The Fantastically Hot Features of a GPS System
Luckily for us in this time and age is that we have new and innovative ways to help us and one of this is the GPS system.. GPS (global positioning system) is a complex technology but understanding. It can be easy if we take it one step at a time.What is GPS?
Global Positioning System (GPS) is a universal navigation system formed from a constellation of 24 satellites and their ground stations. There are often more than 24 operational satellites as new ones are launched to substitute older satellites.
The satellite orbits repeatedly just about the same ground track (as the earth turns beneath them) once each day. The orbit altitude is such that the satellites repeat the same track and configuration over any point approximately each 24 hours (4 minutes earlier each day).
There are six orbital planes, equally spaced (60 degrees apart), and inclined at about fifty-five degrees with respect to the equatorial plan. The GPS system uses the "man-made" stars as reference points to calculate accurate positions to a matter of meters.
The GPS system consists of a network of satellites, signals, ground based hardware and software, and people which make possible the identification of one"s precise location on the Earth"s surface. The Global Positioning System is funded by and controlled by the U. S. Department of Defense (DOD). While there are many thousands of civil users of GPS world-wide, the system was designed for and is operated by the U. S. military.
Over the years all kinds of technologies tried to make things easier but everybody failed to do so due to some disadvantages. Finally, the U. S. Department of Defense realized that military had to have an extremely accurate form of world wide positioning. And luckily they had the kind of money it took to build something really good. The result is the Global Positioning System, a system that"s changed navigation totally.
The accurateness of a location measurement using the global positioning system depends on the technology and features of the GPS receiver. High-end, survey-grade GPS receivers can determine locations precise to within centimeters. But even the low-end, commercial handheld receivers, may be accurate to within fifteen meters. GPS receivers have been miniaturized to just a few included circuits and so are becoming very economical. And that makes the technology easy to get to almost everyone.
Originally, commercial global positioning system units were precise for only about 100 meters because the military scrambled the signal--a program called Selective Availability. In the year 2000, the U.S. government detached Selective Availability, improving the accuracy of even basic handheld units to within fifteen meters. Today, with additional information from ground based correction services such as WAAS or U.S. Coast Guard differential GPS beacons, accuracy can be improved vividly.
A system of ground based reference station called the WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation Service) located across the United States. This station corrects them for inaccuracies caused by clock drift and by the atmosphere, and then broadcast this correct signal from a stationary satellite over the equator and receives global positioning system signals. GPS receiver prepared with the WAAS technology, plus lots of offered by GPS service providers, can receive and understand this corrective signal.
Now a days GPS is searching its way into vehicles like cars, boats, planes, construction equipment, movie making gear, farm machinery, and even laptop computers.
In next to no time, GPS will become nearly as basic as the telephones.