What Is GPS?
GPS, or the Global Positioning System, is a global navigation satellite system that provides location, velocity and time synchronization.
What Is The Main Function Of GPS?
GPS, or the Global Positioning System, is a global navigation satellite system that provides location, velocity and time synchronization. GPS is everywhere. You can find GPS systems in your car, your smartphone and your watch. GPS helps you get where you are going, from point A to point B.
How Does GPS Work?
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a navigation system using satellites, a receiver and algorithms to synchronize location, velocity and time data for air, sea and land travel.
The satellite system consists of a constellation of 24 satellites in six Earth-centered orbital planes, each with four satellites, orbiting at 13,000 miles (20,000 km) above Earth and traveling at a speed of 8,700 mph (14,000 km/h).
While we only need three satellites to produce a location on earth’s surface, a fourth satellite is often used to validate the information from the other three. The fourth satellite also moves us into the third-dimension and allows us to calculate the altitude of a device.
What Are The Three Elements Of GPS?
GPS is made up of three different components, called segments, that work together to provide location information.
The three segments of GPS are:
- Space (Satellites) — The satellites circling the Earth, transmitting signals to users on geographical position and time of day.
- Ground control — The Control Segment is made up of Earth-based monitor stations, master control stations and ground antenna. Control activities include tracking and operating the satellites in space and monitoring transmissions. There are monitoring stations on almost every continent in the world, including North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.
- User equipment — GPS receivers and transmitters including items like watches, smartphones and telematic devices.
What Are The Uses Of GPS?
GPS is a powerful and dependable tool for businesses and organizations in many different industries. Surveyors, scientists, pilots, boat captains, first responders, and workers in mining and agriculture, are just some of the people who use GPS on a daily basis for work. They use GPS information for preparing accurate surveys and maps, taking precise time measurements, tracking position or location, and for navigation. GPS works at all times and in almost all weather conditions.
There are five main uses of GPS:
- Location — Determining a position.
- Navigation — Getting from one location to another.
- Tracking — Monitoring object or personal movement.
- Mapping — Creating maps of the world.
- Timing — Making it possible to take precise time measurements.
Some specific examples of GPS use cases include:
- Emergency Response: During an emergency or natural disaster, first responders use GPS for mapping, following and predicting weather, and keeping track of emergency personnel. In the EU and Russia, the eCall regulation relies on GLONASS technology (a GPS alternative) and telematics to send data to emergency services in the case of a vehicle crash, reducing response time. Read more about GPS tracking for first responders.
- Entertainment: GPS can be incorporated into games and activities like Pokémon Go and Geocaching.
- Health and fitness: Smartwatches and wearable technology can track fitness activity (such as running distance) and benchmark it against a similar demographic.
- Construction, mining and off-road trucking: From locating equipment, to measuring and improving asset allocation, GPS enables companies to increase return on their assets. Check out our posts on construction vehicle tracking and off-road equipment tracking.
- Transportation: Logistics companies implement telematics systems to improve driver productivity and safety. A truck tracker can be used to support route optimization, fuel efficiency, driver safety and compliance.
How Accurate Is GPS?
GPS device accuracy depends on many variables, such as the number of satellites available, the ionosphere, the urban environment and more.
Some factors that can hinder GPS accuracy include:
- Physical obstructions: Arrival time measurements can be skewed by large masses like mountains, buildings, trees and more.
- Atmospheric effects: Ionospheric delays, heavy storm cover and solar storms can all affect GPS devices.
- Ephemeris: The orbital model within a satellite could be incorrect or out-of-date, although this is becoming increasingly rare.
- Numerical miscalculations: This might be a factor when the device hardware is not designed to specifications.
- Artificial interference: These include GPS jamming devices or spoofs.
Accuracy tends to be higher in open areas with no adjacent tall buildings that can block signals. This effect is known as an urban canyon. When a device is surrounded by large buildings, like in downtown Manhattan or Toronto, the satellite signal is first blocked, and then bounced off a building, where it is finally read by the device. This can result in miscalculations of the satellite distance.
Advantages of GPS:
- The GPS signal is available worldwide. Therefore, users will not be deprived of it anywhere
- GPS can be used anywhere in the world, it is powered by world satellites, so it can be accessed anywhere, a solid tracking system and a GPS receiver are all you need.
- The GPS system gets calibrated by its own and hence it is easy to be used by anyone.
- It provides users with information based on location in real time. This is helpful in different applications such as mapping (used in cars), location (geocaching), analysis of performance (used in sports), etc. Example: Application for Google Earth.
GPS Prices In Ghana:
Garmin eTrex 22x, Rugged Handheld GPS Navigator GHS 2448
GPS Navigation for Car,Latest 2022 Map, 9 inch Touch Screen Real Voice Spoken GHS 1671
Spot 3 Satellite GPS Messenger – GHS 3378
Garmin eTrex 10 Worldwide Handheld GPS Navigator GHS 1969
Garmin GPSMAP 65, Button-Operated Handheld with Expanded Satellite Support GHS 4707
Garmin GPSMAP 86i, Floating Handheld GPS with Button Operation, Inreach Satellite GHS 7090
Garmin GPSMAP 66i, GPS Handheld and Satellite Communicator, TopoActive Mapping GHS 8162