Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
Locata functions like a localized ground-based gps without atomic clocks. A
Locata network does not maintain absolute time based on an external stan-
dard. Rather, individual base stations, known as LocataLites, synchronize time
cappella singers matching pitch to each other rather than, say, a piano. Tests
in October 2011 of an enhanced version of Locata's commercial of-the-shelf
system confirmed that it met Air Force accuracy requirements. A plane flying
at about 225 mph at an altitude of twenty-ive thousand feet over an area roughly
thirty by forty-ive miles dotted with ten LocataLite antennas demonstrated
horizontal accuracy of six centimeters (just over two inches) and vertical accu-
powerful than gps, and they broadcast at the same frequency as Wi-Fi, mak-
a multiyear contract with Locata in September 2012 to install the system across
a 2,500-square-mile area of the White Sands Missile Range, and a veteran Air
Force gps manager has joined the company.
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For the commercial sector and for consumers there are significant oppor-
tunities and challenges ahead in the area where most people first discovered
gps—surface transportation. Toll roads for years have used electronic tran-
sponders or bar codes to charge vehicles without stopping at tollbooths. gps
facilitates charging drivers by the mile, replacing gas-tax revenues lost to ris-
ing fuel efficiency. Switzerland implemented the first nationwide gps- based
tem covering 7,500 miles of the autobahn, and today a patchwork of satellite,
cellular, and transponder systems covers Europe, spurring the development
traveled (vmt) taxes in the United States face strong headwinds. A Congres-
sional Budget Office study found some potential benefits in reducing emissions
and addressing traffic congestion, but vmt taxes would be costly to implement
a North Carolina legislative committee floated the idea in 2009, a poll by the
the same time Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican,
called vmt an option “we should look at” in an Associated Press interview.
Three years later the gop campaign platform explicitly opposed “any funding
mechanism that would involve governmental monitoring of every car and truck
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