“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.
According to the 2023 Arctic Report Card by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), new records have been documented showing that human-induced warming of the atmosphere, ocean and land is creating adverse impacts on people, ecosystems and communities across the Arctic region. The report states the Arctic is experiencing a faster rate of warming than any other part of the world. Overall, it was the Arctic’s sixth-warmest year on record. Sea ice extent continued to decline, with the past 17 Septembers now registering as the lowest on record.
Researchers from Chang’an University in China have developed a new method of tracking landslides. The team combined GNSS precise point positioning (PPP) techniques with a cumulative sum control chart (CUSUM) method. Conducted at the Tengqing landslide in Liupanshui, Guizhou Province, Southwest China, the study aims to enhance the precision in tracking the movements of the landslides and improve the overall reliability of the monitoring results.
Crabs on the move
Image: United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Georgia officials are asking the public for help in spotting non-native blue land crabs as they appear to be moving north in recent years, according to data collected by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). According to USGS, it is unclear whether this movement is driven by humans or by the crabs themselves, or if the crabs are breeding in their non-native homes. Officials worry about the damage caused by the crabs’ burrowing behavior. While scientists learn about how the species interacts with its new environment, several states are asking residents to report sightings.
India’s war on drugs
Image: evandrorigon / E+ / Getty Images
India’s border security force (BSF) has said it is battling an unprecedented UAV “menace” infiltrating the border with Pakistan, fueling the drug crisis in the state of Punjab and raising serious security issues, reported The Guardian. UAVs have dropped weapons such as pistols and Chinese-made assault rifles, as well as consignments of opium and heroin believed to be from Afghanistan.
Trimble has begun collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) to support a new UAV program offered by the Department of Aerospace Engineering.
Under the partnership, Trimble will provide the institution with direct georeferencing (DG) products for UAV survey and mapping, including a suite of Applanix board sets and supporting processing software. Trimble will also provide training and support to educate the UAV engineering team on how best to integrate and use the products within their teaching curriculum.
India is projected to be the fastest-growing UAV market by 2025, according to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The collaboration is designed to help the country develop local expertise in using UAV georeferencing best practices while providing future generations with the knowledge and capabilities to work with the latest UAV technology.
IIT Kanpur was declared an Institute of National Importance (INI) by the Government of India under the Institutes of Technology Act. With a dedicated program for UAV education, it receives government funding to develop UAV technology and build out labs to support student training and research. IIT Kanpur’s researchers are credited with creating the first solar-powered UAVs developed in India, named MARAAL-1 and MARAAL-2.
“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.
Researchers in Alaska tracked the migration patterns of olive-sided flycatcher birds by attaching tracking devices to them to discover why their population is declining. The songbirds travel more than 15,000 miles every year to South America and then back to Alaska. To survive the long trips, they require safe locations to rest during their journeys. The researchers believe the stopover sites may provide an answer to the declining population. During the five-year study, the researchers deployed 95 devices and recovered only 17. The data pointed to 13 stopover sites between Washington and Peru as well as their wintering areas in South America.
Crime ring members caught
Image: hdagli/E+/Getty Images
Members of an organized crime ring in the Florida Keys who are accused of stealing more than $2.5 million in boating navigation devices have been arrested, reported Local 10.com and Fox 4. Eleven men have been accused of targeting multiple marinas throughout Florida and stealing navigation devices from boats, specifically Garmin devices. For example, a Garmin 8612 H16 Model can be sold for more than $5,000. Ten suspects are in custody and are facing more than 122 charges.
A new study published in Science used tracking devices on 43 animal species during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns to find that wild animals emerged from their natural habitats and ventured closer to the roads and cities that were empty. The study used several methods to analyze tracking data. Researchers examined how much animals moved on an hourly basis and during a 10-day period. Across species and countries, on average, hour-to-hour movement was 12% lower in the spring of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. With the end of lockdowns, human activity returned to normal, and animals had to adapt again. The results of the study demonstrate how humans can change their own behavior to lessen their impact on animals.
Navigation meets creativity
Image: @vikas_ruparelia on Twitter
A man from Bengaluru, India, Vikas Ruparelia, used the Strava navigation app to trace the country of India to celebrate its Independence Day. Ruparelia started and ended his journey at the Mahatma Gandhi statue near Orion Mall in Rajajinagar, India. He covered more than 73 km on foot in 17 hours. The Strava app enables users to track their running and hiking routes as well as join challenges. The route Ruparelia took was designed by another user of the app.
NVS-01 is the first second-generation satellite of the Indian Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), also known as Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC). It was launched into geostationary orbit on May 20. The satellite is placed at 129.6° eastern longitude and will finally replace IRNSS-1G launched in April 2016.
Whereas the first-generation satellites transmit navigation signals in the L5- and S-band, NVS-01 is the first IRNSS satellite also transmitting in the L1-band. The 1547.42 MHz frequency is also used by other satellite navigation systems, including GPS, Galileo, and BeiDou-3. However, a different modulation is used, namely a Synthesized Binary Offset Carrier (SBOC) signal. The IRNSS L1 SBOC signal has data and pilot components with and without navigation data. Data and pilot signals consist of BOC (1,1) and BOC (6,1) components with sub-frequencies of 1.023 MHz and 6.138 MHz. A quadrature multiplexing is applied for the data and pilot components with a power sharing of 41.82% and 58.18%. The navigation message on the IRNSS L1 signal has a different structure compared to those on the legacy L5- and S-band signals. The new L1 navigation message uses an advanced frame structure and forward error correction inherited from the CNAV-2 message of the GPS/QZSS L1C signal as well as a similar orbit model. Among other things, it provides inter-signal corrections for the L1 data and pilot signals with reference to the S band signal for single-frequency L1 band users.
NVS-01 started signal transmission on June 17, 2023, with the pseudo-random noise (PRN) code I10. The satellite’s L1 and L5 signals were tracked by a Septentrio PolaRx5 receiver located in Tokyo, Japan, with a prototype firmware that is capable of tracking the L1 pilot signal. Figure 1 shows the multipath linear combination of NVS-01’s L1 and L5 pilot signals. Whereas the short-term variations are smaller for L1 compared to L5, the overall RMS is 18 cm for both signals.
Figure 1: Noise- and multipath linear combination for NVS-01’s L1 and L5 pilot signals received on 26 June 2023. (Image: All figures provided by the authors)
Whereas IRNSS-1’s rubidium clocks were provided by Spectratime, NVS-01 is the first satellite operating a new type of rubidium atomic frequency standard (RAFS) developed in India. The short-term performance of GNSS satellite clocks can be evaluated with the one-way carrier phase method. The receiver is connected to a highly stable external clock, e.g., a hydrogen maser. Thus, the receiver clock error is negligible. Measurement biases as well as the delays of ionosphere and troposphere on short time scales are removed by fitting a fourth-order polynomial. If no external clock is available, as is the case for the station in Tokyo, the precise clock information can be transferred from another station by a reference satellite jointly tracked by both receivers.
The Allan deviation based on this three-way carrier phase (TWCP) analysis is shown in Figure 2. The hydrogen maser of the IGS station USUD in Usuda, Japan, is used as the reference clock. At short integration times up to 20 s, the Allan deviation computed from the TWCP analysis is dominated by the GNSS measurement noise hiding the true clock performance. Above 20 s, the TWCP demonstrates that the NVS-01’s RAFS stability meets the performance of the ground tests and even exceeds them for longer integration times. At all integration times, the new RAFS outperforms the first generation IRNSS clocks.
Figure 2: IRNSS clock performance obtained from three-way carrier phase analysis as well as ground tests.
Manufacturers
GNSS data used in this article were collected with a Septentrio PolaRx5 receiver.
Peter Steigenberger and Oliver Montenbruck are scientists at the German Space Operations Center of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where they conduct research in the field of new satellite navigation systems.
Jean‑Marie Sleewaegen is Lead Architect at Septentrio, Belgium, where he has been responsible for GNSS signal processing, system design and technology development since the company’s inception in 1999.
The Indian geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) launched on May 29, carrying the first of the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) second-generation navigation satellites. This brings the NavIC satellite total to nine.
The GSLV, dubbed NVS-01, has a mission life of 12 years and features an indigenous rubidium atomic clock developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Space Applications Centre.
The NVS series satellites will sustain and augment the NavIC with enhanced features, including payloads that operate on L1, L5, and S-bands.
There are eight first-generation NavIC satellites on orbit: IRNSS-1A, IRNSS-1B, IRNSS-1C, IRNSS-1D, IRNSS-1E, IRNSS-1F, IRNSS-1G and IRNSS-1I. NVS-01 will become the ninth if the mission is successful.
GSLV-F12/NVS-01 Mission:
GSLV F12’s 🚀
thunderous roar into the skies…..
Turn up the volume 🔊🔊
to enjoy this tracking 📽️ by our colleagues
at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota! pic.twitter.com/XZeE5LWgKW
“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.
Image: Reviver
Digital license plates gone wrong
A security research team has gained administrative access to Reviver, the only company in California that sells digital license plates, which has allowed them to track the physical location of all of Reviver’s customers. With this vulnerability, anyone could remotely update, track and delete someone’s Reviver plate. The access also enabled the researchers to change a section of the text at the bottom of the plate, designed for personalized messages, to anything they want, according to Vice.com. California launched the option to buy a digital license plate in October 2022, and Reviver has since addressed the license plates’ security vulnerability.
Image: David Peperkamp/iStock / Getty Images Plus/ Getty Images)
Bill makes secret tracking illegal
Indiana state legislators have filed a bill that would make tracking someone with a GPS-based device without their knowledge a crime, reported WTHR of Indianapolis. The bill is in response to the growing number of criminal cases involving Apple AirTags and other GPS-based tracking devices. Tracking someone secretly is not currently a crime in Indiana; however, laws vary from state to state. Under the proposed bill, the penalty would be increased from a Class C misdemeanor to a Class A misdemeanor if the person tracked is under a protective order. The penalty could be enhanced for someone convicted of using a tracking device when committing a felony. Similar incidents are on the rise around the United States involving the use of AirTags and other tracking devices for criminal purposes.
On New Year’s Day, six rockets were launched from a United States-made Himars rocket system at a vocational college in Ukraine, killing at least 89 Russian soldiers. Russia is blaming this on illegal cellphone usage by Russian soldiers, defying a ban. Ukrainian officials say 400 Russian soldiers were killed and another 300 were wounded, contradicting Russia’s report. However, this is the largest number of deaths Russia has acknowledged during the war. Russia says that the obvious cause of the attack was the use of mobile phones, as the enemy was able to locate and determine the troops’ coordinates for the strike. Two of the rockets were shot down before reaching Makiivka in the occupied Donetsk area of Ukraine.
Researchers at the Department of Marine Geology and Geophysics at the Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kochi, India, say that heavy rainfall can be detected more than six hours in advance using GPS signals, reported The Hindu. During rainy seasons, as GPS signals pass through the atmosphere, how much they are delayed depends on the amount of water vapor present. By using continuous GPS signals and rainfall data collected in Thiruvananthapuram, the study showed that any heavy rainfall could be detected using this delay.
The Indian government is pushing smartphone makers to sell devices that receive NavIC signals along with GPS.
India originally stated NavIC would be required in smartphones sold starting in January 2023, according to Reuters, but strong reaction from smartphone manufacturers Apple, Xiaomi and Samsung apparently caused the government to push back or remove the deadline.
A deadline of January 2023 would not allow enough time for smartphone makers to integrate NavIC-enabled receivers to their devices. Steps include redesign, securing parts, testing and assembly. Many smartphones sold in India by the companies are economy-level devices priced under US$200.
The three tech giants met with government officials, seeking an extended target date of 2025, Reuters reported.
However, India’s Ministry of Electronics & IT issued a statement via Twitter :
A media report has claimed citing a meeting that mobile cos were asked to make smartphones compatible with NavIC within months. This is to clarify: (1) No timeline has been fixed. (2) The cited meeting was consultative; and (3) the issue is under discussion with all stakeholders.
NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) is the operational name for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) developed by India’s space agency for military and commercial purposes. NavIC consists of eight satellites that cover the Indian mainland and the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundaries.
“NavIC can help in navigation on land, air, sea and also in disaster management,” Science & Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said in a press release. “NavIC satellites are placed at a higher orbit than the GPS of United States. NavIC satellites are placed in geostationary orbit (GEO) and geosynchronous orbit (GSO) with an altitude of about 36,000 km; GPS satellites are placed in medium earth orbit (MEO) with an altitude of about 20,000 km.”
“NavIC uses dual-frequency bands, which improves accuracy of dual-frequency receivers by enabling them to correct atmospheric errors through simultaneous use of two frequencies,” Singh said. “It also helps in better reliability and availability because the signal from either frequency can serve the positioning requirement equally well.”
“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.
Photo: spxChrome/E+/Getty Images
Citizens Clean Up Coasts
Two citizen groups are taking action with the help of Esri ArcGIS mapping tools. North Coast World Earth uses Esri Ireland’s platform on the Northern Irish coast to record litter hotspots and engage with local communities. The volunteer group has collected nearly 3 tons of litter. In California, the Surfrider Foundation employed ArcGIS Hub to streamline cleanup operations after a major oil spill off Huntington Beach in October 2021. Citizens submitted more than 1,100 reports using the ArcGIS QuickCapture photo app to share the date, time and coordinates of toxic tar balls on beaches from Oxnard to San Diego.
A new series of tests will assess whether the United Kingdom satellite-based augmentation system (UKSBAS) for GNSS can develop into full operational capability to support safety-critical applications post-Brexit. Inmarsat, Goonhilly Earth Station and GMV NSL are conducting the UK Space Agency-funded tests. The signal is now stable and operational, enabling ongoing testing and validation by industry, regulators and users. If successful, UKSBAS will enable assessment of more precise, resilient and high-integrity navigation for maritime and aviation users in UK waters and airspace.
Image: ESA
Smart GNSS Monitoring
More than 11,000 people around Europe and the world have turned their smartphones into GNSS monitoring tools by downloading the CAMALIOT app, so far delivering more than 53 billion measurements of meteorology and space weather patterns to researchers, reports the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA asks CAMALIOT volunteers to leave their smartphones by a window each night with GNSS on. The phones record small variations in satellite signals, gathering data for machine-learning analysis. More than 50 smartphone models with dual-frequency receivers can use the app.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his stamp of approval to his country’s indigenous NavIC during a drone festival May 27. Despite that, the Indian Army purchased three GNSS receivers from Baidu, a Chinese company, instead of relying on home-grown companies as the contract required, reports The New Indian Express. The receivers are for survey stations of the College of Military Engineering. A few Indian manufacturers objected to the purchase, the newspaper said, but their concerns were brushed aside by the Department of Military Affairs.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and India’s Department of Space have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with OPPO India to strengthen the research and development of the NavIC messaging service to provide a convenient and user-friendly platform.
The MoU will pave the way for future collaborations between ISRO and OPPO India to develop indigenous solutions by incorporating the NavIC short-messaging feature into smartphones released by OPPO India.
The MoU will enable ISRO and OPPO India to exchange technical information on the NavIC messaging services. This will enable the building of rapid, ready-to-use, end-to-end application-specific solutions that integrate the NavIC messaging service with OPPO’s mobile handset platform, with Indian end-users in mind.
The MOU also aims to help fulfill “Atmanirbhar Bharat,” which translates to “self-reliant India.” Atmanirbhar Bharat is a phrase used and popularized by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government of India in relation to the country’s economic development and vision.
A new draft policy in India seeks to foster global use of its Indian NavIC satellite navigation system. The draft Indian Satellite Navigation Policy 2021 (SATNAV Policy 2021) is part of reforms of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)/Department of Space (DoS).
“ISRO/DOS shall work towards expanding the coverage from regional to global to ensure availability of [the] NavIC standalone signal in any part of the world without relying on other GNSS and aid in wide utilization of [the] Indian navigation system across the globe,” states the policy document.
DoS will push NavIC for global use to meet demand for positioning, navigation and timing in commercial, strategic and societal applications. It aims to ensure the continuous availability of free-to-air navigation signals for civilian uses, while providing secured navigation signals for strategic uses.
The draft document plans for continuity of NavIC and GAGAN services, while also ensuring Indian satellite navigation and augmentation signals are compatible and interoperable with other GNSS/SBAS signals. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) regulated frequency allocation to prevent interference among signals from different systems. This interoperability allows users to seamlessly switch from one constellation system to another and results in improved navigation signal, especially in a situation where an area is obscured from one satellite system.
DoS will continue to work with ITU for frequency allocation. It will also take part in the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
In addition, ISRO will provide technical support for academic institutions in GNSS research and applications.
“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.
Lost and found
Taking video from an airplane window 300 feet up carries its share of risks, discovered Brazilian documentary filmmaker Ernesto Galiotto. The bad news: A strong wind snatched his iPhone 6 from his hand. The good news: GPS enabled him to recover the phone, which suffered only a minor crack in its protective cover. The best news: The phone captured the entire 15-second drop on video. The incident happened over Peró beach 75 miles east of Rio de Janeiro, reported Brazilian news outlet G1.
Photo: Land Life Company via Trimble
Finding particular trees in the forest
Locating and documenting a single tree in a forest planting can be difficult. Technicians at Land Life, an Amsterdam-based land restoration company, have switched from using QR codes and readers for tree identification to GNSS. By replacing the QR codes with accurate GNSS positioning, Land Life produced a four-fold increase in monitoring productivity. The company measures sapling height and health and combines that data with tree species, location, soils and environmental conditions to support planning and care. Field teams now use a Trimble R1 GNSS receiver to stream positioning data via Bluetooth to their smartphones.
Screenshot from video of Escoffier’s rescue/VendéeGlobe
Answering an SOS
Yacht skipper Kevin Escoffier faced disaster during the Vendée Globe solo round-the-world sailing race. His yacht was pounded apart in raging seas 840 nautical miles southwest of Cape Town, South Africa. Once his raft hit the water, its rescue beacon activated. Through the Cospas-Sarsat service, the signal moved from Galileo satellites to ground stations in Toulouse, France, to Canberra, Australia, then to race directors, who sent the closest competitor to assist.
India will be free of toll booths in two years, said Nitin Gadkar, the country’s transportation minister. According to the Times of India, the government will roll out GPS-based tolling across its national highway sytem. Tolls will be deducted directly from drivers’ bank accounts based on distance traveled. While commercial vehicles registered after January 2019 have tracking systems, the government has yet to outline plans to install GPS receivers in older private vehicles.
