Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
The National Institute of Standards and Technology will hold its 34th Time and Frequency Metrology Seminar June 2-5 2009 at NIST Boulder Laboratories in Boulder, Colorado.
By Inside GNSS
A proposal now before the European Parliament and Council of the European Union would complete the transformation of the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) from the leading executive agency for the Galileo program into a diminished subsidiary of the European Commission (EC).
By Inside GNSS
Sea State MonitoringSurrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) will lead a British project to exploit signals from GPS and other GNSS satellites that are reflected from the Earth for remote sensing purposes.
The project will investigate a prototype instrument capable of measuring the roughness of the sea and soil moisture content, providing data for atmospheric science and for operational ocean and weather forecasting.
By Inside GNSS
A 2008 version of the Federal Radionavigation Plan (FRP) has been published by the U.S. government, providing the latest documentation of the policy and plans for radionavigation systems used for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) applications.
By Inside GNSS
EZ-Guide 500 VRATrimble has introduced a series of new products targeting the agriculture market where the company has been doing particularly well in recent years. These include an integrated display for manual or automated machine operation, a variable rate application (VRA) option for the company’s lightbar guidance system, and two new differential GPS receivers.
Trimble has introduced a series of new products targeting the agriculture market where the company has been doing particularly well in recent years. These include an integrated display for manual or automated machine operation, a variable rate application (VRA) option for the company’s lightbar guidance system, and two new differential GPS receivers.
The AgGPS FmX integrated display can operate as either a stand-alone manual guidance system or as part of an automated guidance, implement control or steering system. The FmX touch screen display is 12.1 inches, approximately 35 percent larger than the industry standard 10.4-inch screen, yet the display requires no more space in the cab than its predecessor, the AgGPS FieldManager, according to the company.
By Glen Gibbons
The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Thales Alenia Space Italia (TAS-Italia) two contracts for development of Galileo ground station receiver equipment.
One contract is for Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element (GIOVE) phase A/B ground station receivers capable of tracking the multiplex binary offset carrier (MBOC) signal that is common to both the Galileo Open Service (OS) and the new GPS L1 civil signal, which will be transmitted beginning with the GPS III generation of satellites.
By Glen Gibbons
William J. Lynn III(Updated Jan.26) President Barack Obama’s nomination of William J. Lynn III, a senior vice-president at Raytheon Corporation, for deputy secretary of defense and his granting Lynn a waiver from the new administration’s own rules on former lobbyists has provoked considerable criticism from some quarters.
As the number two official in the Department of Defense (DoD), Lynn would report directly to Robert Gates, the current secretary of defense who has continued in that position in the new administration, the only holdover from ex-President Bush’s cabinet. Gates has come out strongly in support of Lynn, saying that he requested the waiver from the president.
Among other responsibilities, the deputy secretary serves as the co-chair of
the Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Executive
Committee (ExCom). Lynn would succeed Gordon England, who has paid a lot of attention to GPS during his term in office and enhanced the role of the PNT ExCom as an arbiter and advocate for the GPS program throughout the federal government.
Applanix Corporation has launched the POSPac MMS (Mobile Mapping Suite) 5.2, the latest release of its GNSS-aided inertial post-processing software for mobile mapping and surveying applications in multiple environments.
Applanix has announced that its POS AV products now support on-board OmniSTAR XP real-time differential GPS corrections using a purpose-built GNSS+L-band aircraft antenna and an embedded BD960 GNSS receiver.
By Glen Gibbons
Cumbria, UK – Wikimedia Commons imageEven as the United States tries to decide whether to make good on a commitment last February to implement enhanced Loran (eLoran), agencies and private companies in the United Kingdom are demonstrating leadership in the field of modernized positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services.
By Glen Gibbons
QZS-1 SatelliteEncouraged by continuing progress on Japan’s Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), Spirent Communications has announced that its GSS8000 simulation system now supports QZSS in addition to GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) — reportedly the first RF constellation simulator to do so.
By Glen Gibbons
Following in the footsteps of the recent update of the GPS SPS Performance Standard, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a performance standard for the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS).
By Glen Gibbons
Christine Edwards and Peter Hall of Sci-Tech Systems, Ltd.A UK start-up company, Sci-Tech Systems Ltd., gathered three prizes in the 2008 European Satellite Navigation Competition — including the overall Galileo Master Award — with a tracking system designed to help rescue persons who have fallen overboard from ships at sea.
By Glen Gibbons
NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) has recently added 43 GPS tracking sites into the Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) network overseen by the federal agency.
By Glen Gibbons
