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. ICE BREAKER
Nome, Alaska USA
√ Two 2 1/2 pound GPS-guided UAVs that tolerate extreme cold helped bring fuel to snowbound Nome, Alaska over two weeks in January. On daily photographic missions, the Aeryon Scouts helped University of Fairbanks researchers map ice thickness in the frozen harbor so a Coast Guard icebreaker could slowly guide a Russian fuel tanker close enough to pump the fuel to shore.
1. ICE BREAKER
Nome, Alaska USA
√ Two 2 1/2 pound GPS-guided UAVs that tolerate extreme cold helped bring fuel to snowbound Nome, Alaska over two weeks in January. On daily photographic missions, the Aeryon Scouts helped University of Fairbanks researchers map ice thickness in the frozen harbor so a Coast Guard icebreaker could slowly guide a Russian fuel tanker close enough to pump the fuel to shore.
- (January 27, 2012) Historic winter fuel delivery to Nome (The Nome Nugget video)
- (January 21, 2012) Icebreaker Healy releases tanker Renda from ice (Time-lapse video by U.S. Coast Guard)
- (January 15, 2012) Drone to the rescue in Alaska City (thedaily.com)
2. A LEAP FOR MANKIND
Geneva, Switzerland
√ Humans grew up with solar time but GNSS doesn’t care about the leap second. In a winter Geneva meeting, the International Telecommunications Union may eliminate it. They say a continuous time scale will benefit electronic navigation and computerized systems. Once the Earth’s rotation and atomic timekeeping diverge, you’ll notice a 15-minute discrepancy every 1,000 years.
- (After Inside GNSS went to press, the ITU Radiocommunication
Assembly defered the decision to eliminate the leap second) - U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on Leap Seconds
3. GOLDEN ICE
Torino, Italy
√ A shortage of de-icing salt in Europe raised its price sky-high last year. An Italian researcher used GPS; EGNOS; Europe’s emergency call system, eCall; Windows software and a GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) grant to develop a thrifty, green system for salting Europe’s winter roads. The Golden Ice project is ready to go commercial, they say.
- The Golden Ice project
- Golden Ice Project Worth Its Weight in Salt? (Microsoft press release)
4. FULL HOUSE
Moscow, Russia
√ Despite Roscosmos’ bad luck with launches over the past year, GLONASS anticipates having more than the 24 sturdy satellites it needs for full global coverage in 2012. In a December RIA Novosti story, GNSS official Sergey Revnivykh said he expects 34 working satellites next year and “scientific research” would show if Russia needs to rearrange the constellation. Global users would need new interface control documents, another official said.
(The original story is no longer posted on the site at http://rt.com/politics/press/izvestiya/glonass-space-satellite-roscosmos/en/, however it has been reposted by the GLONASS/GNSS Forum below)
- (December 21, 2011) A New Glonass Arrangement (published in news section of GLONASS/GNSS Forum)
5. TO THE RESCUE
Jiuzhaigou Valley, Sichuan, China
√ China is testing Compass at Sichuan’s subtropical Jiuzhaigou Valley reserve, whose waterfalls and turquoise lakes attract swarms of tourists. The new GNSS and its short messaging system will be used by first responders, lost hikers, and park staff who monitor traffic, said Xinhua news agency — all part of the push for domestic commercial apps for BeiDou.
- (January 13, 2012) China’s satellite navigation service to cover famous scenic spot (Xinhua news service)
- Jiuzhai Valley National Park
