The Galileo Emergency Warning Satellite Service (EWSS) aims to alert people in the event of threatening hazards with the use of a constellation of medium Earth orbit satellites. In case of emergency, national civil protection authorities can use Galileo to broadcast an alert message within the targeted affected area through a satellite channel. 

The AWARE project, co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme and started in November 2023, will develop a solution enabling the reception and processing of EWSS messages. This solution – the AWARE module – will be integrated in fixed devices, such as display panels, speakers, long-range acoustic devices (LRADs), within the architecture of buildings, and other connected devices which can alert citizens via audio, video, and text alert messages even when telecommunications networks are disrupted or down.

Leveraging its extensive knowledge of GNSS, FDC is developing the module enabling the solution implemented within AWARE with its partners.

This aware module is designed to receive the Emergency Warning Message (EWM) transmitted by Galileo satellites, decode the EWM to CAP message before transmitting it to different fixed devices such as Long-Range Acoustic Devices, advertising display panels or indoor warning systems which will deliver comprehensive alert message to the population.

The aware module provides continuous service monitoring and safeguards against malicious tampering, ensuring that the messages sent to the population remain secure. FDC tasks will cover the  operational analysis, technical specifications, secure firmware and hardware development. The objective is to enhance the trustworthiness and resilience of the system against jamming and spoofing attacks (FDC implements Galileo OSNMA as several others spoofing and jamming detection algorithms) including GNSS testing facilities (with a Galileo signal simulator supporting EWM and OSNMA services).

By developing the aware module, FDC will participate with the AWARE consortium partners to the implementation of the innovation of Galileo Emergency Warning Satellite Service, aimed at enabling national civil protection authorities to save lives with this new public warning solution. FDC presented the AWARE solution using Galileo EWSS at the EENA2024 Conference in Valencia in April 2024, detailing it to leading international experts in the field of emergency services. This event provided an excellent opportunity to network with top public safety professionals from over 50 countries across Europe and beyond. It was a major opportunity to inform potential stakeholders about the existence of this new solution for alerting the population and to promote the overall concept, where the aware module will play a key role in the project.

To know more, visit the AWARE project website at: https://euproject-aware.eu/