[A-CG37] Satellite Earth Environment Observation

[ACG37-P12] Meteorological Data Reporting via Satellite Automatic Identification System with FPGA-based Software-Defined Radios

*Tung-Jun Lin¹, Gaun-Po Ciou¹, Cissi Lin^1,2 (1.National Central University, 2.Center for Astronautical Physics & Engineering)

Keywords:AIS, S-AIS, SDR, FPGA, Meteorological Data Report

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a widely utilized maritime communication technology for vessel monitoring and tracking, but it is greatly limited by its radio signal range. The concept of satellite-aided AIS (S-AIS) broadens the horizon of conventional AIS, providing the service for vessels in the region that are otherwise out of range from antennas on land, and is, therefore, critical and valuable in times of emergency. On the other hand, the real-time meteorological data on the ocean is rare and valuable. Its addition potentially benefits weather forecasts and advisories for the safety of vessels. With proper setup, the vessels can automatically collect the meteorological data of interest and transmit the data to ground stations via S-AIS. We propose a real-time meteorological reporting scheme via embedding the observation data in AIS message and sending the message automatically and frequently using an FPGA-based AIS transmitter. In this study, we demonstrate an FPGA-based Software-Defined Radios (SDR) AIS transmitter onboard the vessels, transmitting AIS signals embedded with meteorological data to another FPGA-base AIS receiver. In the future, our FPGA-based S-AIS transceiver can serve both as the AIS repeater onboard satellites and as the AIS transceiver online and on vessels to complete the S-AIS system for maritime real-time meteorological data reporting.