNA Expands Reach with Aireon's Space-based ADS-B
By: Jerry Siebenmark
Caption: A third service delivery point has been added for the Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar’s (ASECNA) Dakar, Senegal ops center.
Word Count: 175
Aireon’s space-based air traffic surveillance system for ADS-B equipped aircraft has expanded with the installation of a third service delivery point (SDP) in the Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar’s (ASECNA) Dakar, Senegal operations center as part of the Single African Sky initiative. The installation enables ASECNA to receive triple-redundant data from all six of its flight information regions—Antananarivo, Brazzaville, Dakar Oceanic, Dakar Terrestrial, Niamey, and N'Djamena—by way of three independent telecommunications lines.

Each of those lines is also feeding data into the ASECNA African Indian Ocean Satellite Network very small aperture terminal (AFISNET VSAT) network, which Aireon said makes space-based ADS-B highly available in the region. ASECNA first marked operational deployment of the Aireon service in January 2020.

ASECNA director-general Mohamed Moussa said the service eliminates reliance on ground-based surveillance. “By deploying Aireon data throughout our region, we are maintaining the highest level of safety and providing the most robust data to all member states through the AFISNET VSAT network,” Moussa added.