ELECTRONIC

NAVIGATION AIDS.
SATELLITE NAVIGATION SYSTEMS.
BY
JOSEPH O. MONDAY
 SATELLITE-BASE NAVIGATION
SYSTEMS
GENERAL OBJECTIVES: At the end, the students will be
able to demonstrate a knowledge and understanding
of the following:
1.0 the satellite navigation system
1.1 the principles of the satellite navigation system.
1.2 the configuration of NNSS (Navy navigation satellite
system) satellite orbits and period of satellite vehicle
SV.
INTR0DUCTION.
HISTORY AND BACKGROUNND.
Satellite-based positioning was begun in 1957 with
the first soviet satellite, Sputnik 1.
Determining the position of the satellite was possible when
the observer himself was in a known position and able to
measure the Doppler shift of the signal transmitted by the
satellite.

The transit system became the board-ocean navigation
system,

the broad-ocean area oil-survey reference system,

the international boundary survey reference system,

the department of Defense geodetic-survey reference system

and a time distribution system.
Modern satellite navigation is based on the use of
THE PRINCIPLE OF THE SATELLITE NAVIGATION SYSTEM.

no-request range measurement between

navigational satellite and the user. It means that the
information about the satellite’s coordinates given to
the user, is included into navigation signal.
The way of range measurements is based on the
calculation of the receiving signal time delay
compared with the signals, generated by the user’s
equipment.
A global positioning capability with accuracy of the order of 100 meters.
1.2 NAVY NAVIGATION SATELLITE SYSTEM. (NNSS).
• The Americans turned the whole thing around and thus
became able, with the help of Doppler measurements, to
fix a position on the earth when the orbits of the satellite
were known.
• On the basis of this, they developed the transit system
known as NNSS (Navy Navigation satellite system) that was
brought into civilian operation in 1967.
• The system was based on six low-orbit satellites
circling in polar (i.e. orbits that intersect each
other at the poles of the earth) at an altitude of
approximately 1075 km above the earth’s
surface. The transit system was put to
widespread use and was of great significance to
electronic global positioning. The system was
closed down in 1997.
WHY?
• The reason for this was that transit lacked continuous coverage
and was subject to geographical limitations.
• The accuracy of the system was dependent on the velocity of
the user being fed as precise information to the Transit receiver.

IMPROVED COVERAGE.
• It requires high-orbit satellites that cover a greater area of the
earth’s surface within a certain period of time.
• For this reasons the Doppler effect is not used in conjunction
with such satellites as it becomes very small at such distance.
PRINCIPLES OF THE SATELLITE NAVIGATION
SYSTEM.
• The principle of using high-orbit satellite equipped with atomic
clocks forms the basis of the American military satellite navigation
system NAVSTAR-GPS (Navigation Satellite Time and Ranging- Global
Position System). It’s often referred to simply as GPS (Global
Position System).
• The Atomic clock is a very accurate time reference that renders
possible the measurement of,
• Time and range calculations,
• between satellite users.
• GPS provides continuous position,
• Time,
• Speed with a degree of accuracy that far exceeds the earlier global
systems.
THE IMPORTANT OF THE GPS TO THE SHIPPING
TRADE.

• The GPS as a globally recognized navigation

equipment which gives global coverage and
excellent positioning accuracy make it useful to the
shipping trade.
• The system also has a wide range of uses e.g. seismic
surveying, land surveying, geodetic surveying,
positioning cars, and monitoring motor vehicles or
trains with dangerous or valuable cargo.
1.3 THE PRINCIPLE OF DOPPLER
COUNT
• 1.3 THE PRINCIPLE OF DOPPLER COUNT
• The Doppler effect, was described in 1842 by Christian Andreas Doppler.
• That is the change or shift in the frequency or wavelength of a due to
relative movement between an emitting or reflected sound source and
the receiver.
• This change in frequency is called Doppler Frequency Shift (DFS), which
equals the difference between the transmitted and the received in
frequencies.
• Doppler count therefore, is the time difference between the signal
transmission and return of the signal.
 1.4 THE PROTENTIAL SOURSES OF ERROR
What do we mean by error?
• Any causes that contribute to a loss of precision in the calculation of the
user’s position.
What types of error are we talking about?
• Errors that affect the time signal broadcast from an SPACE VEHICLE-
Satellite. (SV)
A time signal from an SV gives
us distance (a pseudorange)
from that satellite.
• Error that affect the estimated position of an SV in space.
We need to know the position
of an SV to know our position
with respect to it.
Sources and their error contributions to user positions.

• Satellite clocks – well under 1 meter.

• Ephemeris error – each satellite broadcasts
ephemeris data that precisely describe it orbit.
• The ephemeris data can be used to plot the
location of an SV in earth-centered, earth-fixed
(ECEF) X,Y,Z coordinates.
Why is it important to know its orbit?
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO KNOW ITS
ORBIT?
• Your GPS receiver estimates your position using
the calculated pseudorange from an SV at an
estimated position
• Your receiver calculates the estimated position
of an SV using:
• The orbital elements for the specific SV and the
current time.
• The SV position are given in earth centered,
earth-fixed X,Y,Z.
• THE GPS control segment is in charge of updating
each SV’s ephemeris on a regular basis (about
every 2 hours)
• Satellite orbits are attenuated by gravitational
interactions with the earth and moon.
• The solar wind modifies the speed of an SV and
hence its orbit.
• (The solar wind is powerful enough to accelerate
spacecraft).
 
1.6 GPS GROUND STATIONS
• GPS GROUND STATIONS
• Is the Part of the control segment that monitor the positions of each
SV over time and update each SV’s ephemeris.

Overall, ephemeris error contributes less than 1 meter of position error

ANTENNA ERROR
ANTENNA ERROR
• Error due to receiver electronics could be
attributed to various sources of noise,
• problems with signal acquisition (poor antennas)
• or computational power can lead to a range of
error values for positions.
Contributes 1 to 2 meters error.