This article talks about how a gps tracking system works and what kinds of information one would expect to get from it. It goes into quite a bit of detail on these subjects and will help with getting up to speed on how gps tracking systems fit into our society today.
Author: Tyson J Stevenson
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 GPS 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.
GPS System 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.
About the author:
Tyson J Stevenson creates useful articles & reviews on a wide
variety of everyday subjects. Expect to see his name often. View
further samples of his work at HubbuH or at GPS Travking
Systems
