The system of knowing one's exact position on
this earth is known as the 'Global Positioning System'.
Precise positioning of any location can easily be done
with the help of this System. If anyone has a Global
Positioning System receiver and if the sky remains clear
then no one is going to be lost on this Earth. The receiver
is a pocket-sized gadget that makes us inform about
our exact position on this earth at any moment. One
thing is that this pocket-sized gadget or receiver is
very expensive and it also involves a lot of technical
ingenuity. The primary function of Global Positioning
System is the navigation in three dimensions. The Navigation
receivers are used for aircraft, ships, and ground vehicles
and sometimes it is also carried in hands by individual.
The working of the System
The GP System provides some special satellite signals
which is processed in the receiver. These GPS receivers
not only track the exact location but can also compute
velocity and time. The positions can even be computed
in three dimensional views with the help of four GPS
satellite signals. The Space Segment of the Global Positioning
System consists of 27 Earth-orbiting GPS satellites.
There are 24 operational and 3 extra (in case one fails)
GPS satellites. These satellites move round the Earth
in 12 hours and send radio signals from space that is
being received by the GPS receiver. The control of the
Positioning System consists of different tracking stations
that are located across the world. These monitoring
stations help in tracking signals from those GPS satellites
that are continuously orbiting the earth. The Space
Vehicles transmit microwave carrier signals. The users
of the Global Positioning System have GPS receivers
that can convert the satellite signals by which one
can estimate the actual position, velocity and time.
Four satellites are required to track the three dimensional
location and time. The operation of the system is based
on a simple mathematical principle called Trilateration.
The Trilateration may be of two types i.e. 2-D Trilateration
and 3-D Trilateration. In order to make the simple mathematical
calculation the GPS receiver should know two things.
Firstly the location of the place is to be traced by
at least three satellites above the place. Second is
the distance between the place and each of those Space
Vehicles. Units those have multiple receivers can pick
up signals from several GPS satellites at a same time.
These radio waves are electromagnetic energy that travels
at the speed of light.
Overview
GPS is specially a Satellite Navigation System that
helps in tracking the exact location with the help of
satellites. The Global Positioning System is mainly
funded and controlled by the U.S Department of Defense
(DOD). The system was initially designed for the operation
of U. S. military. But today, there are also many civil
users of GPS across the whole world. The civil users
are allowed to use the Standard Positioning Service
without any kind of charge or restrictions.
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