201401 January/February 2014 Archives - Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design

New BeiDou ICD Describes Second Civil Signal; Officials Describe Progress, Plans

Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office

At a news media conference in Beijing on the first anniversary of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) declaration of full operational capability (FOC) for its regional service, officials reported on the current performance of China’s GNSS system.

The BDS program also released two new technical documents, including an updated interface control document (ICD) that describes the second civil signal, B2I, and a “BDS Open Service Performance Standard (version 1.0).”

By Inside GNSS

GNSS Hotspots | January 2014

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. E-CROWDSHIPPING
Palo Alto, California USA

By Inside GNSS

Won’t Get Fooled Again

How many times, as some once-promising politician stumbles up against his pull date, have we heard that irreverent anthem of The Who invoked?

Thousands? Millions?

Yes, back in the wreckage of the second George Bush’s second term, Barack Obama looked pretty good by comparison. Even then, though, raising the banner of “Hope” before the eyes of a desperate nation was a risky thing to do.

By Inside GNSS

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Multi-GNSS Monitoring

Tim Springer, PosiTim UG

A common refrain in the world of GNSS is the desire for “interoperability,” the use of signals from multiple systems without a decline — and potentially even an improvement — in the quality of results.

Achieving this depends on large part in establishing comparable parameters — particularly the geodetic references and timing systems — among the GNSSs along with a dense network of ground reference stations that can provide continuous, precise monitoring of satellites’ orbital positions.

By Inside GNSS