Understanding the GPS : An Introduction to the Global Positioning System - What is it and How it works

<span class='text_page_counter'>(1)</span><div class='page_container' data-page=1></div>
<span class='text_page_counter'>(2)</span><div class='page_container' data-page=2></div>
<span class='text_page_counter'>(3)</span><div class='page_container' data-page=3></div>
<span class='text_page_counter'>(4)</span><div class='page_container' data-page=4>

Copyright ©1996, Gregory T. French. All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced in any form, or by any means,

without the permission of the publisher. Exceptions are made for
brief excerpts to be used in published reviews.

Published by
GeoResearch, Inc.

8120 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 300
Bethesda, MD 20814

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 9680018
ISBN: 0-9655723-O-7

Printed in the United States of America

This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
Supplemental materials for instructors and trainers are available

in various media.

</div>
<span class='text_page_counter'>(5)</span><div class='page_container' data-page=5>

<i><b>Preface</b></i>

There is an ever-growing supply of information about the Global
Positioning System. Unfortunately, these new (and now, some not so
new) documents seem to be located at each end of the comprehension
scale: either at the “gee-whiz” level which basically describes how
inter-esting and useful this new utility is, or at the engineer’s level which
starts out with Keplerian orbits and Hopfield Modeling. What seems to
be missing is a comprehensive, yet easy to understand, presentation of

the Global Positioning System (GPS) for people who may have a very
real need to apply this new technology but lack the basic understanding
necessary to make important, and often expensive, decisions about it.
Thus this book.

This book is designed to support an introductory course on the
fundamentals of the Global Positioning System based on a series of
graphic representations and distilled concept-bullets. Math is
scrupu-lously avoided-that level of information is readily available through
numerous highly technical publications and is no more necessary for
most users than is a textbook on electronics necessary for the purchaser
of a television set.

</div>
<span class='text_page_counter'>(6)</span><div class='page_container' data-page=6></div>
<span class='text_page_counter'>(7)</span><div class='page_container' data-page=7>

<i><b>About the Author</b></i>

Gregory T. French is a Senior GPS/GIS Project Manager at

GeoResearch, Inc., a company specializing in integrated GPS / GIS
appli-cations and field data collection. He holds Bachelor of Science and
Mas-ter’s degrees in Physical Geography with minors in Geology and Computer
Applications in Geography from the University of Maryland. He received his
basic GPS training from <i>Ashtech, </i>Inc., in 1992, and advanced Master GPS
training from <i>Corv/a//is Microtechnology, Inc. </i>(CMT), where, in 1996, he
re-ceived his GPS Instructor’s certification.

Mr. French has a long and varied background in earth sciences
tech-nology. He has served the EPA’s <i>Environmental Photographic </i>
<i>Interpreta-tion Center </i> (EPIC) as a remote sensing imagery analyst and as Chief of
Remote Sensing Imagery Research and Acquisition. As a research scientist
at the University of Maryland’s <i>Laboratory for Coastal Research, </i> he was

deeply involved in research in state-of-the art digital shoreline mapping
technology. He has taught Remote Sensing Laboratories, as well as
under-graduate courses in Geomorphology and Coastal Environments at the
Uni-versity of Maryland, and is currently adjunct Professor of General Sciences
at University College, University of Maryland, where he instructs courses in
Global Environmental Change and Oceanography.

He has authored over two dozen technical reports on environmental,
earth science, and GPS topics for Federal and State agencies as well as
for open publication, and continues to explore the ever-expanding horizons
of GPS applications in modern geography.

</div>

<!--links-->