GPS

APHY 101 H1L Pau Borlagdan

POSITION

Location of an object relative to a reference point

Particular portion in space occupied by a body

GLOBAL NAVIGATION SATELLITE SYSTEM

constellation

of satellites used to provide signals for geographic positioning and monitoring programs
GNSS G.P.S. (USA DoD) GLONASS (RUSSIA) Galileo (EU, late 2014)

Established

GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM

(G.P.S.)

developed and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense

of 29 orbital satellites (24 are active; remaining 5 are spares) At any given time, at least 4 satellites covers any place on Earth

consists

HOW IT WORKS
Each

GPS satellite broadcast continuous data signals carrying the following signals Satellite status Time data Ephemeris data (defines the location of the satellite) Almanac data (defines the orbits of all GPS satellites) A GPS receiver collects and analyzes the signals from available satellites. After determining the distance from the satellites, the receiver then calculates its position using trilateration.

GOOD TO KNOW

There are no fees for using GPS signals (but GPS receivers are not free) GPS satellites cannot track you GPS receivers do not communicate back to GPS satellites

APPLICATIONS

Car navigation system

GPS Aircraft tracking GPS tracking unit

Land Surveying

LIMITATIONS
useless

indoors (distorted/no signal at all) GPS signals can barely pass through brick, metal, concrete, and wood
to UHF interference (from sources like TV antennas)

prone

REFERENCES

http://msclantonsphysicalsciencepage.weebly.com/a-definition-ofposition.html
http://egnos-portal.gsa.europa.eu/discover-egnos/about-egnos/whatgnss

http://www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=55