What is GPS? What are its uses?
What is GPS? What are its uses?
The Global Positioning System (GPS) tells you where you are on Earth.
There are five main uses of GPS:
- Location — Determining a position.
- Navigation — Getting from one location to another.
- Tracking — Monitoring object or personal movement.
- Mapping — Creating maps of the world.
- Timing — Making it possible to take precise time measurements.
Across the globe the GPS provides critical positioning capabilities to military, commercial and civil users.
Global Position System of India and Other Countries
The countries that have their own GPS or navigation system of satellites are India, Japan, USA, Russia, China and European Union. However, the number of satellites and the area that they can cover is different for each of the above mentioned countries.
India
A group of 7 satellites that provides Global positioning system (GPS) service in India is the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) also known as NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation). Apart from giving coverage in entire India, its coverage extends upto a distance of 1500 km from India.
- Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) of Japan – It is a regional satellite system covering Asia-Oceania region apart from Japan.
- BeiDou of China – Asia-Pacific region is its area of coverage.
- GLONASS of Russia – It has a group of 24 satellites providing the required information.
- Galileo of European Union – Became operational in 2016, with a constellation of 30 satellites.
- GPS of United States of America (USA) – It is a grouping of 32 satellites. It has been in operation since 1978. It is the World’s most used GPS system..
The Global Positioning System (GPS) tells you where you are on Earth.
There are five main uses of GPS:
- Location — Determining a position.
- Navigation — Getting from one location to another.
- Tracking — Monitoring object or personal movement.
- Mapping — Creating maps of the world.
- Timing — Making it possible to take precise time measurements.
Across the globe the GPS provides critical positioning capabilities to military, commercial and civil users.
Global Position System of India and Other Countries
The countries that have their own GPS or navigation system of satellites are India, Japan, USA, Russia, China and European Union. However, the number of satellites and the area that they can cover is different for each of the above mentioned countries.
India
A group of 7 satellites that provides Global positioning system (GPS) service in India is the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) also known as NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation). Apart from giving coverage in entire India, its coverage extends upto a distance of 1500 km from India.
- Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) of Japan – It is a regional satellite system covering Asia-Oceania region apart from Japan.
- BeiDou of China – Asia-Pacific region is its area of coverage.
- GLONASS of Russia – It has a group of 24 satellites providing the required information.
- Galileo of European Union – Became operational in 2016, with a constellation of 30 satellites.
- GPS of United States of America (USA) – It is a grouping of 32 satellites. It has been in operation since 1978. It is the World’s most used GPS system..
