Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Image captured by an onboard Infra-red camera during the West Virginia demonstrationLarge wildfires can create their own weather and a dynamic, uncertain environment, and that is one of the reasons they’re so dangerous, says Manish Kumar, an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Toledo.
By Inside GNSS
The number of special requests to fly unmanned aircraft commercially has surpassed 130 as firms search for a way around a federal ban on for-pay flights. The new numbers came to light the same day a court decision underscored regulators’ authority to rein in the industry with restrictions unlikely to be lifted until new rules are put in place years from now.
By Inside GNSS
Cospas–Sarsat’s extension to MEOSAR (Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue) will extend its search and rescue coverage (the area outlined in red). On the ground the Galileo programme is contributing a Toulouse-based test bench, and a networked trio of MEOSAR ground stations – known as Local User Terminals (LUTs) – to cover Europe, based in Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic, Cyprus and the Canary Islands. Existing LUTs are distributed on a per country basis, but it is an advantage of MEOSAR that fewer ground stations will be needed for greater coverage. Cospas-Sarsat illustration The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced completion of tests that indicate the readiness of the European component of a modernized, GNSS satellite–aided search and rescue service known as Cospas-Sarsat.
ESA has completed construction and testing of a trio of located on three islands at the far corners of the continent, ready to pick up distress calls via satellite from across Europe and its surrounding waters.
By Inside GNSS
Efficient power transmission and distribution would benefit from synchronized near–real-time measurements of voltage and current phasors at widely dispersed locations in an electric power grid. Such measurements also could enable effective real-time system monitoring and control, which are considered to be the key to preventing wide-scale cascading outages like the 2003 Northeast Blackout.
By Inside GNSS
Tables 1, 2, 3 & 4Q: What are the actual performances of GNSS positioning using smartphone technology?
A: “Where I am?” is the typical question asked by a person when visiting a new city or unknown place. Knowing one’s own location is generally a basic necessity for people, both in indoors and outdoors.
By Inside GNSS
Dennis Odijk, Curtin UniversityThe availability of carrier phase tracking — counting the cycles of GNSS signals between satellites and a receiver — has long enabled high-precision users to achieve greater accuracy than using the navigation messages or pseudoranges. Improvements in high-end receivers and techniques such as real-time kinematic (RTK) and precise point positioning (PPP) have made once inconceivably accurate results almost routinely accessible.
By Inside GNSS
Working Papers explore the technical and scientific themes that underpin GNSS programs and applications. This regular column is coordinated by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günter Hein, head of Europe’s Galileo Operations and Evolution.
SIDEBAR: Locating a Distress Beacon Activated in Flight
By Inside GNSS
TRANSNAV 2013 ParticipantsThe 11th International Conference on "Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation” TRANSNAV 2015 symposium will be held June 17-19, 2015 in Gdynia, Poland, a seaport and resort city on the south coast of the Baltic.
Online registration is open.
By Inside GNSS
GPS III core structure at Lockheed Martin facility. Lockheed Martin photoThe launch of the first GPS III satellite could slip to as late as March 2017, further delaying a modernization program that already has been pushed back repeatedly by budget cuts and technical problems.
“The first GPS III launch is tentatively considered for the first half of FY17, based on booster availability and Air Force launch priorities,” a spokesman for the Space and Missile Systems Center told Inside GNSS.
By Inside GNSS
ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C26, successfully launched IRNSS-1C, the third satellite in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), from Satish Dhawan Space Center last Thursday (October 16, 2014 local time).
By Inside GNSS
xOEM500Oxford Technical Solutions Ltd. (OxTS) has announced its first inertial navigation OEM board set with integrated GNSS — the xOEM500, which the company is promoting at this week’s (October 7–9, 2014) Intergeo trade show in Berlin, Germany.
By Inside GNSS
IRNSS-1B satellite in clean room. ISRO photoA signal-in-space (SIS) interface control document (ICD) for the standard positioning service (SPS) of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is available for download from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) website.
By Inside GNSS
Editor’s Note: An exclusive interview with Gen. Hyten is available here with more details.
Details are emerging about another restructuring of the contract for the new GPS ground system, a deal that pushes completion of the project back another two years and recasts the remaining work to fit within the Air Force’s strained financial profile.
By Dee Ann Divis
