Distributed networks of instruments that must work together to precisely measure common events require timing sources that can guarantee accuracy at several points. Instrumentation is another application that requires precise timing. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) uses GPS to synchronize reporting of hazardous weather from its 45 Terminal Doppler Weather Radars located throughout the United States. 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. Major financial institutions use GPS to obtain precise time for setting internal clocks used to create financial transaction timestamps. This allows listeners to tune between stations with a minimum of delay.Ĭompanies worldwide use GPS to time-stamp business transactions, providing a consistent and accurate way to maintain records and ensure their traceability. Similarly, digital broadcast radio services use GPS time to ensure that the bits from all radio stations arrive at receivers in lockstep. This allows mobile handsets to share limited radio spectrum more efficiently. The free availability of GPS time has enabled cost savings for companies that depend on precise time and has led to significant advances in capability.įor example, wireless telephone and data networks use GPS time to keep all of their base stations in perfect synchronization. Communication systems, electrical power grids, and financial networks all rely on precision timing for synchronization and operational efficiency. Precise time is crucial to a variety of economic activities around the world.
This enables users to determine the time to within 100 billionths of a second, without the cost of owning and operating atomic clocks. GPS receivers decode these signals, effectively synchronizing each receiver to the atomic clocks. Each GPS satellite contains multiple atomic clocks that contribute very precise time data to the GPS signals. In addition to longitude, latitude, and altitude, the Global Positioning System (GPS) provides a critical fourth dimension – time.
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