Global Positioning System

Global positioning System has revolutionized positioning

concepts, though it started primarily as a navigation system. It

has wide range of geodetic, geophysical, navigational, marine,

military and social applications.

The NAVSTAR GPS (Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging

Global positioning System) is a satellite based radio navigation

system providing precise three-dimensional position, navigation

and time information to suitably equipped users everywhere on

a continuous basis.
 Global positioning System works with signals
received by a receiver from satellites

 It is radio navigation system providing precise

X,Y,Z positions and Time

 Different types of GPS receivers have been

developed to observe signals transmitted by the
satellites
GPS has been under development in the U.S.A. since 1973. it is

primarily a military system with limited access to civilian users.

The system consists of 24 satellites placed in near circular orbits

arranged in 6 orbital planes of 55 degrees inclination at 20200

km above the earth’s surface and having 12 hours periods, so

that at least 4 satellites are available for observations for

positioning on ground/sea/air at any time through out the year

anywhere in the world. GPS receivers have been developed to

observe signals transmitted by the satellites and achieve sub-

meter accuracy in point positioning and a few centimeters in

relative positioning.
History of the GPS

• 1969—Defense Navigation Satellite System (DNSS)

formed
• 1973—NAVSTAR (Navigation Satellite Timing and
Ranging Global positioning System) Global
Positioning System developed
• 1978—first 4 satellites launched

Delta rocket launch

History of the GPS

1993—24th satellite
launched; initial
operational capability
1995—full operational
capability
May 2000—Military
accuracy available to all
users
Advantages Over Classical Methods

 Inter visibility between points is not required

 All weather operation

 Day and night operation

 Distance up to thousands of kilometer can be measured

 Fast and economical for professional Surveying Project

Description of GPS System

(a) Space Segment

(b) Control segment

(c) User Segment

9
Space Segment

The space segment consists 24 satellites including three active

spares. The satellites are placed in near circular orbits in six

orbital planes with an orbital inclination of 55 degrees at a height

of about 20,200 km. The orbital period is exactly 12 hours of

sidereal time and provides repeated satellite configurations every

day four minutes earlier with respect to universal time. Each

satellite transmits signals on L1 (154 x 10.23MHZ=1575.42 MHZ)

and L2 (120 x 10.23 MHZ=1227.60 MHZ) carrier frequencies.

Corresponding wave length are L1=19.05cm and L2=24.45 cm.

Navigation and system data including a satellite ephemeris,

atmospheric propagation correction data and satellites clock bias

information is superimposed on these signals. The operational

GPS satellite has design life of 7.5 years. Electrical power is

supplied by two solar energy-converting panels that continually

track the sun and charge three batteries for use when the earth

eclipses the sun. Each GPS satellite has an on-board propulsion

system for maintaining orbit position and for stability control.

The Global Positioning System (GPS)
Control Segment
The tasks of the control segment are to:

-Monitor and control the satellite system continuously

-predict the satellite ephemeredes and the behavior of the

satellite clocks.

-Update periodically the navigation message for each particular

satellite.

Belonging to the control segment are the Master Control station

(MCS), several monitor stations (MS) located around the world,

and ground antennas (GA) for uploading data into the satellites.
 Control Segment

US Space Command

Cape Canaveral
Hawaii
Kwajalein Atoll

Diego Garcia
Ascension
Is.

Master Control Station Monitor Station Ground Antenna

The operational control segment (OCS) for GPS consists of the

Master Control Station near Colorado springs (USA), three

monitor stations and ground antennas in kwajalein, Ascension and

diego Garcia, as two more monitor stations in Colorado Springs

and Hawaii. The monitor stations receive all satellite signals, from

which they determine the pseudoranges to all visible satellites,

and transmit the range data along with the local meteorological

data via data link to the master control station.

Master control station precomputes satellite ephemeredes and

the behavior of the satellite clocks and formulates the navigation

data (message). The message data are transmitted to the

ground antennas and up-linked via S-band to the satellites in

view. Because of the global distribution of the upload antennas

at least three contacts per day can be realized between the

control segment and each particular satellite.

User Segment

Appropriate GPS receivers are required to use GPS

signals for navigation and positioning. Design of GPS receivers

is changing fast to suit the requirement of users. New models of

GPS receivers appear fast, and the bandwagon is growing. One

million GPS receivers are projected to be in use be end of 1995

and 10 million by 2005. GPS World Receivers survey (GPS

world January 1999 issue) lists 58 manufacturers and handreds

of models to choose from, which makes it difficult to assess

suitability of a particulars GPS receiver. The cost of GPS

receivers varies from Rs. 10,000/- to Rs. 10,000,00/-

Essentials of GPS

The antenna detects the electromagnetic waves arriving from the

satellites, converts the wave energy into an electric current,

amplifies the signal strength and hands the signals over to the

receiver electronics. The GPS signal structure requires that all

GPS antennas must be circularly polarized. The antennas have to

be very sensitive because of the rather weak satellite signal, and

the gain pattern must allow signal reception from all elevations

and azimuths of the visible hemisphere.

Main Receiver Components

 Antennas with preamplifier

 RF section with signal identification and signal processing

(Channel)

 Microprocessor for receiver control, data sampling, data

processing (navigation solution)

 Precision oscillator

 Power supply

 User interface, command & display panel

TYPES OF RECEIVERS

(a) Navigation Receivers

(b) Surveying Receivers

(c) Geodetic Receivers

(a) Navigation Receivers

These receivers are normally single –frequency, C/A code, hand

–held light weight receivers, which can yield the position with a

few meters to few tens of meters accuracy. Single channel

receivers, which can track 4 or more satellites by either

sequential or multiplexing technique, which were more common

in this category, are now being replaced by two or five channel

receivers.
(b) Surveying Receivers

The surveying type of receivers are single frequently, multi-

channel receivers, which are useful for most surveying

applications, including cadastral mapping applications.

Providing tertiary survey control, engineering surveys, etc.

These are more expensive than the navigation type of

receivers, and more versatile.

(c) Geodetic Receivers

The Geodetic receivers are multi-channel, dual-frequency

receivers, generally with the capability of receiving and decoding

the P-code. They are heavier and more expensive than the

navigation and surveying receivers, ranging from the Rouge

receivers installed at the GPS tracking stations, to the portable

geodetic survey control receivers.

GPS Communication and Control
 How does GPS work?
Satellite ranging
Satellite locations

Satellite to user distance

Need four satellites to determine position

Distance measurement
Radio signal traveling at speed of light

Measure time from satellite to user

Low-tech simulation
Basic principle of Positioning with GPS
GPS Position Determination
 GPS Navigation

30
Basic Application of GPS
 Location - determining a basic position
 Navigation - getting from one location to
another
 Tracking - monitoring the movement of
people and things
 Mapping - creating maps of the world
 Timing - bringing precise timing to the world
 GPS Time
Universal Coordinated Time

Greenwich Mean Time GPS Time + 13* Zulu Time

Local Time: AM and PM (adjusted for local

time zone)

Military Time
(local time on a 24 hour clock)
* GPS Time is ahead of UTC by approximately 13 seconds
Signal From One Satellite

The receiver is
somewhere on
this sphere.
Signals From Two Satellites
Three Satellites (2D Positioning)
Three Dimensional (3D) Positioning
 Sources of GPS Error

Source Amount of Error

– Satellite clocks: 1.5 to 3.6 meters

– Orbital errors: < 1 meter
– Ionosphere: 5.0 to 7.0 meters
– Troposphere: 0.5 to 0.7 meters
– Receiver noise: 0.3 to 1.5 meters
– Multipath: 0.6 to 1.2 meters
– User error: Up to a kilometer or more
Measurement Technique with GPS

 Absolute Positioning

 Relative Positioning

 Differential GPS

 Kinematics GPS
 Absolute GPS Positioning Techniques

• The most common GPS positioning technique is

"absolute positioning."

• Most commercial hand-held GPS receivers provide

absolute (i.e. non-differential) positioning, with real-
time horizontal or vertical accuracies in the 10 m to
30 m range, depending on the receiver quality and
numerous other factors

• The receiver may be positioned to be stationary

over a point or in motion (i.e. kinematic positioning,
such as on a vehicle, aircraft, missile, or backpack).
(a) Absolute Positioning

In absolute positioning mode, the absolute coordinates of

the antenna position (Centered over service station) are

determine using single GPS receiver, by a method similar to

there section method used in plane tabling. The pseudo ranges

(the satellite –antenna range, contaminated by the receiver clock

bias) form minimum four satellite are observed at the given

epoch, from which the four unknown parameters the 3-D position

of the antenna (x, y, z,) and the receiver clock error can be

determine.
(b) Relative Positioning

In the translocation mode, with two or more GPS receiver

observing the same satellites simultaneously, many common

errors, including the major effect of SA get cancelled out, yielding

the relative positions of the two or more observing stations to a

very high level of accuracy. The length of the baseline between

two stations, and also the absolute position of the one of the

stations, if accurate position of the other station is known, can be

obtained to cum-level accuracy, using carrier phase

observations.
 Differential GPS (DGPS) Positioning

It is simply a process of determining the relative

differences in coordinates between two receiver
points, each of which is simultaneously observing /
measuring satellite code ranges and / or carrier
phases from the GPS satellite constellation
 Differential GPS (DGPS) PositioningCONTD.
The process actually involves the measurement of the
difference in ranges between the satellites and two or
more ground observing points. Typically, one GPS
receiver is located at a known "reference" station and
the other remote or "rover" receiver over an unknown
point. Both receivers simultaneously acquire GPS data
for post-processing

Alternatively, the reference receiver transmits data to

the rover receiver for "real-time" position computation
(c) Differential GPS
A modification of the relative positioning method is the
differential GPS (DGPS) technique. Where one of the two
receivers observing simultaneously is equipped with a transmitter
and other receiver (s) can receive the messages given by this
transmitter. The transmitting receiver is kept fixed on a point
whose location is known to high degree of accuracy. Based upon
this position, the receiver computes corrections to the
range/phase observations from a GPS satellite, and transmits
them to the other receiver, which can apply these corrections to
improve the accuracy of its own position computed from GPS
observations.
(d) Kinematic GPS

In the Kinematic GPS technique, one of the receivers is in

relative motion with respect to the other receiver, having been

mounted either on a vehicle, ship or aircraft. Even with the

difficulties encountered in obtaining the constantly changing

position of the moving receiver, the method also offers some

advantages over static surveying, including the ease with which

the ambiguity resolution (estimating the whole number of

wavelengths in the phase observable) can be done.

 Datum of a GPS Receiver
The mathematical model that the GPS system uses is
known as WGS84 ( World Geodetic System 84 ), this is
used inside every GPS to determine location. However
this model can vary by up to +/- 100 metres to Mean
Sea level. So GPS manufacturers began adding the
ability to give the height to MSL (Mean Sea Level) which
also aligned better with existing paper maps on land.

These days, most modern GPS receivers output the

latitude and longitude to WGS84 Datum, and the height
to MSL (Mean Sea Level) Datum.

However, it is not always possible to find (in the GPS

manual) what the vertical datum actually is. This set of
notes will hopefully allow someone to find out - whether
their
46
GPS vertical Datum is WGS84 OR MSL.
 WGS 84 and MSL

The difference between the WGS84 ellipsoid

and MSL datum, depends on where you are.
Using GPS horizontal location, one of the
following calculators can be used to find
"geoidal separation" (vertical distance
between WGS84 and MSL datum).

Using the expression:

• Height (WGS84) = Height (MSL) + Geoidal
Separation
GPS APPLICATIONS

 Geodetic Control Surveys

 Geodynamics

 Engineering and Monitoring

 Cadastral Survey, Land Information System and Geographical

Information System

 Precise Navigation, Marine Geodesy and Hydrography

(a) Geodetic Control Surveys

(a) The following objectives can be identified:-

 New precise control points

 Densification and improvement of existing network

 Control for all types of surveys

 Geoid and height determination

(b) Geodynamics

GPS offers a suitable technique for determination of recent

crustal movements, as relative accuracies of 1×10-6 to 1×10-7 of

the point distance can be achieved, even over long base lines.

The following main fields can be identified:-

 Global and continental plate motion and deformation

analysis.

 Regional crustal motion studies.

 Local monitoring of deformation and subsidence.

(c) Engineering and Monitoring
Unlimited possible uses can be conceived, as it is possible to
achieve sub-centimeter level accuracy over small distances :
Some fields of application are :-
Determination of geodetic control points for :
 large-scale surveys and mapping.
 Geographic information system (GIS)
 Photogrammetry
 Geophysical survey
 Intertial survey
 Antenna location in hydrographic surveying
 Archeological mapping
Monitoring object movements by repeated or continuous
measurements :

 ground subsidence (mining round water withdrawal)

 land slides

 Construction of dams

 Subsidence of offshore structures

 Settlement of buildings
Setting Out Local Networks for the Control of Engineering
Projects :

 Tunnel construction

 Particle accelerators

 Bridge construction

 Road construction

 Pipelines

 Waterways
Real-time guidance and control of vehicles :

 Construction vehicles

 Large excavators in open mining

 Forklifts in open storage areas (e.g. container yards).

 If two antennas (and receivers) are used, GPS can also be

employed as a method of determining directions.

Usually the direction is derived from the coordinates of the two

antenna’s phase center positions; hence precise carrier phase

resolution is required.
(d) Cadastral Survey, Land Information System and

Geographical Information System

GPS can be economically employed for all types of

cadastral survey work in combination with other modes of

surveying. It is powerful means to support LIS and GIS.

(e) Precise Navigation, Marine Geodesy and Hydrography
Because of the real-time capability continuous availability,
and the high accuracy potential, this field of use is very broad, is
still growing and developing fast, the possible applications and
the related accuracy requirements can be divided into three user
groups,
 Low accuracy requirements, about 100m in position, and 1
m/s in velocity.
 Medium accuracy requirements, about 1-10m in position and
0.1m/s in velocity.
 High accuracy requirements, better than 0.1m in position and
height, and 0.01m/s in velocity.