Pilot test in Germany on June 30^th, 2023: participants informed within seconds 

From a technical point of view, STELLAR aims to specify and test the end-to-end process of providing warning messages via the Galileo infrastructure and its satellite signals. Since crises are all different and require different instructions for action, F24 and the STELLAR Consortium developed a specific methodology for this: several pre-defined instructions have been defined, that could be combined and embedded in the satellite signal, to cover multiple crisis scenarios and warn the population; safety zones can be indicated in the alert message as well, for guiding people towards a shelter or safe area. For the pilot tests, the STELLAR Consortium replayed past crisis that affected the participating partner countries: industrial accidents in France and Germany, tsunami and forest fires in Cyprus. The final pilot test in Belgium and Luxembourg will focus on floods at the border between two countries. Participants from other civil protection authorities in the European Union were invited to attend the pilot tests. 

For the pilot test in Germany, the STELLAR Consortium selected the context of the Chempark explosion on June 27^th, 2021, in Leverkusen, in which 31 people were injured and seven people died. During the demonstration on June 30^{th ,}2023, the participants were put in situation walking in the surroundings and were alerted within seconds after the alert was sent in the Galileo infrastructure. The pilot test in Germany thus confirmed the performance already experienced during the first pilot, in Toulouse, France on June 6^th and 7^th, 2023. 

“Our task in the STELLAR consortium is to develop a fully representative prototype for the Emergency Warning Satellite Service and to show case its potential in various conditions and contexts, including Mobile Network Coverage. We want to show that everyone with a smartphone in a danger area can be alerted and given clear instructions for taking the most appropriate action for protecting themselves” says Dr Amélie Grangeat, who is responsible for the project for F24, describing the essential requirements for a warning message. 

To receive the warning message as an affected citizen, only a few requirements must be met: First, the device, for example a smartphone or a tablet, must be able to receive and process the Galileo signals. Since March 2022, all smartphones sold in Europe are compatible with Galileo, and in practice, a lot of them were already compatible before this deadline. Then, the device must be located within the danger area coded in the message for being notified. The radius of the danger area is defined by the civil protection operator encoding the alert and can range between 30 metres and 2,500 kilometres, depending on the hazard situation. In the event of a crisis, people located in the alert area receive a warning message that informs them about the danger situation and contains instructions for action. Updates and all clear messages are possible, to ensure the lifeline of the citizens during the full life cycle of a crisis.