GPS Surveying
Traditional methods of surveying and navigation resort to tedious field and astronomical observation for deriving positional and directional information. Diverse field conditions, seasonal variation and many unavoidable circumstances always bias the traditional field approach. However, due to rapid advancement in electronic systems, every aspect of human life is affected to a great deal. Field of surveying and navigation is tremendously benefited through electronic devices. Many of the critical situations in surveying/navigation are now easily and precisely solved in short time.
SEGMENTS OF GPS
For better understanding of GPS, we normally consider three major segments viz. space segment, Control segment and User segment. Space segment deals with GPS satellites systems, Control segment describes ground based time and orbit control prediction and in User segment various types of existing GPS receiver and its application is dealt .
Table 2 gives a brief account of the function and of various segments along with input and output information.
Table 2. Functions of various segments of GPS
Figure 4.3: The Space, Control and User segments of GPS
GLONASS (Global Navigation & Surveying System) a similar system to GPS is being developed by former Soviet Union and it is considered to be a valuable complementary system to GPS for future application.