Gulyás Katalin et al. (szerk.): Tisicum. A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok megyei Múzeumok évkönyve 28. (Szolnok, 2020)

Történettudomány - Csaba Kasza: Evolution and human benefits of the GPS

TISICUM XXVIII.

This free, highly accurate time has manifested itself in the mobile(phone) networks, satellite communications, ATM machines and many other “consumer” services and the underlying banking, data handling and public utilities that are part of everyday life. Companies worldwide use GPS to time-stamp business transactions, providing a consistent and accurate way to maintain records and ensure their traceability. Major investment banks use GPS to synchronize their network computers located around the world. Large and small businesses are turning to automated systems that can track, update, and manage multiple transactions made by a global network of customers, and these require accurate timing information available through GPS.

Power companies and utilities also have fundamental requirements for time and frequency to enable efficient power transmission and distribution. Repeated power blackouts have demonstrated to power companies the need for improved time synchronization throughout the power grid. Analyses of these blackouts have led many companies to place GPS-based time synchronization devices in power plants and substations. By analyzing the precise GPS timing of an electrical anomaly as it propagates through a grid, engineers can trace back the exact location of a power line break.

Environment. To sustain the Earth’s environment while balancing human needs requires better decision making with more up-to-date information. Gathering accurate and timely information has been one of the greatest challenges facing both government and private organizations that must make these decisions. GPS now helps to address those needs.

Data collection systems provide decision makers with descriptive information and accurate positional data about items that are spread across many kilometers of terrain. By connecting position information with other types of data, it is possible to analyze many environmental conditions from a new perspective. Position data collected through GPS can be imported into geographic information system (GIS) software, allowing spatial aspects to be analyzed with other information to create a far more complete understanding of a particular situation than might be possible through conventional means. The vehicles (vessels, airplans, trucks) use GPS to improve the efficiency of their operations to improve route selection and reduce engine idle time, which all reduce fuel consumption. From an environment perspective, this also would reduce C02 emissions by million metric tons per year.

Aerial studies of some of the world's most impenetrable wildernesses are conducted with the aid of GPS technology to evaluate an area’s wildlife, terrain, and human infrastructure. By tagging imagery with GPS coordinates it is possible to evaluate conservation efforts and assist in strategy planning. Some nations collect and use mapping information to manage their regulatory programs such as the control of royalties from mining operations, delineation of borders, and the management of logging in their forests. The migratory patterns of endangered species are tracked, such as the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. In the United States, moose, wolves and other species are also tracked and mapped using GPS, helping to preserve and enhance declining populations. In addition, the proliferation of GPS tidal tracking sites and resulting improvement in estimating the vertical component of a site’s position from GPS measurements present a unique opportunity to directly observe

the effects of ocean tides. GPS receivers mounted on buoys track the movement and spread of oil spills.

Meteorology. GPS technology also supports efforts to understand and forecast both weather and changes in the environment by meteorologists. By integrating GPS measurements into operational methods used, GPS is being used to develop more accurate understanding of the water cycle and the role of water vapor in climate which greatly improves weather forecasting. Since water vapor is the most plentiful greenhouse gas, changes in water vapor concentration can be measured through space-based GPS occultation and ground-based slant-path signal delay. Six COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology Ionosphere and Climate) satellites were launched in 2006. These and other deployed systems provide raw data for initialization of numerical weather models and can reduce model moisture bias by 50%. Better understanding and availability of précipitable water atmospheric content on rainfall predictions will be extremely valuable in providing warning of local flooding. Water vapor is also thought to be a sensitive indicator of temperature. If the correlations can be established, GPS-based measurements of water vapor will provide global, timely data on temperature changes much more easily than traditional temperature measurements.

Public Safety and Disaster Relief. The use of GPS in public safety and disaster response to include search and rescue has changed these activities in fundamental ways and saved countless lives around the globe. One of the greatest challenges in search and rescue, performing accurate, comprehensive and efficient search, has become almost routine with GPS-equipped aircraft or search parties. Once located, either by search or by a GPS-aided emergency locator beacon or other signaling device, rescue teams can be deployed quickly to the exact location where they are needed.

GPS has played a vital role in relief efforts for global disasters such as the tsunami that struck in the Indian Ocean region in 2004, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that wreaked havoc in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005, and the Pakistan-lndia earthquake in 2005. By knowing the precise location of landmarks, streets, buildings, emergency service resources, and disaster relief sites using GPS, support teams were geolocated on a real-time basis across the entire scene, allowing for mutual support and avoiding duplication of effort. Further, search and rescue teams used GPS along with geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing technology to create maps of the disaster areas for rescue and aid operations and to assess damage. Another important area of disaster relief is in the management of wildfires. To contain and manage forest fires, aircraft combine GPS with infrared scanners to identify fire boundaries and “hot spots.” Within minutes, fire maps are transmitted to a portable field computer at the firefighters’ camp. Helicopters also use GPS to map the perimeter of forest fires and have become critical to the effective and efficient management of fire fighting resources in saving lives, homes, and resources.

As the international industry positioning standard for use by emergency and other specialty vehicle fleets, GPS has given managers a quantum leap forward in efficient operation of their emergency response teams. The ability to effectively identify and view the location of police, fire, rescue, and individual vehicles or boats, and how their location relates

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