GNSS (all systems)

July 5, 2012

Single- versus Dual-Frequency Precise Point Positioning

Q: What are the tradeoffs between using L1-only and L1+L2 for PPP?

A: Precise point positioning (PPP) is a technique that can compute positions with a high accuracy anywhere on the globe using a single GNSS receiver. It relies on highly accurate satellite position and clock data that can be downloaded from the International GNSS Service (IGS) or obtained in real-time from a number of service providers, using either the Internet or satellite links.

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By Inside GNSS

INS Face Off

TOP PHOTO: Antenna configurations on trials vehicle: Dual GPS antennas for the INS under test and single GPS antenna for the CIMU; BOTTOM PHOTO: Commercial IMU/DGPS system used for reference (left), FOG-based INS configuration (middle), and MEMS-based INS configuration 2 (right)

The automobile versus the horse and buggy. Cloud computing opposite desktop software. The trend is predictable, yet it is always surprising when one technology takes over the market space of another. After all, television did kill off the radio star.

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By Inside GNSS

Drones to the Rescue!

August 1994, early morning. Spain’s Central Pyrenees Mountains still in darkness.

At the outset of an ascent to a 3,000-meter peak along the international border, one of the co-authors encounters a group of tourist hikers who have begun searching for a colleague who had left the camp the previous evening. In the pre-sunrise gloom, helicopters cannot yet operate.

A week later, the body of the hiker is found. The rescue efforts came, unfortunately, too late.

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By Inside GNSS
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July 4, 2012

Addition of Leap Second Highlights Campaign for Its Elimination

[Updated July 4] The world’s dominant mode of timekeeping, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), took on another leap second on Saturday, June 30 at 23:59:60 UTC.

And then the fun began: the addition caused software handling Internet services such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, Mozilla, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Yelp, FourSquare and Gawker to behave unpredictably or even crash over the weekend.

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By Inside GNSS
June 23, 2012

GNSS and Positioning for the Future Workshop

Northern Jutland Peninsula

A seven day workshop on GNSS and Positioning for the Future will be held at a Jutland (North Sea) resort in Denmark from August 27 through September 2, 2012. It is open all those with an interest in satellite positioning and navigation but limited to the first 50 registered participants.

The workshop will cover GNSS basics, new satellite navigation systems, arctic navigation, intelligent transportation systems and environmental monitoring, with lectures by international experts in those fields. The program and full list of lecturers are available on the event website.

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By Inside GNSS
June 18, 2012

Leica Geosystems and Locata Extend Technology Partnership

Leica Geosystems Mining and Locata Corporation will continue their exclusive technology partnership in the mine machine automation and mine fleet management markets until at least June 2014. The extension guarantees the ongoing, commercial provision to the global mining industry of the Leica Jigsaw Positioning System (Jps), powered by Locata technology.

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By Inside GNSS
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May 31, 2012

GSA Issues Second GNSS Market Report: 1.1 Billion Units by 2020

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has published its second GNSS market report, including a special focus on maritime and surveying application markets and refining its projections of unit and sales revenue volumes through 2020.

According to the new GSA report, the worldwide GNSS market is growing rapidly with total market size expected to increase at an average of 13 percent per year until 2016. At that point, increasing market saturation, price erosion, and platform convergence will reduce the growth rate.

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By Inside GNSS
May 30, 2012

Thales Plans Next Steps in GNSS Technology Evolution

Thales TOPSTAR 100 receiver

French manufacturer Thales, the only non-U.S. company to offer GPS SAASM (Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module) receivers, is working on next-generation receivers for commercial aviation and military markets that will incorporate new signals and multiple GNSS systems.

Since the late 1990s, the company has delivered between 8,000 and 10,000 avionics installations in military and civil domains, according to Pierre Bouniol, GNSS Products Department manager, including multi-mode GPS receivers in stand-alone and enclosure configurations.

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By Inside GNSS
May 27, 2012

GNSS Hotspots | May 2012

One of 12 magnetograms recorded at Greenwich Observatory during the Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1859
1996 soccer game in the Midwest, (Rick Dikeman image)
Nouméa ground station after the flood
A pencil and a coffee cup show the size of NASA’s teeny tiny PhoneSat
Bonus Hotspot: Naro Tartaruga AUV
Pacific lamprey spawning (photo by Jeremy Monroe, Fresh Waters Illustrated)
“Return of the Bucentaurn to the Molo on Ascension Day”, by (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Canaletto
The U.S. Naval Observatory Alternate Master Clock at 2nd Space Operations Squadron, Schriever AFB in Colorado. This photo was taken in January, 2006 during the addition of a leap second. The USNO master clocks control GPS timing. They are accurate to within one second every 20 million years (Satellites are so picky! Humans, on the other hand, just want to know if we’re too late for lunch) USAF photo by A1C Jason Ridder.
Detail of Compass/ BeiDou2 system diagram
Hotspot 6: Beluga A300 600ST

1. GROWTH SPURT
California/Nevada, USA
√ The age of the Sierra Nevada mountains — home of Yosemite Valley and Lake Tahoe — is puzzling to geodesists. Integrating GPS and inSAR, Universities of Nevada and Glasgow teams studied the area’s uplift and found that it is growing by 1 to 2 millimeters per year. The verdict? The entire range could have arisen in less than 3 million years.

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By Inside GNSS
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