Surveying, Mapping and GIS

The text of Commerce Deputy Secretary Sampson's announcement yesterday has been posted- it lays out a roadmap for future US GPS efforts. The first new component is the new L2C signal, which went operational in the new GPS space vehicle launched last December. L2C is geared toward commercial uses, with higher power for better reception in urban and indoor areas - and hopefully also wooded canopies for surveying applications.

A third new signal is geared for civilian uses in "safety of life" operations, to support airlines, and the National Transportation System. My company, SynTechGp has, among other things, been tracking GPS in Intelligent Transportation Systems applications and for emergency response- this component keys in perfectly. These two new signals are geared toward high output, allowing reliable reception and use in embedded systems that can be utilized for emergency location, such as cell phones.

The fouth new signal is an open, standards-based signal, augmenting the L1 signal but built toward interoperability with GPS efforts in the international community.