What GPS Can Teach Us About Earth 🌍
High-precision GPS stations measure natural phenomena and hazards.
❄️ Snow Depth: GPS provides remote snow depth measurements in hard-to-reach areas.
🧊 Ice Height: Changing ice heights indicate how much freshwater is stored by or lost from glaciers.
🌊 Sea Level: As a tide gauge, GPS can measure local, regional, and global changes in sea level.
🌿 Vegetation: GPS can measure the onset of plant growth, plant aging, maximum vegetation growth, and the length of the growing season.
💧 Soil Moisture: Soil moisture measured over broad regions indicates how much precipitation evaporates back into the atmosphere.
GPS signals sense information about the atmosphere.
⚡ Ionosphere: The GPS satellite signal is delayed by charged particles caused by solar storms. This layer can also be affected by tsunamis. Yielding information for tsunami early warning.
🌧️ Troposphere: The GPS satellite signal is delayed by water vapor that can turn into rain. This informs the forecasting of flash floods and hurricanes.
📡 Mission Cal/VaI: Measuring the delay in the GPS satellite signal as it passes through the atmosphere is important for calibrating and validating satellite datasets.
GPS positions give us information about Earth’s many systems.
🗻 Tectonics: GPS measures Earth movement as small as millimeters per year; it’s sensitive enough to record the slow motions of plate tectonics.
💦 Water Resources: The ground moves up and down slightly in response to changes in lake, snow, and groundwater levels, useful in monitoring drought and recovery.
🏔️ Glaciers: Glaciers weigh down and depress the Earth’s surface, which rebounds as glaciers melt away. This motion gives information about the Earth’s structure and changes in ice, snow, and storms.
⛰ Earthquakes: GPS measures both the slow build-up to and the rapid movement during an earthquake, crucial for hazard assessment systems and earthquake and tsunami warning systems.
🌋 Volcanoes: Many volcanoes inflate and deflate like balloons as magma pressures fluctuate. GPS also measures ash pressure based on changes in the satellite signals traveling through the ash.
GPS is the U.S. global navigation satellite system (GNSS). The principles
here can be extended to all GNSS systems. 🌐🌍🛰️
What’s in the Box? 📦❓
— Comms (e.g., radios) 📻
— GPS Receiver 📡
— Batteries 🔋
Radome + GPS Antenna (inside) 📡🔍
Solar Panels ☀️
Data travels through an underground cable.
What’s on the Box? 📦❓
— Comms Antenna 📡
— Meteorological Pack 🌦️
REFLECTED GPS SIGNALS 🔄
DIRECT GPS SIGNALS ➡️
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