Great news for people standing in the rain doing fieldwork - the EU constellation of positioning satellites (Galielo) are now offering initial services which adds to the existing GNSS constellations like GPS and GLONASS, etc. More satellites means better accuracy (no more 'poor PDOP' - an in-joke if you've ever used a Trimble rover), less chance of dropping below the minimum required to calculate 3D position and faster initialisation times too so you can get out of the rain even sooner. With eighteen satellites in orbit now they need 24 for the full constellation (2 failed in launch on a Soyuz rocket early in 2016) and will be adding to functionality over the coming years.
Anyone interested in more detail on GNSS satellite orbits - I recommend this neat webpage - stuff in space. If you search for Sentinel 2a, Meteosat and Galileo you will see examples of three main orbits, polar (low earth orbit), geostationary and the one that Galileo is in, a medium earth orbit.
Will existing devices be able to tap into this new network?
ReplyDeleteOnly if 'galileo ready'. Existing phones i would be doubtful of and I cant say for sure on next gen phones but certainly survey gear rtk, vrs etc has been marketed as galileo ready for the last few years.
DeleteGreat to know about Galileo being functional now. Its interoperability with GPS will ensure an enhanced and reliable positioning for various applications. Some of my colleagues at CTTC have been working on developing GEMMA testbed for multi-sensor navigation system. This system is an extensible module for generating and analysing trajectories (http://www.cttc.es/project/generic-extensible-and-modular-multisensor-navigation-analysis-system/). The involvement of Galileo would be beneficial for these kind of research activities.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Must get you to tell me more about that next time i talk to you.
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