12.540 Principles of the Global Positioning System

Spring 2003

Artist's rendering of a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite.
Artist's rendering of a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite. (Image courtesy of USAF and USDOD.)

Course Highlights

This course includes detailed lecture notes and assignments.

Course Description

The aim of this course is to introduce the principles of the Global Positioning System and to demonstrate its application to various aspects of Earth Sciences. The specific content of the course depends each year on the interests of the students in the class. In some cases, the class interests are towards the geophysical applications of GPS and we concentrate on high precision(millimeter level) positioning on regional and global scales. In other cases, the interests have been more toward engineering applications of kinematic positioning with GPS in which case the concentration is on positioning with slightly less accuracy but being able to do so for a moving object. In all cases, we concentrate on the fundamental issues so that students should gain an understanding of the basic limitations of the system and how to extend its application to areas not yet fully explored.

Technical Requirements

Any number of software tools can be used to import the .dat files found on this course site. Please refer to the course materials for any specific instructions or recommendations.
Any number of development tools can be used to compile and run the .f files found on this course site. Please refer to the course materials for any specific instructions or recommendations.

Special software is required to use some of the files in this course: .m.
All other file types in this course are data files and may be opened with a browser.

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Staff

Instructor:
Prof. Thomas Herring

Course Meeting Times

Lectures:
Two sessions / week
1.5 hours / session

Level

Graduate