Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
A view of the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition CenterThe 5th International Intelligent Transportation System and Location-based Services expo will take place in Shenzhen (深圳), China on June 17, 18 and 19, 2016. It will take place in Hall 9 of the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in the city center.
By Inside GNSS
Main auditorium, Strathclyde Conference CentreThe Royal Institute of Navigation’s International Navigation Conference 2016 will be held at the University of Strathclyde Conference Centre in Glasgow, Scotland from November 8 – 10, 2016.
A number of keynote speakers will discuss topics from Virgin Galactic’s voyage to space to quantum sensors for inertial navigation to autonomous cars, android phones, train control and even "Three dimensional thinking: from rats to humans, via Klingons."
Poster and demonstration abstracts are due by May 30. Full paper submission is due on June 15.
By Inside GNSS
ESTEC interiorNAVITEC is an annual navigation conference hosted by the European Space Agency (ESA). This year’s event will take place at ESA’s Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, Netherlands on December 14, 15 and 16, 2016. The theme is "Navigating the Future of Transportation."
The scope of the workshop includes navigation equipment and techniques, including receivers, payloads, signals, navigation algorithms, signal processing techniques and terrestrial and space GNSS applications.
By Inside GNSSSo, if everything had gone as planned, we would have a new ground control segment (OCX) operating a new generation of satellites (GPS III) as they launch into an expanded constellation in support of modernized military GPS user equipment (MGUE).
But then the best-laid plans. . . .
By Inside GNSS
Advanced military receivers using the sort of modern multi-channel, multi-constellation capabilities already available commercially, could enable the Air Force to focus its anti-jam efforts on the ground, simplifying future GPS satellites and lowering their cost. Moreover, experts told Inside GNSS, the cutting-edge receivers could be deployed years before the anti-jam capability planned for the new GPS III satellites would be fully available.
By Dee Ann Divis
Symbols and AcronymsModernized GPS satellites give civil users the ability to achieve dual L1/L2 PY accuracy using dual L1CA/L2C ionosphere-free measurements and, with IIF satellites, dual L1/L5 signals. Because broadcast GPS ephemeris data is based on an ionosphere-free pseudorange calculated from dual L1PY/L2PY measurements and the civil signals are not all perfectly aligned to it, new broadcast parameters and a new modernized dual-frequency algorithm are needed in order to align new signals with the dual L1/L2 PY signal.
By Inside GNSS
Belabbas with his children, Laila and Lunis.Boubeker Belabbas’ Compass Points
Boubeker Belabbas, an expert in aerospace mechanics and safety-critical GNSS applications, grew up in Bordeaux, a city of wine, and works in Munich, a city of beer. But he started out in the land of mint tea: a small village in the north of Algeria in the region called Kabylia.
By Inside GNSS
Trends for marine accidents show rising numbers and costs that are mainly associated with collisions and groundings. Research indicates that about 60 percent of these accidents are caused by human error. The majority of them could have been avoided by providing suitable input to the navigation decision-making process, according to a 2008 report by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Marine Safety Committee. (See IMO 2008 in Additional Resources section near the end of this article.).
By Günter W. Hein
Xinping GuoHemisphere GNSS, Inc. today (May 5, 2016) announced that Xinping Guo has been named Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.
By Inside GNSS
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory buildingsThe Chinese Professionals in GPS (CPGPS) sponsor their first International Conference on GNSS+ from July 27 through July 30, 2016. It will take place at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) in Shanghai, China. The International Association of Geodesy (IAG) cosponsors the event.
The deadline for abstract submission has passed.
By Inside GNSSAnyone who has sat through several iterations of a slide presentation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a better way to do things.
As speakers flip through an exhaustively vetted series of PowerPoint slides, squeezing out a new bullet point or two from one version to the next six months later, watching paint dry seems like a more productive — and briefer — use of one’s time. The agency sometimes brings a whole new meaning to the concept of geological time.
By Dee Ann Divis
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
Dangerous Games in Rio, Animal Trackers, Chinese Logistics and The Radiation Club
By Inside GNSS
Prof. Dr. Günter HeinA global navigation satellite system seems like such solid thing, like the pyramids, perhaps, or a mountain. Permanent, fixed, immutable.
Nor is this surprising. After all, GNSS distinguishes itself from many other technologies of the moment by its grounding in a large and widespread infrastructure: a master control station, launch facilities, far-flung monitoring stations, the space segment with dozens of massive satellites that can operate 20 years or more as did a recently retired GPS Block IIA spacecraft.
By Günter W. Hein
