Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Trimble BD920Trimble has introduced two new GNSS OEM modules, the BD910 and BD920, featuring centimeter-level, real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning capabilities optimized for high-precision and control applications.
The BD910 and BD920 modules are designed to allow OEMs and system integrators to easily add centimeter-level positioning to specialized or custom hardware solutions.
By Inside GNSS
Raytheon Corporation illustrationMembers of the Advanced Control Segment (OCX) team led by Raytheon Corporation are working through a series of issues that has delayed approval of a recent preliminary design review (PDR) on the key GPS modernization program.
By Inside GNSS
Do you use Topcon products in your daily life and work? If so, Topcon invites you to pick up your cell, your video camera or any other video recording device and show them what you do and how you do it.
Send in your two minute clip by October 1 – just point and shoot and upload, the company says.
By Inside GNSS
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. AQUARIUS
Buenos Aires, Argentina and Vandenberg AFB, California, USA
What have we learned from the LightSquared fiasco?
Aside from the fact that someone gambling with other people’s money, with friends in high places benefiting from his largesse, can make the law stand on its head and our hair stand on end.
But then, we already knew that.
Just because the forces behind the broadband cellular company, Philip Falcone and Harbinger Investments, made their money by betting against the housing bubble doesn’t take away from the fact that they represent the same crew who helped take down the world economy in 2007.
By Inside GNSS
NovAtel OEM615 receiverNovAtel, Inc. has introduced the newest member of its OEM6 receiver family: the OEM615. Measuring only 46x71x11 millimeters (1.81×2.79×0.43 inches) and weighing 24 grams (0.84 ounces), the diminutive OEM615 provides precise positioning in a familiar, compact form factor.
By Inside GNSS
European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). ESA illustrationCiting European Space Agency (ESA) studies that showed “harmful interference” to Galileo receivers operating up to 1,000 kilometers from LightSquared base stations, a European Commission (EC) official has told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about his “deep concerns” about the wireless broadband company’s terrestrial transmissions in the 1525–1559 MHz band next to L1 GNSS frequencies.
By Inside GNSS
The gloves have come off now that test results show clearly the probable effects on GPS of LightSquared’s proposed wireless broadband network: widespread, debilitating interference to GPS receivers.
By Dee Ann Divis
Q: What is a virtual reference station and how does it work?
A: To reach centimeter-level — or even better — accuracy of positioning typically requires use of precise dual-frequency carrier phase observations. Furthermore, these observations are usually processed using a differential GNSS (DGNSS) algorithm, such as real time kinematic (RTK) or post-processing (PP). Regardless of the specific differential algorithm, however, implicit in the process is an assumption that the quality of the reference station data is consistent with the desired level of positioning accuracy.
By Inside GNSS
GPS III satellite. Lockheed Martin illustrationLockheed Martin has announced the successful, on-schedule completion of a system design review (SDR) for the second-phase of next-generation GPS satellite development, the IIIB increment.
The company’s Space Systems division in Newtown, Pennsylvania, is under contract to produce the first two of a planned eight GPS IIIA satellites, with first launch projected for 2014. The contract includes a Capability Insertion Program (CIP) designed to mature technologies and perform rigorous systems engineering for future GPS III increments.
By Inside GNSS
FIGURE 1: System architectureCooperative vehicle safety applications should preferably have two-meter horizontal accuracy and six-meter vertical accuracy, all with a 95-percent availability. The solution must be developed to incorporate lower-cost sensor options, specifically, lower-cost inertial measurement units that can be generally characterized by the gyro drift of 100 degrees per hour and an accelerometer bias force of twice its mass times gravity (two milligals).
By Inside GNSS
Anechoic chamber test site at U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) facility in Patuxent River, MarylandInterference can pose a threat to the reception of GNSS signals in a variety of ways. Even low-level signals have the potential to interfere with GNSS receivers, which require very high sensitivity for acceptable performance due to the extremely low received GPS signal power at the Earth’s surface.
By Inside GNSS
