GPS

What is GPS?

The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally NAVSTAR GPS, is a satellite-

based radio navigation system owned by the United States government and
operated by the United States Air Force. It is a global navigation satellite
system that provides geolocation and time information to a GPS
receiver anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line
of sight to four or more GPS satellites.

What is DGPS?

DGPS (Differential GPS) is essentially a system to provide positional

corrections to GPS signals. DGPS uses a fixed, known position to adjust real
time GPS signals to eliminate pseudorange errors.

Four types of GPS Segments

Space Segment

The GPS space segment consists of a constellation of satellites transmitting

radio signals to users. The United States is committed to maintaining the
availability of at least 24 operational GPS satellites, 95% of the time.

Control Segment

The GPS control segment consists of a global network of ground facilities that
track the GPS satellites, monitor their transmissions, perform analyses, and
send commands and data to the constellation.

User Segment
The user’s GPS receiver is the user segment (US) of the GPS. GPS receivers
are composed of an antenna, tuned to the frequencies transmitted by the
satellites, receiver-processors, and a highly-stable clock (crystal oscillator).

What are gps systems use for?

GPS systems are extremely versatile and can be found in almost any industry
sector. They can be used to map forests, help farmers harvest their fields,
and navigate airplanes on the ground or in the air. GPS systems are used in
military applications and by emergency crews to locate people in need of
assistance.

User Equivalent Range Errors

User Equivalent Range Errors (UERE) are those that relate to the timing and
path readings of the satellites due to anomalies in the hardware or
interference from the atmosphere. A complete list of the sources of User
Equivalent Range Errors, in descending order of their contributions to the
total error budget, is below:

Satellite clock: GPS position calculations, as discussed above, depend on

measuring signal transmission time from satellite to receiver; this, in turn,
depends on knowing the time on both ends. NAVSTAR satellites use atomic
clocks, which are very accurate but can drift up to a millisecond (enough to
make an accuracy difference). These errors are minimized by calculating
clock corrections (at monitoring stations) and transmitting the corrections
along with the GPS signal to appropriately outfitted GPS receivers.

Upper atmosphere (ionosphere): As GPS signals pass through the upper

atmosphere (the ionosphere 50-1000km above the surface), signals are
delayed and deflected. The ionosphere density varies; thus, signals are
delayed more in some places than others. The delay also depends on how
close the satellite is to being overhead (where distance that the signal
travels through the ionosphere is least). By modeling ionosphere
characteristics, GPS monitoring stations can calculate and transmit
corrections to the satellites, which in turn pass these corrections along to
receivers. Only about three-quarters of the bias can be removed, however,
leaving the ionosphere as the second largest contributor to the GPS error
budget.

Receiver clock: GPS receivers are equipped with quartz crystal clocks that
are less stable than the atomic clocks used in NAVSTAR satellites. Receiver
clock error can be eliminated, however, by comparing times of arrival of
signals from two satellites (whose transmission times are known exactly).

Satellite orbit: GPS receivers calculate coordinates relative to the known

locations of satellites in space, a complex task that involves knowing the
shapes of satellite orbits as well as their velocities, neither of which is
constant. The GPS Control Segment monitors satellite locations at all times,
calculates orbit eccentricities, and compiles these deviations in documents
called ephemerides. An ephemeris is compiled for each satellite and
broadcast with the satellite signal. GPS receivers that are able to process
ephemerides can compensate for some orbital errors.

Lower atmosphere: The three lower layers of atmosphere (troposphere,

tropopause, and stratosphere) extend from the Earth’s surface to an altitude
of about 50 km. The lower atmosphere delays GPS signals, adding slightly to
the calculated distances between satellites and receivers. Signals from
satellites close to the horizon are delayed the most, since they pass through
the most atmosphere.

Multipath: Ideally, GPS signals travel from satellites through the

atmosphere directly to GPS receivers. In reality, GPS receivers must
discriminate between signals received directly from satellites and other
signals that have been reflected from surrounding objects, such as buildings,
trees, and even the ground. Antennas are designed to minimize interference
from signals reflected from below, but signals reflected from above are more
difficult to eliminate. One technique for minimizing multipath errors is to
track only those satellites that are at least 15° above the horizon, a threshold
called the "mask angle."

GPS works in six steps:

1. GPS works by using a method called "triangulation" or "trilateration".

2. It needs to get a message from at least three, preferably four satellites
3. To "triangulate", a GPS receiver measures the distance between itself
and each satellite. It can measure distance because it works out
exactly how long it took for each satellite's message to arrive.
(distance = time of arrival * speed of light)To measure travel time, GPS
needs very accurate timing which it achieves with atomic clocks on
board each satellite.
4. Along with distance, the device needs to know exactly where the
satellites are in space at any given time. This information is held inside
the GPS receiver itself.
 5. Finally, because it knows exactly where the satellites are at that
instant, by using some very clever mathematics, it can work out where
it is on the ground.
6. Triangulation, is the key idea behind GPS. It makes use of satellites in
space as reference points for locations here on earth. By very, very
accurately measuring our distance from at least three satellites we can
"triangulate" our position anywhere on earth.With GPS it is more usual
to use four line-of-sight satellites.

Who invented GPS?

Ivan A. Getting

Roger L. Easton

Bradford Parkinson

Why was the GPS Invented?

Global positioning systems were originally created for military use in the
1970s. However, the precursor is the Transit satellite navigation system, first
used by the United States Navy in 1965. This system was originally
developed to help submarines navigate. When the United States government
found itself needing a foolproof satellite navigation system, the best minds in
the Pentagon put their heads together and came up with the concept of GPS
in 1973. The first GPS satellite was launched in 1978 and since then the
technology has been broadened for commercial use.
Group 1: GPS
Maranan, Niel
Marapao, John Gilbert
Lacson, Yvonne
Jao, Joshua
Maldo Jr., Richaldie