How Does GPS How GPS System Works?

What is GPS?
Humans have looked to the skies to find their way since ancient times. Ancient
sailors used the constellations in the night sky to figure out where they were and
where they were going.
Today, all we need is a simple hand-held GPS (short for Global Positioning
System) receiver to figure out exactly where we are anywhere in the world. But
we still need objects high in the sky to figure out where we are and how we get
to other places.
Instead of stars, we use satellites. Over 30 navigation satellites are zipping
around high above Earth. These satellites can tell us exactly where we are.

GPS or Global Positioning System is a satellite navigation system that furnishes

location and time information in all climate conditions to the user. GPS is used
for navigation in planes, ships, cars and trucks also. The system gives critical
abilities to military and civilian users around the globe. GPS provides continuous
real time, 3-dimensional positioning, navigation and timing worldwide.

How does GPS System Work?

The GPS system consists of three segments:

1) The space segment: the GPS satellites

2) The control system, operated by the U.S. military,

3) The user segment, which includes both military and civilian users and their
GPS equipment.

Space Segment:

The space segment is the number of satellites in the constellation. It comprises of

29 satellites circling the earth every 12 hours at 12,000 miles in altitude. The
function of the space segment is utilized to route/navigation signals and to store
and retransmit the route/navigation message sent by the control segment. These
transmissions are controlled by highly stable atomic clocks on the satellites. The
GPS Space Segment is formed by a satellite constellation with enough satellites
to ensure that the users will have, at least, 4 simultaneous satellites in view from
any point at the Earth surface at any time.

Control Segment:
The control segment comprises of a master control station and five monitor
stations outfitted with atomic clocks that are spread around the globe. The five
monitor stations monitor the GPS satellite signals and then send that qualified
information to the master control station where abnormalities are revised and sent
back to the GPS satellites through ground antennas. Control segment also referred
as monitor station.

User Segment:

The user segment comprises of the GPS receiver, which receives the signals from
the GPS satellites and determine how far away it is from each satellite. Mainly
this segment is used for the U.S military, missile guidance systems, civilian
applications for GPS in almost every field. Most of the civilian uses this from
survey to transportation to natural resources and from there to agriculture purpose
and mapping too.

How GPS Determines a Position:

The working/operation of Global positioning system is based on the ‘trilateration’

mathematical principle. The position is determined from the distance
measurements to satellites. From the figure, the four satellites are used to
determine the position of the receiver on the earth. The target location is
confirmed by the 4th satellite. And three satellites are used to trace the location
place. A fourth satellite is used to confirm the target location of each of those
space vehicles. Global positioning system consists of satellite, control station and
monitor station and receiver. The GPS receiver takes the information from the
satellite and uses the method of triangulation to determine a user’s exact position.

GPS is used on some incidents in several ways, such as:

1. To determine position locations; for example, you need to radio a helicopter
pilot the coordinates of your position location so the pilot can pick you up.
2. To navigate from one location to another; for example, you need to travel from
a lookout to the fire perimeter.
3. To create digitized maps; for example, you are assigned to plot the fire
perimeter and hot spots.
4. To determine distance between two different points.

Advantages of GPS:
 GPS is extremely easy to navigate as it tells you to the direction for each
turns you take or you have to take to reach to your destination.
 GPS works in all weather so you need not to worry of the climate as in
other navigating devices.
 The GPS costs you very low in comparison other navigation systems.
 The most attractive feature of this system is its100% coverage on the
planet.
 It also helps you to search the nearby restaurants, hotels and gas stations
and is very useful for a new place.
 Due to its low cost, it is very easy to integrate into other technologies like
cell phone.
 The system is updated regularly by the US government and hence is very
advance.
 This is the best navigating system in water as in larger water bodies we
are often misled due to lack of proper directions.
Disadvantages of Global Positioning System
 Sometimes the GPS may fail due to certain reasons and in that case you
need to carry a backup map and directions.
 If you are using GPS on a battery operated device, there may be a battery
failure and you may need a external power supply which is not always
possible.
 Sometimes the GPS signals are not accurate due to some obstacles to the
signals such as buildings, trees and sometimes by extreme atmospheric
conditions such as geomagnetic storms.

GPS Error

There are many sources of possible errors that will degrade the accuracy of
positions computed by a GPS receiver. The travel time taken by the GPS satellite
signals can be changed by atmospheric effects; when a GPS signal passes
through the ionosphere and troposphere it is refracted, causing the speed of the
signal to be different from the speed of a GPS signal in space. Small variations in
the atomic clocks on board the satellites can translate to large position errors; a
clock error of 1 nanosecond translates to 1 foot or .3 meters user error on the
ground. A multipath effect occurs when signals transmitted from the satellites
bounce off a reflective surface before getting to the receiver antenna. During this
process, the receiver gets the signal in straight line path as well as delayed path
(multiple paths). The effect is similar to a ghost or double image on a TV set.

Geometric Dilution of Precision (GDOP)

Satellite geometry can also affect the accuracy of GPS positioning. This effect is
refers as Geometric Dilution of Precision (GDOP). Which is refers to where the
satellites are in related to one another, and is a measure of the quality of the
satellite configuration. It can be able to modify other GPS errors. Most GPS
receivers select the satellite constellation that will give the least uncertainty, the
best satellite geometry.

GPS receivers usually report the quality of satellite geometry in terms of Position
Dilution of Precision, or PDOP. PDOP are of two types, horizontal (HDOP) and
vertical (VDOP) measurements (latitude, longitude and altitude). We can check
the quality of the satellite positioning the receiver is currently available by the
PDOP value. A low DOP indicates a higher probability of accuracy, and a high
DOP indicates a lower probability of accuracy. Another term of PDOP is TDOP
(Time Dilution of Precision). TDOP refers to satellite clock offset. On a GPS
receiver can set a parameter known as the PDOP mask. This will cause the
receiver to ignore satellite configurations that have a PDOP higher than the limit
specified.

Selective Availability (SA):

Selective Availability occurs when the DOD intentionally degraded; the accuracy
of GPS signals is introducing artificial clock and ephemeris errors. During the
implementation of SA, it was the largest component of GPS error, causing error
of up to 100 meters. SA is a component of the Standard Positioning Service (SPS).