Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Clockwise from top left: A small drone rests on the ground during a demonstration in Florida, The Golden Eagle, a UAV developed at Clarkson University, takes wing, Nick Roy smiles at a drone in a lab at MIT, The Qube unmanned aerial vehicle by AeroVironment.BY THE NUMBERS
By Inside GNSS
Clockwise from top left: Belgium’s Trimble UX5; MAVinci unmanned autonomous microplane is ready to take off for a land survey mission; MAVinci autonomous micro air-vehicle surveys an open mining site; A Delair-Tech UAV sits poised on its standTo say that the European unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry has drawn a crowd may be understating things. According to Paris-based UAV International, the non-profit association representing European UAV manufacturers, the European Union (EU) counts more than 1,000 “approved and authorized” civil UAV operators within its borders. Others put that number at closer to 1,400.
By Inside GNSS
Stanley, an autonomous car developed by the Stanford University Racing Team, won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge after successfully traversing a 132-mile course.Interest in automated vehicles is surging, fueled by visions of computer-directed cars able to independently thread their way through a traffic jam before safely dropping off their otherwise-occupied passengers and finding their own parking place.
By Inside GNSS
Transformative.
My first encounter with an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, was at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen Germany. Here, I watched in awe as a small quadrotor operated in an indoor flight testing “holodeck,” complete with an array of high-frequency strobe/camera units designed to log, stream and visualize precise position and attitude for rapid 3D mapping.
By Inside GNSS
The Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Directorate will host an open public forum on August 22 for the following NAVSTAR GPS public documents: IS-GPS-200 (Navigation User Interfaces), IS-GPS-705 (User Segment L5 Interfaces), IS-GPS-800 (User Segment L1C Interface), and ICD-GPS-870 (Navstar Next Generation GPS Operational Control Segment [OCX] to User Support Community Interfaces).
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. SMART BALL
Portland, Oregon USA
√ Adidas has designed every official World Cup ball since 1970. And that’s not all! The Adidas Innovation Team in Portland, Oregon, spent 4 years on a smart soccer ball with a “six-axis MEMS accelerometer sensor package” that can detect speed, spin, strike and flight path data and whip it on over to the special GPS app on your iPhone. The app interprets the data for you, coaches you, and keeps a video to show your friends. On sale now for only $299.
Ken Hudnut, U.S. Geological SurveyFor at least two decades, GPS experts, geodesists, and public agencies have been working together to develop high-accuracy, large-scale continuously operating GPS reference stations that provide them the capability to monitor and model crustal deformation, tectonic plate movement, and the effects of geohazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Now, GNSS-augmented advance warning systems are going into place that can give us a crucial margin of safety in the event of an earthquake.
And none too soon.
By Inside GNSS
Washington, D.C., has a peculiarity of seasons. While most of the world marks the shifts between winter and spring, summer and autumn, the politicos on the streets of the U.S. capital count the passage of time in two-year increments.
New operatives and appointees flock to the centers of power in the early days of each administration and the opening of each Congress, then migrate to friendlier climes as congressional elections loom and the administration winds down — as it is now.
By Dee Ann Divis
Q: How do measurement errors propagate into GNSS position estimates?
A: Not surprisingly, GNSS positioning accuracy is largely dependent on the level of measurement errors induced by orbital inaccuracies, atmospheric effects, multipath, and noise. This article discusses how, specifically, these errors manifest as position errors.
By Inside GNSS
In the past 20 years GPS has simultaneously revolutionized both our modern infrastructure (by providing real-time navigation, mapping, and timing support) and our geodetic/surveying capabilities (by providing millimeter/centimeter-level positioning). At this point, most of the GNSS innovations we expect to see in the next decade will come from calculating positions more accurately and faster, while expanding from GPS to use of all available GNSS signals.
By Inside GNSS
The IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC 2014) will take place at the Hyatt Regency Qingdao in Qingdao, China on October 8-11, 2014.
The annual flagship conference of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society, IEEE ITSC 2014 welcomes articles in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems, conveying new developments in theory, analytical and numerical simulation and modeling, experimentation, advanced deployment and case studies, results of laboratory or field operational tests.
Special sessions:
By Inside GNSS
Students conduct the “drop, cover, hold on” safety procedure during an earthquake preparedness drill. Photo Credit: Jessica Robertson, USGSUpdated National Seismic Hazard Maps released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on Thursday (July 17, 2014) indicate a higher level of earthquake risk for the West Coast and some areas of the Midwest and East Coast then previously thought.
By Inside GNSS
As the Air Force contemplates changing its GPS III prime contractor in the face of program delays, sources say it is also weighing much broader program changes to help it weather years of continued lean budgets.
By Inside GNSS
