Egnos (European geostationary navigation overlay system) is a satellite system developed by the European Space Agency, the European Commission and Eurocontrol. It consists of a network of satellites and land bases, and aims at improving the accuracy of GPS.
Egnos was capable of strengthening the positioning accuracy above the territory of the European Union and a good part of the Mediterranean area, by shifting from a 10-20 meter to just a 1-2 meter error margin. The satellite system used three geostationary satellites, four main control centres and about forty ground-based stations which processed the signals sent by the American GPS satellites.
Among the advantages are the applications in civil aviation, sea traffic, mountain rescue and agriculture.
The Italian Space Agency applied Egnos’ satellite technologies in programmes targeted at monitoring rail traffic and infomobility, cooperating in particular with the Sardinia Region.