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Europe's Own SatNav Galileo Goes Live

posted by FatPhil on Saturday December 17 2016, @01:19AM   
from the god-didn't-buy-any-of-these dept.

On IRC, Bytram brings us:

After 17 years, numerous setbacks and three times over budget, Europe's Galileo satnav system went live on Thursday promising to outperform rivals and guarantee regional self-reliance.

Initial services, free to users worldwide, are available only on smartphones and navigation units fitted with Galileo-compatible microchips.

Some devices may need only a software update to start using the service, according to the European Commission, which funds the 10 billion euro ($11 billion) project.

Source: http://phys.org/news/2016-12-galileo-europe-satnav.html

There's a list of Galileo-enabled devices at www.useGalileo.eu. One thought that goes through this editor's mind is that wIth two sources of data, the deliberate inaccuracy in the US military system seems somewhat futile now, I wonder if that misfeature is reaching end-of-life?

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Original Submission

• Re:Look up to the skies and see Re:Look up to the skies and see (Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday December 17 2016, @01:57AM

  by frojack (1554) on Saturday December 17 2016, @01:57AM (#442326) Journal

  We know for certain tha Glonass and Galileo do not have any accuracy reduction modes. Right? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

  Anyway, I've heard it said that using multiple systems (GPS+Glonass or Glonass+ Galileo) does not yield more reliable accuracy and that it could actually increase uncertainty.

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• Re:Look up to the skies and see (Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday December 17 2016, @02:12AM

  by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Saturday December 17 2016, @02:12AM (#442329) Journal

  1. Find place with precisely known coordinates. Determine and compare coordinates based on GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, etc.

  2. Go to sidewalk and open mapping application. Zoom all the way in and see if it can place you on the sidewalk. Or standing on the sidewalk crack 2 inches from the curb. Etc.

  This is not some crazy mystery. The people making the SoCs will be able to determine whether a combination of signals boosts accuracy. And they are not limited to satnav... they can use Wi-Fi networks for instance. GPS Block III boosts signal strength and allows you to correct for ionospheric delay:

  The immediate effect of having two civilian frequencies being transmitted from one satellite is the ability to directly measure, and therefore remove, the ionospheric delay error for that satellite. Without such a measurement, a GPS receiver must use a generic model or receive ionospheric corrections from another source (such as a Satellite Based Augmentation System). Advances in technology for both the GPS satellites and the GPS receivers have made ionospheric delay the largest source of error in the C/A signal.

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