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Relativity in GNSS

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Abstract

Global navigation satellite systems (GlossaryTerm

GNSS

) use accurate, stable atomic clocks in satellites and on the ground to provide world-wide position, velocity, and time to millions of users. Orbiting clocks have gravitational and motional frequency shifts that are so large that, without carefully accounting for numerous relativistic effects, the systems would not work. The basis for navigation using GlossaryTerm

GNSS

, founded on special and general relativity, includes relativistic principles, concepts and effects such as the constancy of the speed of light, relativity of synchronization, coordinate time, proper time, time dilation, the Sagnac effect, the weak equivalence principle, and gravitational frequency shifts. Additional small relativistic effects such as the coordinate slowing of light speed and the effects of tidal potentials from the moon and the sun may need to be accounted for in the future. Examples of new navigation systems that are being developed and deployed are the European GALILEO system and the Chinese BEIDOU system; these will greatly widen the impact of GlossaryTerm

GNSS

. This chapter discusses applications of relativistic concepts in GlossaryTerm

GNSS

.

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Abbreviations

BIPM:

International Bureau of Weights and Measures

ECEF:

earth-fixed reference frame

ECI:

earth-centered, locally inertial

GLONASS:

globalnaya navigatsionnaya sputnikovaya sistema

GNSS:

global navigation satellite system

GPS:

global positioning system

GTRF:

Galileo terrestrial reference frame

ICRF:

international celestial reference frame

IERS:

International Earth Rotation Service

ITRF:

International Terrestrial Reference Frame

ITRS:

International Terrestrial Reference System

MEO:

medium earth orbit

SV:

satellite vehicle

TAI:

international atomic time

TT:

terrestrial time

USNO:

U.S. Naval Observatory

UTC:

universal coordinated time

WAAS:

wide area augmentation system

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Time and Frequency Division, NIST, 325 Broadway, Div 688, CO 80305, Boulder, USA

    Neil Ashby

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  1. Neil Ashby
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Correspondence to Neil Ashby .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, 16802, University Park, PA, USA

    Abhay Ashtekar

  2. Institute for Foundational Studies Hermann Minkowski, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Vesselin Petkov

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Ashby, N. (2014). Relativity in GNSS. In: Ashtekar, A., Petkov, V. (eds) Springer Handbook of Spacetime. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41992-8_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41992-8_24

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-41991-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-41992-8

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