If your team collects locations in the field, whether assets, hazards, heritage features, or environmental observations, accuracy is one of your biggest challenges. Even if your starting point was reasonably accurate by previous technology standards, how long before that location data become less meaningful or drifts out of step with the real world? Field teams need confidence that the point captured today will still make sense in the future, and that another crew can return and find the exact same feature again.
That is why SouthPAN matters. It is a major upgrade to positioning across Australia and New Zealand that improves GNSS accuracy without relying on mobile wireless data coverage for internet access or having a local CORSNet base station. Early Open Services are already live for compatible receivers, yet many field teams still do not realise what that means in practice.
What Problem Does SouthPAN Solve for Field Data Collection?
Traditional GNSS typically delivers 5 to 15 metres accuracy. That may sound acceptable at first, but over time it creates real operational friction. Assets become harder to relocate. Environmental observations lose consistency. Datasets captured by different crews stop aligning properly. In compliance, audit, and inspection workflows, those small location errors can turn into rework, uncertainty, and increased risk.
SouthPAN addresses this by applying satellite-based corrections that significantly improve positioning accuracy and reliability across Australia and New Zealand. Because those corrections are delivered via satellite, users do not need mobile coverage, internet access, or direct ground-based correction infrastructure to benefit.
What Is SouthPAN and Why Was It Built?
SouthPAN stands for Southern Positioning Augmentation Network. It is a Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS), funded jointly by the Australian and New Zealand governments. SouthPAN improves GNSS accuracy, availability, and integrity by broadcasting correction data that compensates for satellite clock, orbit, and atmospheric errors across a wide geographic area.
SouthPAN was originally developed to support aviation safety, where navigation systems must not only be accurate but also able to indicate when they cannot be trusted. That aviation origin still matters, but the value of SouthPAN now extends well beyond aircraft operations. The same wide-area coverage, integrity monitoring, and consistent accuracy also support field activities on the ground, especially in regional and remote environments.
SouthPAN: How Accurate Positioning Works
Source: Geoscience Australia
How SouthPAN Improves GNSS Accuracy Without Complexity
SouthPAN improves positioning accuracy by continuously measuring GNSS performance across the region and modelling the errors that affect position quality. A network of precisely surveyed ground reference stations monitors satellite signals. Because the true positions of those stations are known, the differences between expected and observed positions reveal satellite (clock and orbit) and atmospheric errors.
Those errors are processed centrally and converted into correction messages. The messages are then broadcast via geostationary satellites (InMarSat) so that compatible receivers across Australia and New Zealand can apply them automatically. The result is a position solution that is far more accurate and more reliable than standalone GNSS, without requiring local base stations, radio links, or subscription correction networks. SouthPAN is a free service.
SouthPAN Open Services and Coverage
SouthPAN currently delivers several early Open Services with different coverage extents. The OS-L1 service covers mainland Australia and New Zealand. The more advanced OS-DFMC and OS-PVS services extend beyond land to cover both countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones, including surrounding coastal and offshore areas. This matters because it shows that SouthPAN is not limited to a narrow land-based footprint. It is designed to support wide-area positioning across the region. The advanced OS-DFMC and OS-PVS services have not been adopted by most vendors as it is likely the signal structure will be modified in the near future to align with other service providers. The OS-L1 services have been adopted by several manufacturers, and all Eos-GNSS receivers are fully compatible with OS-L1 sub metre service.
Because these corrections are delivered via satellite, SouthPAN remains highly relevant in regional and remote areas where mobile connectivity is unreliable or unavailable. That makes it especially valuable for field teams operating outside urban networks.
How Accurate Is SouthPAN in Real-World Conditions?
SouthPAN improves positioning accuracy from the typical 5 to 15 metres of standard GNSS to sub-metre levels. In ideal open-sky environments, accuracy can approach sub d 30 centimetres. That is a substantial improvement, and one that changes how field data can be used.
This increased accuracy helps teams reliably relocate features, align datasets captured on different days, and reduce the amount of rework required downstream. Physical conditions such as dense canopy, steep terrain, and obstructions still affect performance, just as they do with standard GNSS, but SouthPAN significantly lifts the baseline wherever GNSS signals are already usable.
Hardware Reality and Common Misconceptions
SouthPAN provides satellite correction coverage across mainland Australia and New Zealand, but not all GNSS receivers are able to use it. That is one of the most important practical realities field teams need to understand.
A common misconception is that SouthPAN only relates to aviation. While it was developed to support aviation safety, the same satellite-based corrections also benefit environmental monitoring, asset management, utilities, construction, agriculture, transport, and other field activities that rely on accurate location data.
Another misconception is that SouthPAN requires mobile coverage or internet connectivity. It does not. Corrections are delivered directly via the InMarSat communications satellite, which is why SouthPAN works right across Australia and New Zealand including regional and remote environments.
A third misconception is that better accuracy automatically means good data. In reality, data quality also depends on receiver capability, configuration, reference frame alignment, and workflows that preserve location integrity from capture through to use. That is why hardware and setup matter so much in a SouthPAN workflow.
Why SouthPAN Works So Well with EOS GNSS Receivers
SouthPAN is live, but many field teams still cannot use it effectively because their receivers are not configured to recognise or apply the correction signal.
4D Global’s EOS-based solutions are designed to access SouthPAN directly through compatible hardware and deliberate configuration. EOS GNSS receivers such as the Arrow and Skadi series automatically lock onto the InMarSat satellite broadcasting SouthPAN corrections. Both navigation and correction signals are received through a single antenna, with no additional infrastructure required. Each receiver is configured before deployment to recognise the SouthPAN broadcast, so from the user’s perspective the process is seamless and straightforward: power on and collect.
This matters commercially as well as technically. RapidMap and 4D Global-supplied EOS receivers already utilise SouthPAN’s early Open Service OS-L1, while many other platforms cannot or will not support SouthPAN until full aviation certification is achieved. In practice, that means some receivers may not support SouthPAN for several years, despite the service already being live.
The Accuracy Upgrade Most Field Teams Still Don’t Know About
There is another issue many field teams miss, and it is not a hardware purchase. It is a software and reference-frame issue related to tectonic plate movement.
Australia sits on a fast-moving tectonic plate that shifts approximately 60 to 70 millimetres per year depending on your location. SouthPAN corrections are based on the continent’s current position, while many local spatial datasets are fixed to the Geocentric Datum of Australia 2020. Without the right transformation, this creates a growing mismatch between satellite-corrected positions and local maps over time.
RapidMap addresses this through software-based transformation using EOS Tools Pro, aligning satellite-derived positions with local ground-based datasets. That ensures the improved accuracy delivered by SouthPAN remains meaningful and repeatable over time, rather than being accurate only relative to the satellite frame.
As the Eos range of L1 single frequency sub metre GNSS perform to an accuracy of typically 300 mm – 450 mm in reasonable environments, the correction can be applied a year in advance (introducing an error of 60 mm – 70 mm at the beginning and end (2 years later) but spot on at the 1 year mark, therefore there would be no additional steps to do for2 years to still maintain well under a metre accuracy. The use case will dictate how often you update the correction in Eos Tools Pro to seamlessly pass through approximately GDA 2020 coordinates.
Why Repeatable Location Is the Real ROI for Field Teams
Accurate positioning is not just a technical benchmark. It directly supports operational confidence. When teams can return to the same surveyed point, verify asset locations, and integrate field data across workflows, rework and risk are reduced.
Repeatable location is often more valuable than chasing the highest possible precision. It supports compliance, auditability, and long-term confidence in spatial data. For organisations with distributed field operations, that is where much of SouthPAN’s practical value sits.
Conclusion
SouthPAN represents a significant upgrade to GNSS positioning across Australia and New Zealand, improving accuracy, availability, and integrity without requiring local infrastructure, mobile connectivity, or complex workflows. For many field teams, it offers an immediate improvement over standard GNSS, but only when the right hardware, configuration, and reference-frame handling are in place.
If your teams are still working with close-enough positioning, this is an opportunity to lift your baseline. Understanding how SouthPAN works, how Open Services coverage applies, and how compatible EOS-based solutions access and align that accuracy in practice is a practical step towards better data quality and stronger operational confidence.
Capture Accurate, Repeatable Locations in Real Time with 4D Global, the hardware division of RapidMap
To confidently manage field data across Australia and New Zealand, ensure your equipment is SouthPAN-capable and properly configured. The right combination of positioning hardware and field-mapping software can immediately improve the reliability and usefulness of your spatial data.
Speak with technical specialists at 4D Global RapidMap to optimise your setup and benefit from sub-metre and decimetre-level positioning, without ongoing subscriptions.