Southern California Section

Chair:	Steve Rounds L-3/Interstate Electronics Corporation
Vice-Chair/Treasurer:	Len Jacobson GSAM, Inc.
Executive Secretary:	Cecelia Feit Raytheon
Program Director:	Jim Litton Jim Litton Consulting Group
Student Outreach Co-Chair:	Kevin Rudolph Raytheon
Student Outreach Co-Chair:	Taehwan Kim The MITRE Corporation
Publicity Officer:	Liwen Dai NavCom Technology, Inc.
Immediate Past Chair:	Jerry Knight NavCom Technology, Inc.

January 2012 Meeting Summary

Stephen Fossi spoke to the Southern California Section about Chip Scale Atomic Clocks on Thursday, January 12, 2012 at NavCom Technology. There were 25 in attendance. A brief bio and abstract of the talk follows. His presentation is attached.

Abstract of Mr. Fossi’s talk: (Presentation slides)
Steve’s talk described Symmetricom’s SA.45s Chip Scale Atomic Clock. Consuming only 120 mW, the SA.45s CSAC brings the accuracy and stability of an atomic clock to portable applications for the first time. The talk will explain, at a high level, the physics behind the CSAC, and answer the most common questions asked about the CSAC. The product began as a DARPA project, so we will also take a brief look at its development history.

Much of Mr. Fossi's talk focused on applications.

Capsule Biography of Stephen Fossi:
Steve Fossi is the Director of New Business Development for Symmetricom’s Government and Enterprise Business Unit. He has been with Symmetricom for 4 years. He started at Symmetricom as the Sales Manager for the company’s Space, Defense, and Avionics product line, and then moved to business development, where he has focused on introducing the Chip Scale Atomic Clock to the market.

Prior to Symmetricom, Steve was at Hewlett-Packard and its spinoff Agilent Technologies, for 27 years. His entire time at HP/Agilent was spent in RF and microwave measurements. He began his career in applications and marketing, where he helped introduce such iconic products as the HP8340A Synthesized Sweep Oscillator, the HP8510A Microwave Network Analyzer, and the HP8753A RF Network Analyzer. Fossi also served as a project manager, leading a group that developed complete solutions for measuring antenna radiation patterns and radar cross section. He also led a team that developed the HP84000 RFIC tester, designed to test the chip sets that went into cell phones. Driven by the cell phone revolution of the 1990’s, the HP84000 became a major product line for the company, and Fossi became the general manager and vice president for the division in charge of the product line, a role he continued when Agilent Technologies was spun off from HP. Later at Agilent, Fossi served as the general manager of a division that made RF & microwave test systems for the defense industry, and he was also the R&D manager for Agilent’s PNA/ENA network analyzers.

During his HP/Agilent management career, Fossi was part of an HP management team that was the subject of a Harvard Business School case study, which is still taught at HBS today. He also served as a Foreign Service Employee, living in the Netherlands for a few years during one of his HP assignments.

November 2011 Meeting Summary

Both Mr. Stansell’s and Dr. Galyean’s spoke to the Southern California Section about An Update on LightSquared Technical and Politico-Legal Status on Tuesday, November 22th 2011 at NavCom Technology. There were 31 in attendance. A brief bio and abstract of the talk follows.

Abstract of Mr. Stansell’s and Dr. Galyean’s talk: (Presentation slides)
Last March, Tom gave the So. Cal Section of the ION a comprehensive overview with considerable technical detail on the probable effects on GPS of the proposed FCC waiver for LightSquared’s use of L band spectra. Since that time, LightSquared, the GPS industry, DOD, DHS, FAA, and NASA, to name a few of the agencies involved, have conducted tests and separately filed reports with the FCC and/or NTIA, which is the spectrum manager for federal agencies

Some of those reports have been released while others have not. However, much is known about the general outcomes and testimony to Congress by various interested parties, like General Shelton, Commander of the USAF Space Command, representatives of NTIA, FCC, user and industry groups and LightSquared have made headlines and have been seen on CSPAN.

The intense public relations activities and media attention that have surrounded this issue have often diverted attention from the publicly relevant issues such as the trade-offs between the need for lower cost broadband internet and wireless service and the integrity of GNSS systems.

Tom has been prominent in leading panel discussions on this subject with all four sides represented (GPS users, GPS industry, the regulators and LightSquared) and Paul has led the NavCom and John Deere intensive and extensive modeling, analysis and testing work and is a member of working groups on the subject. Like Tom, Paul also has considerable collateral knowledge of the dynamics of the regulatory processes and advises John Deere accordingly.

The information and insights these two leaders can give us will help us to understand the issues beyond the technical factors but including such as well; these technical issues have become clearer with the testing programs and more complex at the same time. For instance, LightSquared has formally proposed to the FCC that they modify their original frequency plans and power distributions for some period of time to allow the user environments and equipment to evolve into compatibility with the LightSquared signals. Another instance of the increased complexity is that one prominent GNSS supplier claims that LSQ is a boon to GNSS and that they have affordable filters which will immediately mitigate the effects of (at least) the currently proposed spectrum usage by LightSquared.

We expect a much more balanced and meaningful understanding of the then-current state of play for our members after this dual presentation.

Capsule Biography of Tom Stansell:
Tom Stansell heads Stansell Consulting. He spent 8 years with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, 25 years with Magnavox (Staff VP), and 5 years with Leica Geosystems (VP). In those roles he pioneered Transit and GPS navigation and survey products. He has served on the WAAS Independent Review Board (2000); led technical development of the GPS L2C signal (2001); and coordinated the GPS L1C project (2004 – 2006).

He is a member of International Compatibility and Interoperability Working Groups and supports ICG activities for the U.S. State Department.

Awards and Honors:
ION Awards: Weems Award (1996), Fellow (1999), Kershner (PLANS-2000), GPS JPO Navstar Award (2002), and Johannes Kepler (2003).

Tom was technical chair (’84, ’86, and ’88) and general chair (’94, ’96, and ’98) of PLANS conferences, technical chair of ION GPS-91, and general chair of ION GPS-92. He is a past ION Western Regional VP.

Capsule Biography of Paul Galyean:
Paul is Director of Advanced Engineering at NavCom Technology, a subsidiary of Deere and Company. Prior to his service at NavCom and John Deere, he worked at Leica and Magnavox in integrated navigation systems. His satellite navigation experience reaches back into the Transit (NNSS) era and he has developed systems and receivers for aircraft, marine and land PNT applications. At NavCom, he managed the development of a certified aviation receiver and the development of the technology used in current Deere and NavCom products. He has managed the StarFire network, which provides Deere users with sub-decimeter-level navigation. He was recently the lead for the High Precision team in the FCC-mandated testing of LightSquared interference with GPS. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from UCLA.

September 2011 Meeting Summary

Dr. Chun Yang spoke to the Southern California Section about Signals of Opportunity for Positioning on Thursday, 29 September, 2011 at NavCom Technology. There were 20 in attendance. A brief bio and abstract of the talk follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Abstract of Dr. Yang’s Talk: (Presentation slides)
There are strong requirements for the development of alternative navigation technologies for environments and areas in which GNSS signals are not available or are impaired.

These requirements exist not only because users desire similar accuracies for personal navigation in urban and indoor environments as those they currently enjoy in regions of open sky but also because such alternatives will enable many potentially lucrative location-based services.

The extensive and intensive spread of high definition terrestrial broadcast networks and wireless communication networks (e.g. Light Squared and other LTE/4G systems) presents both challenges (interference) and opportunities (information source) for positioning.

In this presentation, we will discuss system design issues for positioning with signals of opportunity including vertical dimensionality, non line-of-sight (NLOS) signals, the effect of the number of independent signal sources (GDOP), and source timing and synchronization among others. Both parametric and non-parametric methods for positioning with signals of opportunity will be described. We will present a number of signal examples including DTV, CDMA, and GSM as well as a number of applications with experimental results. A list of still-open issues will be discussed as will the current assessment for such systems as well as directions for continuing research.

Capsule Biography of Dr. Chun Yang
Dr. Chun Yang has been with Sigtem Technology, Inc., since 1994 where he works on adaptive array and baseband signal processing for GNSS receivers and radar systems as well as on nonlinear state estimation with applications in target tracking, integrated inertial navigation, and information fusion. Dr. Yang is also an adjunct professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Miami University. He is the co-inventor of ten issued and pending U.S. patents. Dr. Yang received his Docteur en Science from Université de Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, in Sciences Physiques in 1989 and his Bachelor of Engineering from Northeastern University, Shenyang, China, in 1984. He is the co-author of an ION-GNSS best presentation paper and an ION AM/IEEE PLANS best track paper, and the co-recipient of ION Samuel M. Burka Award.

August 2011 Meeting Summary

Professor Michael S. Braasch spoke to the Southern California Section about Iron Stomachs and White Knuckles: Navigation Flight Testing at the Ohio University Avionics Engineering Center on Tuesday, 30 August, 2011 at NavCom Technology. There were 18 in attendance. A brief bio and abstract of the talk follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Abstract of Professor Braasch’s Talk: (Presentation slides)
Since its’ founding in 1963, the Ohio University Avionics Engineering Center (AEC) has been on the cutting edge of navigation and landing system research. The AEC is somewhat unusual in that it is an academic institution with its own fleet of flight test aircraft. Over the decades, these aircraft and the crews that fly them have amassed a wealth of experience that can only be obtained ‘in the air.’ The AEC’s DC-3 served as the flight-test platform for the world’s first commercial GPS receiver back in the early 1980’s. Guidance, navigation and control packages destined for installation in military unmanned aerial vehicles are first put through their paces in the AEC’s ex-Soviet fighter-trainer, the AeroVodochody L-29 Delfin. From flying synthetic vision displays up in Juneau’s Gastineau channel to automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) system flights down in the Gulf of Mexico, the AEC has been involved in taking navigation research out of the classroom and lab and making the systems work in the field and in the air. This presentation will cover a handful of the many flight test stories in the AEC’s history. What kind of navigation engineer do you need for a flight test with 6g turns? One that’s eager, healthy and preferably has not eaten all day!

Capsule Biography of Michael Braasch
Dr. Michael S. Braasch is the Thomas Professor of Engineering in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Ohio University. For the past 26 years Mike has been a member of the Avionics Engineering Center, also at Ohio University. Since 1985 he has performed research on a wide variety of navigation and landing systems such as the Instrument Landing System (ILS), the Microwave Landing System (MLS), VHF Omni-Range (VOR), Loran-C, Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) and GPS. He is internationally recognized for his work in characterizing GPS multipath and is one of the originators of the integrated multipath-limiting antenna for GPS. Mike has served as a visiting scientist at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and has lectured for NATO AGARD. He has co-authored chapters for the AIAA books on GPS in addition to numerous conference papers and journal articles. Mike is a Fellow of the Institute of Navigation, a senior member of the IEEE, a licensed professional engineer in the State of Ohio, an instrument-rated commercial pilot, and is the co-founder of GPSoft LLC.

July 2011 Meeting Summary

Dr. Phil Diamond spoke to the Southern California Section about On the Origins of the Global Positioning System on Thursday, July 28th 2011 at NavCom Technology. There were 40 in attendance. A brief bio and abstract of the talk follows.

Abstract of Dr. Diamond’s Talk:
Phil would like to have an informal discussion during which he will provide an overview of the early days of GPS development, including the historically important events, organizations and personalities involved, including his own personal contribution to the creation and development of the system. This is a rather special opportunity to hear from one of the original team. The Southern California Section management will try to have several other pioneers in attendance.

Ten years of development were required to achieve the Global Positioning System, beginning in 1963, by The Aerospace Corporation, the USAF Space Systems Division (Space and Missile Systems Organization [SAMSO]), and a number of other DoD agencies and several industry contractors.

With formal DoD approval in 1974, funded development contractor effort began towards a satellite launch in 1978. The ten years of development can be viewed, in retrospect, as occurring in five overlapping phases:

Concept Feasibility: 1963-1964
System Preliminary Formulation and Identification of Technology Requirements: 1964-1968
Technology Development and Demonstration: 1966-1970
System Definition: 1970-1974
Mission and Operations Analysis, and Advocacy (towards formal DoD approval): 1968-1973

This ION session is intended to illuminate, from a historical point of view, as outlined above, how we came to the formal DoD approved GPS Program. We will discuss the following subjects in reference to the above:

How the basic concept came to the author and how its fundamental feasibility was demonstrated.
The results of the System Formulation and Technology Requirements activity.
Some of the principal Development and Demonstration projects.
The nature of the System Definition functions.
The myriad of hoops through which we had to jump in order to get to final approval and contracting for the Program.

Featured will be naming of the principal contributors, the various agencies involved, and their roles. Some anecdotes will be offered which illuminate personalities and attitudes of the agencies.

Capsule Biography of Dr. Phil Diamond
Dr. Diamond was born in 1930 and was raised in The Bronx, New York City. He graduated with a B.S.M.E. degree in 1951 from New York University. He took a position at Bell Aircraft Corporation in Buffalo, N.Y. in the Rocket Division and became the Director of the Hydraulics Research Laboratory. While there, he graduated from the University of Buffalo with an M.S.M.E. degree. His thesis was entitled “Flow in Short Tubes” (as in rocket motor injectors). From 1953 to 1958, Dr. Diamond attended Purdue University and was employed as a Research Assistant in the Rocket Laboratory, graduating in 1958 with a Ph.D. degree. His thesis was entitled “The Performance of the 90% Hydrogen Peroxide-JP-5 Rocket Propellant Combination”. After three years at Convair in Ft. Worth, Texas, he joined The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles. He rose to become the General Manager, Development Planning Division and retired in 1992. From 1992 to 1998, Dr. Diamond was employed as a consultant to various aerospace companies. During his employment at The Aerospace Corporation, he also contributed as a member of several National Committees, including the NASA Space Science and Technology Advisory Committee, the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, The Army Scientific Advisory Board, and the National Academy of Sciences Naval Studies Board. Phil was married in 1953; he has four children and ten grandchildren. He and his wife, Enid, a retired Professor of Mathematics, live in Palos Verdes Estates, California. His main hobby (other than his grandchildren) has been designing, building, and flying radio controlled model aircraft.

June 2011 Meeting Summary

Col Jon M. Anderson spoke to the Southern California Section about Military GPS User Equipment on Thursday, 23 June, 2011 at NavCom Technology. There were 26 in attendance. A brief bio and abstract of the talk follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Abstract of Col Anderson’s Presentation (Presentation slides)
Col Anderson is the Chief of the GPS User Equipment Division. His presentation will address the Military GPS User Equipment Program (MGUE), including recent accomplishments, modernized user equipment capabilities, MGUE architecture and the new MGUE business approach. Program schedules, the Common GPS Module (CGM) vision, key challenges and Increment 2 (CGM) Technology Maturation planning will be described. Many applications will be addressed.

Capsule Biography of Col Anderson
COL Anderson Jon M Col Jon M. Anderson is the Chief, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) User Equipment Division, Global Positioning Systems Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. He is responsible for leading over 299 military, civilian and contractor personnel executing three development contracts valued at over $300 million and establishing the follow-on development and production program valued at $1.1 billion.

Col Anderson entered the Air Force in 1988 after graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He has a broad Air Force background with experience in missile operations, technical intelligence analysis, systems engineering, operational test support, national and international space policy, and program management.

EDUCATION
1988     B.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Kansas
1994     M.S. Electrical Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
2001     Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Air Force Institute of Technology
2008     M.A. National Security & Strategic Studies, Naval War College

April 2011 Meeting Summary

Mr. Arvind Ramanandan spoke to the Southern California Section about Sensor Aided Inertial Navigation on Thursday, 28 April, 2011 at NavCom Technology. There were 20 in attendance. A brief bio and abstract of the talk follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Abstract of Mr. Ramanandan’s Talk: (Presentation slides)
The advent of low cost and smaller size MEMS- based inertial sensors has led to their increased presence in low cost consumer devices. These factors have enabled numerous positioning- based applications (e.g. automotive guidance, routing).

The central theme of his research has been improving accuracy and reliability for auxiliary sensor-aided inertial navigation. The limitations of inertial sensors are well known, e.g. potentially unbounded error growth. These limitations have motivated the need for independent, high-accuracy aiding sensors. In this presentation, he will discuss results from tight integration of inertial navigation systems with positioning sensors such as GPS, feature-based sensors such as vision LIDAR and stationary updates. He will also discuss the use of a near-real-time estimation process which is based upon fixed interval smoothing, to evaluate the effectiveness of the aiding sensors.

Capsule Biography of Arvind Ramanandan
Arvind Ramanandan is a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering at UC-Riverside. He received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Communications from Anna University, Chennai, India. His research interests include sensor-aided inertial navigation, sensor integration, high accuracy roadway mapping, SLAM methods in mapping and navigation, near-real-time estimation and non-GNSS aiding techniques.

March 2011 Meeting Summary

Tom Stansell gave a talk entitled LightSquared and the FCC Threaten GPS to the Southern California Section on Mar. 17, 2011, 2010 at NavCom Technology. There were more than 40 in attendance. A brief bio and abstract of the talk follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule biography of Tom Stansell:
Tom Stansell heads Stansell Consulting. He spent 8 years with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, 25 years with Magnavox (Staff VP), and 5 years with Leica Geosystems (VP). In those roles he pioneered Transit and GPS navigation and survey products.

He has served on the WAAS Independent Review Board (2000); led technical development of the GPS L2C signal (2001); and coordinated the GPS L1C project (2004 – 2006). He is a member of International Compatibility and Interoperability Working Groups and supports ICG activities for the U.S. State Department.

Awards and Honors:
ION Awards: Weems Award (1996), Fellow (1999), Kershner (PLANS-2000), GPS JPO Navstar Award (2002), and Johannes Kepler (2003).

Tom was technical chair ('84, '86, and '88) and general chair ('94, '96, and '98) of PLANS conferences, technical chair of ION GPS-91, and general chair of ION GPS-92. He is a past ION Western Regional VP.

Abstract of Tom Stansell's talk: (Presentation slides)
The GPS community is deeply concerned by the LightSquared proposal to transmit high power signals from about 40,000 cell "towers" across the entire U.S. in the frequency band immediately below GPS L1. The threat to GPS is real because the FCC is "fast tracking" its approval as a way to expedite the government's objective of significantly expanding wireless broadband access. The presentation will trace the origins of the LightSquared proposal, show why it is a major threat to GPS, describe the actions being taken by the GPS community, and suggest ways you can help.

February 2011 Meeting Summary

Col. Bernie J. Gruber of the GPS Directorate spoke to the Southern California Section of the ION on February 22, 2011 on the status and future plans for the GPS system. His talk was followed by a lively question and answer session. Attendance was 42. A brief bio of Col. Gruber follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule biography of Col Bernie J. Gruber:
Colonel Bernie J. Gruber is Commander of the GPS Directorate (formerly known as the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Wing, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. He is responsible for a multiservice, multinational systems organization which conducts development, acquisition, fielding and sustainment of all GPS space segment, satellite command and control (ground) and military user equipment. The $32B GPS program, with a $1B annual budget, maintains the largest satellite constellation and the largest avionics integration and installation program in the Department of Defense.

Colonel Gruber earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from North Dakota State University and was commissioned in 1986. He is a graduate of Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College, Air War College, Defense Systems Management College and the Joint Forces Staff College; he has commanded at the Squadron and Group levels. He is a member of the Acquisition Corps, a certified Joint Specialty Officer and National Defense Fellow alumnus. Colonel Gruber has distinguished himself in a variety of leadership positions within the operations, intelligence, launch, engineering, and acquisition disciplines, and has served in key positions at Major Command, Air Staff, Joint Staff and Defense Agency levels. Prior to assuming his current position, Colonel Gruber was Chief, Space Superiority and Global Integrated Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division, Directorate of Programs, Deputy Chief of Staff, Strategic Plans and Programs, Headquarters, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Presentation slides

January 2011 Meeting Summary

Col Gaylord Green spoke to the Southern California Section about Gravity Probe B on Jan. 27, 2011, 2010 at NavCom Technology. There were more than 40 in attendance. A brief bio and abstract of the talk follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule biography of Col Gaylord Green (USAF Ret):
Col Green is the President of NavAstro, a company engaged in space experiments with Stanford University and in GPS III developments. Col. Green is a Past President of the ION and a winner of the Hays award. He was also a Director of the GPS Joint Program Office and earlier was the Space Segment Chief, as well as having done much of the systems engineering in the beginning. He directed the Gravity Probe B program for Stanford University from 1989 until 2007. He continues to be a member of the Independent Review Team for GPS and a member of the Independent Assessment Team for the GPS Wing. He is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and has an M.S. degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford. Col. Green holds many awards and honors for his work and leadership in GPS and ballistic missile technology.

Abstract of Col. Green's talk: (Presentation slides)
The Gravity Probe B (GP-B) program tested two distinct effects of General Relativity: The Geodetic Effect and Frame-Dragging. General relativity holds that a massive body like the Earth warps the space-time around it, creating the geodetic effect. Frame-dragging is the predicted effect that occurs when a rotating body spins on its axis, "dragging" the space-time around it. GP-B tested the two predicted effects of general relativity: the geodetic effect and frame-dragging.

The experiment necessary to determine this must measure minute changes in the spin direction of a set of extremely precise gyroscopes placed in a polar orbit 400 miles above the Earth. The GP-B experiment required one of the most sophisticated spacecraft designs ever utilized for a NASA mission. For many less complex science missions, the spacecraft bus (i.e., the spacecraft without its instruments or electronics) serves essentially as a vehicle to transport and house the instruments. With GP-B, though, the experiments required such a degree of exactitude that the spacecraft itself played an active part in the functioning of the instruments.

GP-B employed the world's most precise gyroscopes, spinning in a vacuum that insulated them from the effects of any external forces. The gyro's rotors were the most spherical objects ever produced, rotating at high speed in tight casings that they could not touch. The maintenance of a perfectly drag-free environment required the spacecraft to use micro-thrusters to make constant minute adjustments in its position in order to keep the gyros perfectly in place.

GP-B's management structure was unique among NASA programs and projects. In 1985 NASA had designated Stanford University as the prime contractor for the spacecraft, giving Stanford full program management responsibility. Lockheed Martin was awarded the subcontract to supply the spacecraft as well as some components of the payload, and it reported directly to Stanford, not NASA. This arrangement, which was dubbed "The Management Experiment" by NASA Administrator James M. Beggs at the time, remained in place until 1998, when NASA decided to take a more hands-on approach.

Col Green will cover both the complex engineering and the scientific aspects of this unprecedented program which has contributed so much to our knowledge of basic physics and cosmology.

November 2010 Meeting Summary

Dr. Kent Tobiska spoke to the Southern California Section about Space Weather on Nov. 17, 2010 at NavCom Technology. There were 29 in attendance. A brief bio and abstract of the talk follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule biography of Dr. W. Kent Tobiska:
Dr. Tobiska is the President and Chief Scientist of Space Environment Technologies (SET) and Director of the Utah State University Space Weather Center (SWC). His long-term research focus has been the analysis of solar XUV to FUV data that has led to the creation of an internationally distributed hybrid solar irradiance platform (SIP). He invented the world's first operational computer code for solar irradiance forecast while serving as a senior scientist at Northrop Grumman/Logicon. At SET, he extended this expertise into operational space weather systems as PI on the SET solar operational system, the NOAA/SWPC solar irradiance CRADA, the AF SBIR for an operational ionosphere forecast system, and the communication alert and prediction system (CAPS). At SWC, he has led the effort to enable space weather systems to become operational information layers in broader technology systems. Through his career at NOAA Space Environment Laboratory, UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Northrop Grumman, SET, and UCSW, he has been a USAF and a NASA LWS, SOHO, JSDAP, and UARS Principal Investigator (PI), a Co-Investigator (Co-I) on NASA TIMED, Galileo, and ESA component of the International Space Station (ISS) SOL-ACES instruments. He is the COSPAR C1 Sub-Commission (Thermosphere & Ionosphere) Chair, the COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere (CIRA) Task Force Vice-Chair, and is a Session Organizer for 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 COSPAR scientific sessions. He serves as lead U.S. delegate to ISO for the space environment and developed the ISO solar irradiance standard; he is the AIAA Atmospheric and Space Environment Technical Committee (ASETC) Committee on Standards (CoS) chair. He has authored/co-authored over 80 peer-review scientific papers as well as 8 books and major technical publications. Dr. Tobiska is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of American Geophysical Union, Committee On Space Research, and American Meteorological Society.

Abstract of Dr. Tobiska's talk: (Presentation slides)
During the past decade and a half, the U.S. National Space Weather Program has enabled the development and coupling of models and data streams that now make operational space weather a reality. Space weather is the dynamic effect of the Sun's photons, charged particles, and fields upon our near-Earth environment and our technological systems. Navigation and geo-location use GPS and this is one such system affected by space weather when solar flares and coronal mass ejections cause disturbances to the Earth's ionosphere. These disturbances then affect the signal delay from GPS satellites to a receiver, introducing uncertainty in the determination of position. The Utah State University Space Weather Center (SWC) in Logan has developed the Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements (GAIM) system since 1995. GAIM uses a physics-based model as its core and incorporates 10,000 slant TEC global measurements every 15 minutes through Kalman filtering to correct the current epoch ionosphere. Because Kalman filtering provides some recent memory of the recent ionosphere, and because the physics-based model in GAIM can be driven with predicted solar irradiances and geomagnetic indices, it is now possible to have very accurate global and CONUS slant TEC at the current epoch combined with a forecast architecture being extended to 72 hours. Dr. Tobiska will describe the advances in GAIM TEC specification as related to GPS position accuracy and give examples of enterprise solutions now under development to improve position accuracy.

September 2010 Meeting Summary

Dr. Terence (Terry) McGurn gave a talk on the US Program to Identify, Geolocate, and Mitigate Sources of GPS Interference to the Southern California Section on Sep. 14, 2010 at NavCom Technology. There were about 15 in attendance. A brief bio follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule biography of Dr. McGurn:
Terry McGurn received his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in 1969. Prior to that he was an Assistant Professor in the Dept of Physics at what is now the New Jersey Institute of Technology. After leaving Stevens he joined the Federal Government as an analyst, addressing issues of navigation, guidance, and control. He retired in 2000 after 31 years of service as a member of the Senior Executive Service. He now serves on the Positioning Navigation & Timing Advisory Board (PNTAB) of the Federal Agencies' EXCOM. He also serves on the Independent Review Team supporting the Director, Air Force Space Command.

Presentation slides

May 2010 Meeting Summary

On May 27, 2010, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. The meeting included a presentation from Professor Jay Farrell and Ms. Anning Chen entitled "Technologies for Vehicle Lane-Level Positioning". 34 25 people were in attendance for the meeting. A short biography and abstract of the meeting follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule Biographies of our Speakers:
Anning Chen received B.S. and M.S. degree in control science and engineering from Zhejiang University, China. She is now a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering at University of California, Riverside. Her research interest includes carrier-phase GPS aided INS navigation and vehicle guidance system.

J. A. Farrell received B.S. degrees in physics and electrical engineering from Iowa State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. At Charles Stark Draper Lab (1989-1994), he was principal investigator on projects involving autonomous vehicles. Dr. Farrell received the Engineering Vice President's Best Technical Publication Award in 1990 and Recognition Awards for Outstanding Performance and Achievement in 1991 and 1993. He is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Riverside. He has served as Vice President of Finance and Vice President of Technical Activities for the IEEE Control Systems Society. He is a Fellow of the IEEE (2008), a Distinguished Member of the IEEE Control Systems Society, was recognized by GPS World as a GNSS Leader to Watch in 2010, and is author of over 160 technical publications. He is author of the book "Aided Navigation: GPS with High Rate Sensors" (McGraw-Hill 2008). He is also co-author of the books "The Global Positioning System and Inertial Navigation" (McGraw-Hill, 1998) and "Adaptive Approximation Based Control: Unifying Neural, Fuzzy and Traditional Adaptive Approximation Approaches" (John Wiley 2006).

Abstract of presentation: (Presentation slides 1 and Presentation slides 2)
The United States Department of Transportation has initiated efforts to conduct field tests and deployment of the Transit Vehicle Assist and Automation (VAA) program. Various VAA applications incorporate lane-relative vehicle navigation and control requiring accurate lane-relative positioning of the vehicle. Alternative approaches will be reviewed. In the approach that is the focus of this presentation; lane-relative position is computed by comparing the vehicle absolute position with analytic roadway maps. This approach requires both high-accuracy positioning of the vehicle and high-accuracy lane-level maps. Anning Chen's portion of the presentation will discuss the structure of lane-level maps that are compatible with standard practices of GIS road modeling. She will present a method to build and refine lane-level maps from high-accuracy positioning data along the lane center. Professor Farrell's portion of the presentation will discuss possible approaches for aided vehicle navigation within the VAA program.

February 2010 Meeting Summary

On February 18, 2010, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. 25 people were in attendance to listen to a presentation by Dr. David S. De Lorenzo of Stanford University GPS Research Laboratory. An abstract of the talk and a short biography follow, and the slides used during the meeting are available.

Capsule Biography of David De Lorenzo:
David De Lorenzo is a Research Associate in the Stanford University GPS Research Laboratory and an Engineer in the Research Group at Polaris Wireless. His current research is in navigation system security and integrity, software-defined radios, adaptive signal processing, and mixed-signal urban/indoor location estimation. He received the Ph.D. degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University and previously has worked for Lockheed Martin and for the Intel Corporation.

Abstract of David De Lorenzo’s talk: (Presentation slides)
The threats to navigation system utility and integrity come from Mother Nature, in the form of perturbations such as atmospheric disturbances and multipath, from inadvertent faults within the system, for example satellite clock errors and maintenance outages, and from manmade sources, including unintentional interference and deliberate jamming. As satellite-derived position, navigation, and time services becomes more pervasive, and as the information so derived is relied upon to secure safety-critical operations or financially-sensitive transactions, there will be some applications for which it is economically justifiable to harden against malicious attack. There has been substantial work to date on GPS/GNSS integrity (particularly for aviation applications) and interference rejection (particularly for military systems) - this talk will focus on the emerging discipline of navigation system authenticity, trust, and non-repudiation. We will describe a novel processing architecture, similar in some sense to codeless or semi-codeless L1/L2 processing, that addresses these dual concerns: (1) when processing signals that I receive myself, how do I ensure their authenticity? and (2) when receiving an assertion from another party about the signals that they receive, how do I ensure the validity of their assertion?

December 2009 Meeting Summary

On December 16, 2009, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. 34 were in attendance to listen to a presentation by Len Jacobsen. An abstract of the talk and a short biography follow, and the slides used during the meeting are available.

Capsule Biography of Len Jacobson:
Len Jacobson has been involved with GPS and its predecessor systems since 1968. From 1993 onward, he has been a consultant to the GPS industry and Government through his own company, Global Systems and Marketing Inc. During his 30-year career in industry he worked in SATCOM, SATNAV, and spread spectrum systems engineering at ITT, Hughes, Magnavox and as a Vice President at Interstate Electronics.

Len served for many years on the Institute of Navigation (ION) Council in several positions including Space Representative and twice as Western Region Vice President. He chaired the ION National Technical Meeting two times and also was Program Chair. He has been an Editorial Advisor to "GPS World" since its inception and served as Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Chapter. Other affiliations include: AFCEA, AFA, SCAPR, IEEE, etc. He has written countless articles and papers on GPS and had a book called "GNSS Markets and Applications" published by Artech in 2007. For the past decade, he has been called upon as an expert witness in many criminal and civil cases involving GPS.

Len holds a BEE form the City College of NY (now CUNY) and an MSEE from Brooklyn Polytechnic (now NYU-PINY).

Abstract of Len Jacobson’s talk: (Presentation slides)
Len Jacobson will present his views on the current and future trends for GNSS. Starting with his forecast for the overall market from his 2007 book on the subject he will explore what has happened in the last two years to render it unrealized.

Drawing heavily from comments made by Qualcomm and NovAtel representatives on a recent "GPS World" Webinar moderated by Len, he will present his interpretation and prognosis for GNSS for the coming years.

Topics likely to be discussed include multi-GNSS receivers, new signals, A-GPS vs. more satellites, free use of consumer nav services from Google/Verizon, L2C use for high precision applications, mini INS/GPS, legal considerations of patents and privacy rights, etc.

October 2009 Meeting Summary

On October 23, 2009, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA, to listen to a presentation by Dr. Naser El-Sheimy of the University of Calgary. An abstract of the talk and a short biography follow, and the slides used during the meeting are available.

Capsule Biography of Prof. El-Sheimy:
Dr. Naser El-Sheimy is Professor at the Department of Geomatics Engineering, at the University of Calgary. He holds a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Mobile Multi-sensor Systems and the scientific director of Tecterra. His research interests include multi-sensor systems, mobile mapping systems, estimation techniques, real-time kinematic positioning, and digital photogrammetry and their applications in transportation, mapping and Geospatial Information Systems (GIS). Prior to joining the University of Calgary, Dr. El-Sheimy held the position of VP Research and Development with VISAT Technologies Inc., a high-tech company in Montreal. Through this position Dr. El-Sheimy envisioned, implemented and directed the research and development of several commercial-grade systems for processing and georeferencing of close range digital imagery, automated 3D mapping, and GIS applications. He has developed software packages for integrating, synchronizing, calibrating, and georeferencing digital frame images using GPS/INS systems. These packages are being used in land-based Mobile Mapping Systems for numerous GIS and mapping applications and are currently commercialized through the university of Calgary technology office.

Dr. El-Sheimy published a book and over 300 papers in academic journals, conference and workshop proceedings, in which he has received over 12 national and international paper awards. He organized and participated in organizing many national and international conferences. He is the Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI of over 50 research projects and has successfully led several highly competitive grants such as the Canadian NSERC Strategic grants, Alberta Research excellence (REE), Canadian Network Centers of Excellence (NCE), The Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) , Intellectual Infrastructure Partnership Program (IIPP), Coordination of University Research for Synergy and Effectiveness (COURSE), etc..

Dr. El-Sheimy is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Survey Review, member of the Alberta Geomatics Group Board of Directors, Chairman of the Special Study Group on "Mobile Multi-sensor Mapping Systems", of the International Association of Geodesy, Chairman of the International Society for Photogramtery and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Working Group I/V on "Integrated Mobile Mapping Systems", Chairman of the International Federation of Surveyors/Fédération Internationale des Géomètres (FIG) Working Group C5.3 on "Kinematic and Integrated Positioning Systems, member of the Association of Canada Lands Surveyors, Board of Examiners - Western Canadian Board of Examiners for Land Surveyors, Atlantic provinces Board of Examiners for Land Surveyors, Technical Committee Member of the ASPRS Direct Georeferencing Committee, regular reviewer for the Journal of Geodesy, Journal of Photogrammetric Record, the Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing Journal and other scientific journals.

Dr. El-Sheimy has received many significant academic and paper awards including the ISPRS Best Young Author Prize, the IEEE VNIS Best Paper Prize, The ION Best Paper Award, the ION/IEEE best paper award, and the ISPRS Best Young Author Award, and Calgary Herald - Canadian Hunter Exploration Ltd. - Petro Canada Young Innovator Award.

Tecterra
Tecterra is a new national center of excellence located in Alberta, Canada that has partnered with the applied geomatics research community and corporate partners in the advanced technology, agricultural, forestry, environment, oil and gas industries to integrate remote sensing, sensor systems, mapping and IT infrastructure solutions. Tecterra has been created to explore, develop, integrate and facilitate the commercialization of new services and products that can address resource management challenges and emerging geospatial opportunities. Tecterra will conduct leading-edge applied research to drive the deployment of geospatial applications and systems with its partners in Alberta, Canada and world-wide.

Abstract of Prof. El-Sheimy’s talk: (Presentation slides)
Cost and space constraints are currently driving manufacturers of location based services and Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS) to investigate and develop next generation of low cost and small size navigation systems to meet the fast growing mobile mapping and location services market demands. Advances in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology have shown promising light towards the development of such systems. MEMS are integrated micro devices or systems combining electrical and mechanical components whose size ranges from micrometers to millimeters. MEMS is an enabling technology and the MEMS industry has a projected 10-20% annual growth rate to reach 200 billion US$ market by 2009. Advances in MEMS technology combined with the miniaturization of electronics, have made it possible to produce chip-based inertial sensor for use in measuring angular velocity and acceleration. These chips are small, lightweight, consumes very little power, and extremely reliable. It has therefore found a wide spectrum of applications in the automotive and other industrial applications. MEMS technology, therefore, can be used to develop next generation navigation and Direct Georeferencing (DG) systems that are inexpensive, small, and consume low power (microwatt). However, due to the lightweight and fabrication process, MEMS sensors have large bias instability and noise, which consequently affect the obtained accuracy from MEMS-based IMUs. For land navigation applications, introducing auxiliary velocity update in the body frame, (e.g. non-holonomic constraint and odometer signal) is an option to solve the problem.

The promise of MEMS technology to the navigation community has been germinating over the last decade, and current advances bring the field to the very cusp of fruition. In this presentation, recent developments in MEMS-based inertial sensors will be reviewed and some emerging applications and future trends will be discussed. The presentation will use an example of a MEMS-based IMU as an optimistic promise to the navigation community.

August 2009 Meeting Summary

On August 30, 2009, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. 28 people were attendance to listen to a presentation by Slobodan Nedic. A short biography and abstract of the presentation follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule Biography of Slobodan Nedic:
Slobodan Nedic is an independent consultant in communications and GPS technologies. He received the BS and MS degrees in EE from Belgrade University in 1974 and 1980, respectively. During the academic year 1981/82 he was a guest researcher at the Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt, Germany. There, he was investigating delay-spread and impulse noise resistance of time- and frequency-domain differential PSK in the context of OFDM. Most of his career was spent with the Michael Pupin Institute in Belgrade working on telephone and HF voice-band modem design and production.

He has been with NEC (NEC C&C Central Research Laboratory in Kawasaki, Japan and the NEC Research Laboratory in Princeton, NJ), working on R&D of DAB, cellular and H/ADSL systems. His latest full-time job was with the SiRF Technology Systems Group in Santa Ana, CA, where he worked on dual antenna indoor GPS reception, excision-based anti-jamming, and urban canyon multipath mitigation.

He has consulted for NEC, ASTRI, Airvana and Boeing on 4G system accessing formats, MIMO VDSL system, evaluation of WiMAX technology and GPS retransmission systems, respectively.

Abstract of Mr. Nedic’s talk: (Presentation slides)
This presentation scrutinizes the traditionally used multi-path modeling, noting its failure to capture propagation mechanisms of importance for GPS receiver operations in dynamic environments. An enhanced multipath model is proposed that directly extends the LOS signal propagation model. The crucial point is that the total delay encountered in reception of a SV transmitted code is a sum of instantaneous physical delays and accumulated code delay due to the ‘code Doppler’. The result is that in some situations the correlation peak pertaining to a multipath signal may be measured before the LOS one. This situation is qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated for a simplified scenario of an aligned array of transmitter, reflector and receiver, with the latter two in relative motion. The lessons learned from an experiment conducted to provide the experimental proof for such an effect are provided, and the model is further applied to a set of processed IF samples to explain peculiarities of some urban environment measurements. A suggestion is made of the origin of partially unexplained multipath components obtained by high resolution measurements in data collected in aviation landing measurements

July 2009 Meeting Summary

On July 30, 2009, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. 43 people were attendance to listen to a presentation by James Kain of GeoVantage. A short biography and abstract of the presentation follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule Biography of James E. Kain
Mr. Kain has practiced the art of Kalman filtering and Navigation since the 60’s beginning at Draper Laboratory while he was at MIT, followed by five years at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and then through 22 years at TASC (now Northrop Grumman). Since the early 90’s he has founded multiple small commercial businesses all with core technology fueled by modern estimation and aided navigation. His long experience with the Kalman filter has provided a unique insight into the applications issues of what he considers “the most important algorithmic development of the 20th century”. Over his tenure at GeoVantage since 1998, he has pursued breakthrough methods to bring affordable precision geospatial information to domestic and international markets.

Abstract of Mr. Kain’s talk(Presentation slides)
Mr. Kain will provide a two-part presentation of the work that he and others have done in developing a new mechanization of robust, high rate Kalman filter signal processing algorithms and will present their application in remote sensing. His company, GeoVantage, has pioneered remote sensing with very low cost platforms which compete in performance with very much more expensive platforms and which provide very rapid access to users in agriculture, forestry and mapping solution providers.

The quote below provides a preview of his signal processing topic:

“The Kalman filter’s generalized model-based approach to optimal estimation would appear to be ideal for accelerating the transition from the conceptual definition of an estimation problem to final algorithm implementation – bypassing the selection and testing of alternative suboptimal designs. This has not been the case for engineering disciplines such as communications and speech processing. We offer two reasons:

Kalman filter robustness issues remain even after over 30 years of refining the details of implementation.
Processing speed for Kalman filter solutions cannot approach the many-MHz update cycle times demanded for modern signal processing algorithms.”

Mr. Kain’s second topic addresses affordable mapping, summarized as:

Google Earth and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth have legitimized Remote Sensing “for the rest of us”. Precision spatial information has demonstrated broad consumer interest and georegistered imagery holds the key for immediate visual feedback. The merging of precision navigation and digital imagery transforms pictures into information. Extreme precision GPS, MEMS inertial technology, and the continued acceleration of digital imagery capability suggest a ubiquitous imagery-based web-delivered telepresence. Mr. Kain will discuss the current GeoVantage geospatial markets, technology directions that will change this landscape and soon-to-emerge systems that will bring the planet to your desktop.

June 2009 Meeting Summary

On June 30, 2009, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. The meeting included a presentation by Per Enge of Stanford University entitled “On Location at Stanford University”. A short biography and abstract of the meeting follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule Biography of Dr. Per Enge
Dr. Per Enge is the Kleiner-Perkins Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, where he is also the Director of the GPS Research Laboratory. The GPS laboratory pioneers satellite-based navigation systems for aviation and maritime use. Two of these systems are in widespread use today, and a third will be deployed in 2009. Per Enge has received the Kepler, Thurlow and Burka Awards from the Institute of Navigation for his work. He is also a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the ION and the IEEE. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1983, where he designed and analyzed an orthogonal signal set for code division multiple access communications.

Abstract of Professor Enge's talk (Presentation slides)
This talk will provide quick sketches of three location projects that are current at Stanford.

The first concerns itself with the use of GPS for aircraft navigation during the approach and landing phases of flight. It includes results on the use of receiver autonomous integrity monitoring for aircraft approach guidance, and the use of ground based augmentation for aircraft landing.

The second will focus on the combined use of laser altimetry and cold atom gravimetry for the detection of underground inhomogeneities.

The third will introduce the idea of using GPS to enable a marketplace where commuters can sell their "right to congest."

March 2009 Meeting Summary

On March 11, 2009, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. The meeting included a presentation from GPS Space Wing Chief Engineer Col(S) David B. Goldstein on the subject of the new GPS III Space Vehicle and Modernization. 25 people were in attendance for the meeting. A short biography and abstract of the meeting follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule Biography of Col(S) David B. Goldstein
Colonel Select David B. Goldstein is well familiar with the many aspects of the GPS program and is the Chief Engineer for the Global Positioning System (GPS) Space Wing at Los Angeles AFB, CA. Prior to his appointment as Chief Engineer, David was the Commander of the 4th Space Launch Squadron, Vandenberg AFB, CA. In a previous tour of duty at LA AFB, David also served as Chief: Engineering Branch Office, NAVSTAR Global Positioning System Joint Program Office. David was commissioned as an USAF officer in 1988 with a BS in Engineering Science from the US Air Force Academy. He pursued graduate work obtaining his Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Houston and obtained a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado.

He has experience in many areas, from leading large teams conducting satellite and launch systems engineering to conducting three years of graduate school research in the use of the GPS for real-time, precise satellite Orbit Determination (OD). He has taught astronautics and built small sats at the United States Air Force Academy. He is experienced in directing ballistic missile, Space Shuttle, and satellite payload integration, launch and on-orbit operations as well as managing and controlling contracts.

Abstract of Col(S) Goldstein's talk (Presentation slides)
Colonel (S) Goldstein will provide an overview of the new GPS Block III satellite series development approach as well as a description of the modernized capabilities that will become available in the future. The talk will describe the spiral development approach beginning with GPS Block IIIA, and the incremental increase in capability with each new series of GPS III Block vehicles, the Block IIIB and IIIC.

February 2009 Meeting Summary

On February 18, 2009, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. The meeting included a presentation from Dr. Bob Norris of John Deere on an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) named the R-Gator. 28 people were in attendance for the meeting. A short biography and abstract of the meeting follows, and the slides and video used during the meeting are attached.

Following the talk, Chuck Morton, NavCom's Manager of StarFire System Operations, provided a short guided tour of the StarFire Network Data Processing and Control Center. The StarFire Network gathers information from GPS monitoring receivers around the world and constructs differential corrections and integrity monitoring of the GPS satellite system, in real time. These corrections and health data are broadcast around the world via a network of 6 INMARSAT satellites. StarFire equipped GPS receiver routinely achieve 0.1 m or better navigation performance. The Torrance Control Center is one of two completely-redundant processing centers that have allowed the StarFire Network achieve better than 99.9% up time

Capsule Biography of Dr. William R. Norris
William R. (Bob) Norris is currently the Business Manager of a John Deere robotic product known as the "R-Gator". In this role, he is performing the functions of Business Development, Marketing, Sales, Program Management, Service and Support. He has been with the product since its inception. Bob has previously served as a researcher, systems engineer, program engineer, program manager and now business manager.

Bob received his BS, MS and PhD degrees at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, where he worked at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA). His focus was in Control Systems, Systems Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. He recently completed his MBA at Duke University, focusing on General Management and High Tech Marketing. Bob was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division in Operation Desert Storm.

Abstract of Dr. Norris's talk (Presentation slides)
The R-Gator (Robotic Gator) is an advanced ground vehicle system, capable of robust operations in both manned and unmanned modes. The combat proven John Deere M-Gator serves as the basic mobility platform, allowing existing logistics, maintenance, and training investments to be leveraged for reduced cost and ease of deployment. The R-Gator's capabilities include manual operation, several forms of tele-operation via joystick, map based GPS waypoint navigation and path teaching and playback.

The primary objective of the R-Gator system is to remove the user from hazardous, non-combat related missions. The ability to perform a variety of robotic utility tasks, in hostile environments and over complex terrain, reduces the users' exposure to hazards. The secondary objective of the R-Gator system is to serve as a host for payloads. Under its current configuration, the R-Gator provides payload space, 1400lb carrying capacity, a limited power supply, an ethernet and CAN interface for access to vehicle network communications.

Bob will provide an update on the R-Gator program. He will also discuss the challenges involved in the localization and navigation of a large (1400lb) unmanned ground vehicle and how Deere's solutions enable the accurate localization, navigation, obstacle detection and avoidance of the R-Gator.

November 2008 Meeting Summary

On November 12, 2008, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. The meeting included a presentation from Dr. Svenja Knappe of NIST entitled Chip Scale Atomic Clocks. A short biography and abstract of the meeting follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule Biography of Dr. Svenja Knappe
Svenja Knappe received her Ph.D. from the University of Bonn, Germany, in 2001, for her research on coherent population trapping for atomic clocks and magnetometers. As part of her graduate work, she worked on cooling and trapping of single atoms. Since 2001, she has worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, CO. Her current research interest is the miniaturization of atomic sensors. She developed the first microfabricated atomic vapor cells and laser wavelength stabilization, as well as chip-scale atomic clock physics package at NIST. Currently, she works on the development of chip-scale atomic magnetometers.

Abstract of Svenja Knappe’s Talk (Presentation slides)
Chip-scale atomic clocks - Chip-scale atomic clocks (CSACs) have rapidly advanced since their proposal in 2001. The combination of MEMS fabrication techniques and atomic physics has led to the development of small, low cost atomic clocks with much reduced power consumption. Embedding these clocks in battery-operated portable devices would have many potential applications in the telecommunication and navigation sector. After the initial demonstration of the first microfabricated alkali vapor cells and CSAC physics packages, many improvements have been made in terms of short-term frequency stability, power consumption, and size. By now, this has led to the fabrication of commercial prototypes. Furthermore, some of the fabrication technologies developed for CSACs have been used for other chip-scale atomic sensors, such as magnetometers, wavelength references, and gyroscopes.

December 2008 Meeting Summary

On December 16, 2008, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. The meeting included a two-part presentation from Dr. Chris Bartone of Ohio University covering The ION Virtual Museum and eLoran. About 25 people were in attendance for the meeting. A short biography and abstract of the meeting follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Capsule Biography of Dr. Chris Bartone
Dr. Chris G. Bartone, P.E. is an Associate Professor at Ohio University with over 25 years of profession experience in communications, navigation, and surveillance systems. He received his Ph.D.EE from Ohio University in 1998, an MSEE from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1987, and BSEE from Penn State in 1983. He previously worked for the Naval Air Warfare Center, performing RDT&E on CNS systems. Chris received the RTCA William E. Jackson Award in 1998 for his outstanding contribution to aviation in the area of DGPS. At Ohio University, Dr. Bartone has developed and teaches a number of GPS, radar, antennas, and wave propagation classes. His research concentrates on all aspects of navigation. He is a member of the ION and the IEEE. He is very active with the ION; chaired several programs; Chair, ION Outreach Committee; and Editor, ION Virtual Navigation Museum. Chris is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Ohio.

Part I – The ION Virtual Navigation Museum (ION Outreach Committee Slides)
Dr. Bartone is the Chair of the ION Outreach Committee, and Editor of the ION Virtual Navigation Museum (VNM). While the ION is a non-profit professional society dedicated to the advancement of the art and science of navigation it also recognized the importance of preserving previous art and science in navigation. The ION VNM was established in September 2006 to allows visitors to read descriptions, view photographs, and obtain detailed information on a navigation device, systems, components, and/or methods in a convenient on-line format. The ION VNM link is: www.ion.org/museum/. Chris will discuss the foundation of the museum, how it is organized, and administered. He will discuss some of the interesting entries into the museum and the various collaboration efforts ongoing. The presentation will be a combination of presentation slides on on-line illustrative.

Part II – eLoran (eLoran Presentation Slides)
Enhanced Long Range Navigation (eLoran) leverages many of the modernization efforts that have been pursued for the traditional Loran-C. One significant difference between eLoran and Loran-C is the addition of a data channel on the transmitted signal to convey application-specific corrections, warnings, and signal integrity information to the user’s receiver. Other modernization efforts include going to time-of-transmission (TOT) control and the implementation of new transmitter, all-in-view receiver, and antenna equipment. Dr. Bartone will provide an overview of the modernization and eLoran efforts as well as the Loran research efforts ongoing at Ohio University. Chris will present details on the Loran Propagation Model development and validation for additional secondary factor predictions and measurements, Loran noise characterization, and antenna H-field characterization for Loran.

November 2008 Meeting Summary

September 2008 Meeting Summary

On September 11, 2008, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. The meeting included a presentation from Dr. Todd Walter of Stanford University entitled The Ionosphere and its Effect on Satellite Navigation. About 50 people were in attendance for the meeting. A short biography and abstract of the meeting follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Biography of Dr. Todd Walter
Dr. Todd Walter received his B.S. in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his Ph.D. in 1993 from Stanford University. He is currently a senior research engineer in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He is active in the development of the Minimum Operational Performance Standards for WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) and co-chair of the WAAS Integrity Performance Panel focused on the implementation of WAAS. He has served as program chair and general chair for the ION's NTM and GNSS meetings and is currently the western regional vice president. He was a co-recipient of the 2001 ION early achievement award and is a fellow of the ION.

Abstract of Todd Walter's Talk (Presentation slides)
The ionosphere creates some of the most significant challenges to the use of precise GPS. Its spatial and temporal variations limit the accuracy of position solutions. The uncertainty of its influence limits the availability of high accuracy and high integrity systems. In equatorial areas the ionosphere can cause a form of self-interference, called scintillation, that can prevent the tracking of the signal altogether. Yet, despite these serious obstacles, the ionosphere itself is not well understood. As the use of GPS becomes more demanding and more wide-spread, it is important to examine the ionosphere and understand the range of possible effects.

The FAA has a network of redundant measuring stations throughout North America that has been used to continuously observe ionospheric behavior for the last 8 years. These data have been used to identify the largest gradients observed at middle latitudes.

Our emphasis, in this research, has been on identifying the extreme behavior that, fortunately, occurs rarely over the United States. We have also examined data from other parts of the globe where large variations can be much more common.

A partial solution to the challenges from the ionosphere is under development in the form of modernization of the GPS signals. However, this solution comes at a cost: the combination of signals to create an ionospheric-free measurement greatly inflates the magnitude of other error sources. Users who are particularly affected by the ionosphere will welcome these new signals that will do much to reduce extreme behavior.

This talk will focus on observations of ionospheric effects ranging from typical observed variations to the extreme behavior of ionospheric superstorms. The effects on satellite navigation will be discussed as well as how to place confidence limits on the possible magnitude of its effect.

June 2008 Meeting Summary

On June 25, 2008, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. The meeting included a presentation from Dr. Chun Yang of NIST entitled Software GPS Receivers: Some Recent Developments and Trends. A short biography and abstract of the meeting follows, and the slides used during the meeting are attached.

Brief Resume of Dr. Chun Yang
Dr. Chun Yang has been with Sigtem Technology, Inc., since 1994 where he works on adaptive array and baseband signal processing for GNSS receivers and radar systems as well as on nonlinear state estimation with applications in target tracking, integrated inertial navigation, and information fusion. Dr. Yang is also an adjunct professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Miami University. He is the co-inventor of seven issued and pending U.S. patents. Dr. Yang received his Docteur en Science from Université de Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, in Sciences Physiques in 1989 and his Bachelor of Engineering from Northeastern University, Shenyang, China, in 1984. He is the co-author of an ION-GNSS best presentation paper and an ION AM/IEEE PLANS best track paper, and the co-recipient of ION Samuel M. Burka Award.

Abstract of Talk (Presentation slides)
More and more processing functionalities of a GPS receiver are implemented in software. Given this trend and with more capable and power-efficient processors over the horizon, a natural question to ask at this juncture is how to configure a software baseband processor, not just mimicking hardware-implemented functionalities, to best use of signals available. This is particularly well-timed at the dawn of multi-constellation GNSS with a diversity of frequencies and codes. This presentation will start with a brief review and then examine an exemplary state of the art software GPS receiver in detail. It will focus on two recent developments. One is a frequency-domain baseband processor that implements satellite signal channel impulse response vs. conventional correlation. The other is on-line adaptive code replica synthesis, which can be used to suppress multipath and multi-access interference. The presentation will end with some probing thoughts on standardization.

April 2008 Meeting Summary

On April 23, 2008, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. The meeting included a presentation from Dr. Per Enge of Stanford University on the subject of the future GNSS-based Aviation Precision Approach. A short biography and abstract of the meeting follows.

Capsule Biography of Dr. Per Enge
Per Enge is a professor at Stanford University, where he directs the Center for Position Navigation and Time. In the distant past, he helped to design solid state Loran transmitters, and he still works on enhanced Loran. In the not so distant past, he led the development of radio beacons to broadcast differential corrections at medium frequency to marine and land-based users of GPS. These days, he spends most of his time on the local and wide area augmentation systems. Per Enge has received the Kepler, Thurlow and Burka Awards from the ION for his work. He is also a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the ION and the IEEE.

Abstract of Per Enge’s Talk: Future GNSS Architecture for Aviation (Presentation slides)

By 2020, GNSS will provide precision approach guidance worldwide. This capability will be born of three important technologies. First and foremost, avionics will receive two frequencies: L1/E1 and L5/E5b. This frequency diversity will do much to obviate the impact of ionospheric storms and radio frequency interference. Second, a multiplicity of data broadcasts will be used to convey integrity information from the ground to the airborne users. These will include the GNSS satellites themselves, geostationary satellites and regional networks of VHF transmitters and airport specific VHF data broadcast (VDB). However, the most important change will be the most subtle. The fault monitoring burden will be split between the aircraft and the supporting ground systems in a new way. This new integrity architecture for aviation is the subject of this talk.

March 2008 Meeting Summary

On March 11, 2008, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by Raytheon in El Segundo, CA. The meeting included a presentation from Frank Boon of Septentrio on the releasable activities of Septentrio. A short biography and abstract of the meeting follows.

Curriculum Vitae of Frank Boon:
Currently, Mr. Boon is the Head of Research at Septentrio, responsible for the development and evaluation of novel GNSS technology, technological strategy and team management. He previously was an R&D Engineer at the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Survey Department at Delft, in the Netherlands, working on high-end GPS/INS systems in Photogrammetry. He holds an MSc degree from the Delft University of Technology, where he did research on OTF GNSS carrier ambiguity resolution techniques. He has published extensively in the fields of GNSS systems and applications.

Abstract of Frank Boon’s Talk:
Boon will present aspects of the Safety-of-Life service scheduled within the Galileo system. Emphasis will be given to the SIS data-stream related to the Safety-of-Life service and its relation to the Hazardous and/or Misleading Information Probability Computation Algorithm (HPCA).

A comparison will be made between Galileo's HPCA and the HMI statistics in the WAAS/EGNOS protection level computation as well as standard RAIM.

February 2008 Meeting Summary

On February 9, 2008, the Southern California Chapter of the ION held a meeting, hosted by NavCom in Torrance, CA. The meeting included a presentation from Gaylord Green, Director of the Gravity Probe B program at Stanford. A short biography and abstract of the meeting follows.

Brief Resume of Gaylord Green
Col Gaylord Green (Ret) is a former director of the GPS program and was in the original program office cadre when the program was initiated in charge of the space segment. Additionally, Gaylord directed the guidance shop for the Minuteman/Peacekeeper inertial guidance systems. Since retiring from the Air Force, he is exploring space-time with the world’s most accurate gyroscope in NASA’s Gravity Probe B program.

Abstract of Colonel Gaylord Green’s Talk
Gravity Probe B (GP-B) is a physics mission to experimentally investigate Albert Einstein's 1916 general theory of relativity. GB-B uses four spherical gyroscopes and a telescope, housed in a satellite orbiting 642 km (400 mi) above the Earth, to measure in a new way, and with unprecedented accuracy, two extraordinary effects predicted by the general theory of relativity:

1. The geodetic effect—the amount by which the Earth warps the local space-time in which it resides.

2. The frame-dragging effect—the amount by which the rotating Earth drags its local space-time around with it.

The GP-B experiment tests these two effects by precisely measuring the precession (displacement) angles of the spin axes of the four gyros over the course of a year and comparing these experimental results with predictions from Einstein's theory.

November 2007 Meeting Summary

The Institute of Navigation Southern California Section meeting was hosted by Navcom and held in Torrance on November 15, 2007. At the meeting, new officers were elected to serve as follows:

Chairman: Jerry Knight, NAVCOM Technologies

Vice Chairman: Len Jacobson, GSAM Inc.

Executive Secretary: Cecelia Feit, Raytheon

Treasurer: Ray DiEsposti, General Dynamics

Publicity Officer: Steve Rounds, L-3 Communications/IEC

Program Director: James Litton, Jim Litton Consulting Group

Scholarships and Student Program Chair: Kevin Rudolph, Raytheon

Immediate Past Chairmen and Section Founder: Clyde Edgar

Jerry Knight spoke on behalf of his coauthors, Charles Cahn and Sidharth Nair, presenting the results of their research entitled, "A New Anti-Jamming Method for GNSS Receivers."

Incoming Chairman, Jerry Knight presented a token of appreciation to outgoing chairman Clyde Edgar.

March 2005 Meeting Summary

The Institute of Navigation Southern California Section meeting was hosted by The Aerospace Corporation and held in El Segundo on March 31st. At the start of the meeting the Southern California section chair, Clyde Edgar and California Polytechnic University Advisor, Dr. Ilir Progri presented a ION scholarship award to Lijia Chen, the first Southern California section ION graduate scholarship award recipient as part of the ION student outreach program. Next, our distinguished guest speaker John Lavrakas, ION Western Region Vice president, spoke about the ION, its purpose, membership benefits, and the role it plays in furthering the art and science of navigation. John then followed with a technical presentation on GPS "An Overview of Civil Monitoring". The meeting was well attended and was followed by an spirited question and answer period. Please see the following documents for more information:

The ION and Membership Benefits, John Lavrakas, ION Western Region VP.

An Overview of Civil Monitoring, John Lavrakas, Overlook Systems.

Left to Right: Clyde Edgar, SoCal Chair, Professor Ilir Progri, CPU Student advisor, John Lavrakas, ION Western Regional VP, Line Moisan, Scholarship Chair, Lijia Chen, Graduate scholarship award winner

ION Members at the Southern California Section's October 2004 Meeting:

October 2004 Meeting Summary

The Institute of Navigation Southern California Section October 20 meeting was hosted by Boeing Space Systems and held in the Boeing Seal Beach Complex, Building 86. The meeting was well attended even though freeways were flooded and a large amount of rain was falling. Mr. Frank Czopek, GPS Block II/IIA Satellite Program Manager, presented an historical overview of the GPS satellite program at Seal Beach and showed slides of the manufacturing floor facilities in its heyday.

After his very interesting presentation Frank led a walking tour of the facilities highlighting the immense Thermo-Vac Chambers, Spin table, and Manufacturing room area. He described what the areas were like during the 3 shift GPS SV manufacturing schedule and also discussed a little known incident by eco-terrorists that resulted in actual damage to a space vehicle, the infamous ax incident where a space vehicle was attacked and damaged with an ax.

The tour ended with a viewing of a glass encased chrome plated shovel, the shovel that Werner Von Braun used to dedicate the facility for the Saturn Project in 1966. The property used for manufacture of the Block I, II and IIA satellites is designated to be sold later this year as it is surplus to Boeing's needs. The meeting attendees grouped around the Navstar Monument for a photograph at the end of the meeting. The monument depicts each satellite manufactured in the facilities and when it was launched.

April 2004 Meeting Summary

The Institute of Navigation Southern California Section meeting held on Thursday, April 22 was well attended and hosted by Raytheon in El Segundo. 1Lt. Bryan Titus of the GPS JPO spoke on behalf of Mr. Tom Stansell on "The L1C Stewardship Project", an IGEB sponsored program to actively solicit inputs from interested parties on the implementation of the new GPS L1C signal. The Interagency GPS Executive Board (IGEB) has funded the stewardship project (L1C Project) to determine how best to improve the L1 civil signal on GPS III satellites. The GPS JPO and the USGS in Pasadena are co-sponsors of the project.

A key purpose is to determine what users and companies want in a new signal structure. This is historic, because for the first time the U.S. Government is seeking advice and comment from experts around the world on a proposed new civil signal. 1Lt. Titus requested that the presentation and questionnaire form be made available to the ION website and welcomes questionnaire inputs.

L1C Brief

L1C Questionnaire