Common Applications of GPS Technology

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January 4, 2023 Business

The Global Positioning System – usually referred to as GPS – is a positioning, navigation, and timing network owned by the United States government. The system was developed as a military tool during the Cold War, which explains why it is operated by the Space Force – formerly a part of the US Air Force.

GPS consists of three main segments:

Space

The space-based segment of GPS consists of 24 operating satellites that work together as a constellation. These satellites remain equidistant in a Medium Earth Orbit. They transmit radio signals, which can be picked up by users with access to receivers.

Control

The control element of GPS involves several monitoring stations that ensure satellites are all orbiting and transmitting in the way that they should be. Control stations work to integrate new satellites into constellations and upload navigational data.

User

Users have access to equipment that contains some kind of GPS receiver. GPS receivers pick up on the radio signals transmitted by the space-based satellites and then use this signal to work out where in the world they are in relation to a triangle of different satellite signals.

GPS is immensely useful. Here are some of its most important applications.

Vehicle Tracking

Vehicle tracking technology relies almost entirely upon GPS and its Russian equivalent GLONASS. Vehicle trackers are very useful. They are used in the logistics industry to keep track of fleet locations and develop useful datasets. They are used by militaries, emergency services, and police forces to maintain situational awareness. Vehicle tracking is now one of the most common uses of the Global Positioning System.

Personal Navigation

If you have ever used the mapping function on your phone or the navigation system in your car, you are the lucky beneficiary of the Global Positioning System. Although not as accurate as the GPS navigation systems used by the United States Military, these systems are still amazingly useful. Almost all cars produced in the last decade have come equipped with a GPS receiver for navigational use. Likewise, almost all mobile phones contain receivers.

Rail

Railway networks all around the world use the Global Positioning System to keep track of trains and enforce safety measures. Many railways use single tracks, meaning that only one train can travel along the track at any given time, passing at designated point-equipped loops. In the past, train drivers had to exchange tokens to ensure that no other train was on their area of the track. These days, drivers have all the information that they need right on their dashboards, thanks to GPS.

Weaponry

In the 1960s, American scientists used a primitive precursor to GPS technology to monitor nuclear submarines as they conducted their potential world-ending secret missions. Today, GPS is still used as a military tool, using signal processing methods that set the cutoff frequency in low pass filter to let only the necessary low-frequency signals through, while blocking high-frequency noise to improve accuracy. The whole GPS is still operated by the United States Department of Defense. American and allied military users have access to far more accurate GPS readings than civilian users.

One of the ways in which GPS has been most influential for militaries is its use in the guiding of precision munitions. American and allied nations currently use a system known as the JDAM. JDAM systems can be added to conventional bombs. It is essentially a GPS receiver, jamming equipment, and a set of fins that enable the bomb to be dropped on an extremely specific location with a great deal of accuracy. The JDAM system was highly effective in the US’ otherwise disastrous military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, where it was shown to hit the target the vast majority of the time. The US is mulling over the provision of JDAM GPS-guided bombs to Ukraine. The Russian military has no access to GPS and uses GLONASS, a similar system developed in the Soviet Union. All weapons, however, are only as accurate and ‘humane’ as the people using them. Civilian deaths still occur when using GPS-guided bombs.

Environmental Protection

As climate change becomes more and more of a threat, humans have become more inventive in their efforts to counteract it. The Global Positioning System has been put to use in the field of environmental protection and climate monitoring in several fascinating ways.

One of the ways in which GPS is most commonly harnessed to protect the environment is the tracking of endangered species. Endangered whales, for instance, are frequently fitted with GPS trackers. Scientists can then use tracking data to improve their understanding of where endangered animals breed, feed, and migrate.

GPS aids in the creation of accurate aerial studies of areas that may be under threat. Using accurate satellite studies created with GPS help, changes in the environment can be monitored extremely closely and flashpoints that need urgent help can be identified.

GPS receiver equipped buoys are dropped into oil spills. Being carried by the spill, they help environmental response teams work out exactly where the unfortunately unbound oil is headed.

These are just a few of the ways in which GPS technology can be used to aid environmental improvement and surveying efforts.

Space Travel and Satellites

The concepts that drove the development of GPS were first understood during the flight of Sputnik – the first ever human-made satellite. After the Soviet Union launched the satellite, scientists were able to track its movements using the Doppler effect years before the launch of GPS and its Soviet equivalent GLONASS.

Today, GPS, which relies upon the Doppler effect to work, is still used to track spacecraft. Accurately tracking satellites and manned spacecraft is immensely important. Rogue spacecraft can collide, fall out of orbit, or fail to get into position correctly. GPS is also used to track launch craft as they head towards their intended orbit.

All spacecraft need to be able to ‘tell’ time to be properly controlled from the ground. In the early days of space exploration, expensive atomic clocks were used to ensure regulated time telling. These days, a simple GPS receiver can ensure just as much accuracy, which makes things a lot easier and much more accurate.