GNSS and the value of more satellite systems
Bernhard Richter
Leica Geosystems GNSS Business Director
"GNSS and the value of more satellite systems"
After a decade of discussions, the European Union agreed on the Galileo requirements and, even more important, there is agreement on the budget. Galileo’s full operational capability of 30 satellites by 2020 appears to be safe, as it is unlikely that the assured budgets will be withdrawn. The Chinese BeiDou system has offered a navigation service since 2000, but the speed at which the system has been developed recently has surprised all the experts. As if that isn’t enough, BeiDou announced an accelerated expansion, with 35 satellites by 2017, rather than 2020 as planned.
The rapid development of multi-constellation and multi-frequency GNSS is offering a great opportunity to improve the performance of high precision RTK positioning. Using multiple systems can significantly enhance signal acquisition, satellite visibility, spatial geometry and measurement redundancy. The use of the new wideband signals such as GPS L5 provides more immunity to interference and enables novel approaches to mitigating ionospheric errors. To fully exploit these benefits, advanced tracking techniques and positioning algorithms are needed which are able to adapt to changing conditions on the fly. Leica Geosystems calls this a self-learning GNSS.
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