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. PESTS
State of California, USA
√ The California Agriculture department is using collective intelligence and GPS to “report a pest.” State residents can download the new CDFA smartphone app and use it to photograph and report bad bugs when they see ‘em. Those with iPhones can choose to send GPS coordinates for quick response to invasive pest emergencies.
1. PESTS
State of California, USA
√ The California Agriculture department is using collective intelligence and GPS to “report a pest.” State residents can download the new CDFA smartphone app and use it to photograph and report bad bugs when they see ‘em. Those with iPhones can choose to send GPS coordinates for quick response to invasive pest emergencies.
2. TAKE FOUR
Cape Canaveral, Florida
√ The fourth GPS IIF took off from Cape Canaveral on May 15. It was the first time a ULA Atlas V rocket carried a GPS satellite. Once in orbit, SV66 will relieve from duty SVN33, a 19-year old Block IIA veteran, which will take emeritus status as a spare.
- U.S. Air Force [May 16]: GPS IIF-4 successfully launched from Cape Canaveral
3. PHONE HOME
Wallops Island, Virginia
√ On April 22, NASA launched 3 off-the-shelf smartphones to find out if they could manage flight avionics, communications, and photography for a cheap mini-satellite. The consumer-grade “PhoneSats” have many of the needed capabilities already built in — including GPS. During the short experiment, they sent back beautiful earth images retrieved by ham radio operators. More PhoneSats will go up next year.
- Inside GNSS [April 30]: NASA successfully launches three smartphone satellites
4. 24 AGAIN for GLONASS
Plesetsk, Russia and Honolulu, Hawaii
√ A Soyuz rocket successfully launched a 3,000-pound GLONASS-M satellite on April 28 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Sergey Revnivykh, director of the PNT Center, Roscosmos, said it will replace a failing satellite thus restoring Russia’s full 24-satellite constellation. He told a group at the ION Pacific PNT conference in Honolulu that the second K-type satellite will go up before the end of the year.
- Inside GNSS [April 28]: Russia launches another GLONASS-M satellite
5. PRECISION
Canberra, Australia
√ On May 20, two super-customized outdoor calibration robots introduced themselves to Australia’s 200 GNSS antennae with the goal of improving accuracy to less than one millimeter. “We know the robot’s tool point, to within 0.1 mm per year. Now, the intent is to characterize the behavior of the antenna as [multi-GNSS] signals enter it” said John Dawson, head of the national geographical survey geodesy program. The plan? Faster crustal deformation studies, better mobile devices and more.
- Australian Government/Geoscience Australia press release [May 20]: Sub-millimetre Accuracy for Global Positioning
