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navigation satellite

   Also found in: Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.35 sec.
navigation satellite, artificial satellite satellite, artificial, object constructed by humans and placed in orbit around the earth or other celestial body (see also space probe ). The satellite is lifted from the earth's surface by a rocket and, once placed in orbit, maintains its motion without further
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 designed expressly to aid the navigation of sea and air traffic. Early navigation satellites, from the Transit series launched in 1960 to the U.S. navy's Navigation Satellite System, relied on the Doppler shift. Based on the shift in the satellite's frequency, a ship at sea could accurately determine its longitude and latitude. The Global Positioning System (GPS), which uses a web of 24 Navstar satellites in 12-hour orbits, employs the more accurate triangulation method to determine position. Each satellite broadcasts time and position messages continuously. Precise to within a few yards, the GPS can also be used for nonnavigation purposes, such as surveying, tracking migrating animals, and plotting the crop yields of small sections of farmland. The former Soviet Union established a Navstar-equivalent system known as the Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS). Russia's GLONASS will use the same number of satellites and orbits similar to those of Navstar when complete.

Bibliography

See T. Logsdon, Understanding the Navstar: GPS, GIS, and IVHS (1995); B. Hofmann-Wellenhoff, Global Positioning System: Theory and Practice (1997).



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The high technical and operational characteristics of the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) that have been in evidence for 20 years, have turned satellite navigation equipment of its users into an inalienable component of the many navigation systems which control mobile air, sea (river) and land objects.
That stuff includes a moving map display which features a military navigation satellite signal or forward looking infrared (FLIR) that aids ground units in tracking suspects, victims and other objects.
Originally designed as a navigation satellite in the U.
 
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