ION Technical Content
Missing Relativity Effects in GPS
| Abstract: | Abstract The current Global Positioning System (GPS) relativity corrections were derived by a committee of experts chosen by the Air force. The original derivation assumed the GPS reference frame is at the center of the Earth and the user obtains GPS time from the satellites. As long as one strictly uses the Earth-Centered Inertial frame for the GPS reference and the appropriate GPS master time, then ideally ther2 are no problems with relativity. To the order of l/c terms, there are no new relativity effects missing in the GPS algorithm if one uses that frame consistently. However, there are several problems that need to be verified both within the military side of GPS and the civilian side to ensure that relativity factors are correctly applied. For example, the Interface Control Document for GPS (ICI%GPS-2001 fails to include the required relativity corrections for a moving GPS receiver. The timing community and even the Control Segment of GPS may be tagging GPS data to local atomic time without correcting for time in the GPS frame. Changes in the designated Master Control Station (MCS), which maintains the GPS master clock, are not corrected for altitude changes, which cause gravitational relativity shifts. These relativity effects are covered in this paper. |
| Published in: |
Proceedings of the 3rd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1990) September 19 - 21, 1990 The Broadmoor Hotel Colorado Spring, CO |
| Pages: | 138 - 142 |
| Cite this article: | Deines, Steven D., "Missing Relativity Effects in GPS," Proceedings of the 3rd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1990), Colorado Spring, CO, September 1990, pp. 138-142. |
| Full Paper: |
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