Gps Systems

For years and years, the family vacation could be overcome with stress and strife as dad drove and mom tried to read a map, but those days are over with the invention and mass marketing of GPS systems. Today, you can install one of the newest GPS systems in your vehicle and have voice prompted directions show you exactly where to go step by step with no problems and no fuss.

When people talk about GPS, they are usually talking about the GPS receiver, but GPS systems are more than just the tiny little receiver mounted on the dashboard of your car. GPS systems are a constellation of twenty seven Earth orbiting satellites – 24 of which are operational and 3 are used as back-up in case one of the others fails. The U.S. military developed and implemented this satellite network as a military navigation system, but soon opened it up to everybody else.

Each of the3,000- to 4,000-pound solar-powered satellites that comprise GPS systems circles the globe at about 12,000 miles (19,300 km), making two complete rotations every day. The orbits are arranged so that at any time, anywhere on Earth, there are at least four satellites "visible" in the sky. A GPS receiver's job is to locate four or more of these satellites, figure out the distance to each, and use this information to deduce its own location. This operation is based on a simple mathematical principle called trilateration.

With GPS systems, inconsistencies of atmospheric conditions affect the speed of the GPS signals as they pass through the Earth’s atmosphere and ionosphere. Correcting these errors is a significant challenge to improving GPS position accuracy with GPS systems. These effects are smallest when the satellite is directly overhead and become great for satellites nearer the horizon since the signal is affected for a longer time. Once the GPS systems receiver approximates the location and the location is known, a mathematical model can be used to estimate and compensate for these errors.

GPS systems are used for a variety of functions the most common of which is as a navigation aid. You program in your desired location and the GPS receiver will guide you step by step often with voice prompting. GPS systems can also be used to keep track of vehicles for a variety of reasons. Trucking companies use GPS systems to locate their trucks and improve efficiency with delivery times and routes taken.

GPS systems are great inventions that have revolutionized the travel industry. They are wonderful tools to use in many ways.

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