User's Guide

Teletrac, Inc. - Prism TM Information and Installation Guide
1622-0300 B1 3/18/04 45
Step 4: Knowing Where a Satellite is in Space
In this tutorial we've been assuming that we know where the GPS satellites are so we can use
them as reference points.
But how do we know exactly where they are? After all they're floating around 11,000 miles up in
space.
A HIGH SATELLITE GATHERS NO MOSS
That 11,000 mile altitude is actually a benefit in this case, because something that high is well
clear of the atmosphere. And that will mean it will orbit according to very simple mathematics.
The Air Force has injected each GPS satellite into a very precise orbit, according to the GPS
master plan.
On the ground all GPS receivers have an almanac programmed into their computers that tells
them where in the sky each satellite is, moment by moment.
CONSTANT MONITORING ADDS PRECISION
The basic orbits are quite exact but just to make things perfect the GPS satellites are constantly
monitored by the Department of Defense.
They use very precise radar to check each satellite's exact altitude, position and speed.
The errors they're checking for are called "ephemeris errors" because they affect the satellite's
orbit or "ephemeris." These errors are caused by gravitational pulls from the moon and sun and
by the pressure of solar radiation on the satellites.
The errors are usually very slight but if you want great accuracy they must be taken into account.