256 pgs, 1992, Springer
ISBN 978-0442010409

This highly accessible, mathematics-free treatment provides specialists and non-specialist alike with valuable insights into the revolutionary Navstar Global Positioning System, a space-based radionavigation system that enables an unlimited number of users to receive passively their longitude, latitude, and altitude. In clear, straightforward prose, this comprehensive treatise:

• Explains what the Navstar GPS is and how it compares with other space-based navigation systems
• Illustrates how you can use it effectively to find your position, velocity, and exact time
• Helps you select the right Navstar receiver in keeping with your needs and budget
• Outlines the many ways you can take full advantage of Navstar GPS
• Shows you how to enhance its performance capabililties
• Discusses the many applications that have already produced significant benefits for its users.

The book offers lucid descriptions of the Navstar GPS as it is now being applied internationally in air traffic control, geodetic surveying, offshore oil exploration, automotive and railroad navigation, archeology, and its relevance to the military, including it's uses in strategic and cruise missiles, amphibious warfare, and carrier landings. It explores such new areas as differential navigation, including applications and benefits of pseudosatellites, and integral navigation, with coverage of ring laser and fiber optic gyros. The book also details the experimental work now being done throughout the world on the interoperability of Navstar GPS with other navigation systems, examines the satellite architechture and user set design work in Russia and Canada, and predicts future applications for Navstar navigation.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. The Science of Navigation
2. The Navstar GPS
3. Performance Comparisons for Today's Radionavigation Systems
4. User-Set Architecture
5. User-set Performance
6. Differential Navigation and Pseudo-Satellites
7. Interferometry Techniques
8. Integrated Navigation Systems
9. Interoperability with Other Navigation Systems
10. The Navstar Satellites
11. Precise Time Synchronization
12. Digital Avionics and Air Traffic Control
13. Geodetic Surveying and Satellite Positioning
14. Military Applications
15. Civil Applications
    
    Appendix A: Additional Sources of Information
    Appendix B: Today's Global Family of User-Set Makers
    Appendix C: Navigation-Related Clubs and Organizations
    Appendix D: Navigation-Related Magazines and Periodicals