Applications: Time-Based Navigation

Abstract

Among the areas of application made practicable by the advent of atomic clocks we list the following:

• Space Science: Long-distance tracking and data acquisition from “deep” space probes such as Voyager.

• Radio Astronomy: Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), made possible through a common phase reference.

• Planetary Motion: The dynamics of the Earth as a planet and the variability of the length of the day.

• Radio Navigation: Perhaps the most useful application. Land-based networks Loran-C and Omega, and the satellite-based systems the TRANSIT system, culminating in the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) and GLONASS.