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Global Positioning System

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The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) developed by the United States Department of Defense and managed by the United States Air Force 50th Space Wing. It is the only fully functional GNSS in the world, can be used freely by anyone, anywhere, and is often used by civilians for navigation purposes. It uses a constellation of between 24 and 32 medium Earth orbit satellites that transmit precise radiowave signals, which allow GPS receivers to determine their current location, the time, and their velocity. Its official name is NAVSTAR GPS. Although NAVSTAR is not an acronym, a few backronyms have been created for it.

Since it became fully operational on April 27, 1995, GPS has become a widely used aid to navigation worldwide, and a useful tool for map-making, land surveying, commerce, scientific uses, tracking and surveillance, and hobbies such as geocaching. Also, the precise time reference is used in many applications including the scientific study of earthquakes and as a required time synchronization method for cellular network protocols such as the IS-95 standard for CDMA.

For more information about Global Positioning System, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with gps

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Shoppers with smart phones IQ squeezing retailers (AP)

Shoppers with smart phones IQ squeezing retailers

Technology / Hi Tech

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(AP) -- The rise of smart phones, with their go-anywhere Web access, is changing the shopping game this holiday season.


A social network that ballooned

A social network that ballooned

Technology / Internet

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- On Tuesday, Dec. 1, members of the MIT Media Lab’s Human Dynamics Laboratory received an e-mail with a $40,000 proposition. The U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects ...


Gift Guide: Tech gadgets can boost your workouts (AP)

Gift Guide: Tech gadgets can boost your workouts

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

created Dec 05, 2009 | popularity 1.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(AP) -- In simpler times, maintaining good health was a matter of joining a gym or lacing up running shoes for a loop in the park. At most, you'd buy a watch with a digital display so you could time your laps.


Online retailers rev up deals to keep up momentum (AP)

Online retailers rev up deals to keep up momentum

Technology / Business

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- Retail Web sites kept amping up the deals Monday, the first day after the Thanksgiving holiday, to try to maintain the long weekend's strong online sales.


GPS cell phone apps challenge standalone devices

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

created Nov 28, 2009 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (5) | comments 3

(AP) -- The growth of cell phones with global-positioning technology is making life uncertain for the makers of personal navigational devices that help drivers figure out where they are and where to go.


New radar helps monitor site of century-old tragedy

New radar helps monitor site of century-old tragedy

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 27, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A University of Alberta researcher has turned the site of a southern Alberta rockslide tragedy into the proving ground for new equipment meant to avert such a disaster in the future.


Gift Guide: Accessories to jazz up mobile phones (AP)

Gift Guide: Accessories to jazz up mobile phones

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

created Nov 27, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

People you know have spent small fortunes on shiny new smart phones such as the iPhone 3GS, a BlackBerry or the Droid. But the devices still don't have all the features they want.


New Method to Measure Snow, Soil Moisture With GPS May Benefit Meteorologists, Farmers

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 20, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- A research team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder has found a clever way to use traditional GPS satellite signals to measure snow depth as well as soil and vegetation moisture, a technique expected ...


Cars sit in traffic on a highway

Netherlands to levy 'green' road tax by the kilometre

Technology / Hi Tech

created Nov 13, 2009 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (5) | comments 8

The Dutch government said Friday it wants to introduce a "green" road tax by the kilometre from 2012 aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent and halving congestion.


Seeing stars, Proba-2 platform passes its first health check

Seeing stars, Proba-2 platform passes its first health check

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 11, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Into its second week in orbit, Proba-2's spacecraft platform has proven to be in excellent health. This leaves the way clear for commissioning the many new technology payloads aboard the mini-satellite, ...


Researchers to develop probes to study cellular GPS

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

An international group of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, Goettingen Medical School in Germany and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom have received a Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) grant ...


GPS to track blue sheep and snow leopard

GPS to track blue sheep and snow leopard

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 06, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists hope to improve the survival odds of the endangered snow leopard in Nepal by venturing into the remote Himalayas to study its main prey, the Bharal or blue sheep.


Garmin Nuvifone G60

GPS phone offerings: Price is Nuvifone G60's downfall; Navigon is on the money

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 1

GPS navigation is morphing from a cool luxury to just one more thing you expect out of a decent smart phone. But different phones approach the issue in different ways.


MIT MAV

Flying MAV Navigates Without GPS (w/ Video)

Technology / Engineering

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (13) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- During the last several years, researchers have been building micro air vehicles (MAVs) that can autonomously fly through different environments by relying on GPS for navigation. Recently, ...


Garmin Nuvifone G60

Garmin Nuvifone G60, sold by AT&T

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

created Oct 29, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Product: Garmin Nuvifone G60, sold by AT&T