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BOOK REVIEW
Essentials
of GPS
2nd Edition
NK Agrawal
Price: Rs. 260/,
Pages: 145
Reviewed by Dr I V Murali Krishna
Professor and Head, Jawaharlal Nehru,
Technological University, Hyderabad
The 2nd edition of the book contains
questions included after each chapter,
which makes it more useful for
students and teachers of colleges and
universities, where GPS is being taught.
It qualifies now to be introduced as
textbook. Some new articles on GPS by
the author, which have been published
in various journals, have been included
in the book. The book contains
fundamental and essential information
required for students, teachers and
practicing, surveyors, scientists and all
those who are using GPS in anyway.
It has chapters on Geodesy, Indian
Geodetic Datum, WGS 84, DGPS,
GPS Observable, Errors, Applications
and Definitions. It also contains useful
and interesting articles on various
aspects of GPS by the author.
The book covers entire syllabus of
the subject GPS of courses M. Tech.
(SIT) and M. Tech. (RS and GIS)
of JNTU Hyderabad. The book will
be extremely useful to the students
and teachers of Geodesy, GPS,
Geology, Geography, Geo-Physics,
Science, Engineering, Geophysics,
Oceanography, space sciences etc.,
and all those who are interested in
GPS. This is the first Indian book
on GPS and priced moderately. Shri
Agrawal deserves congratulations
for bringing out 2nd edition. I
recommend it as a valuable book for
students, teachers and professionals.
The author, Mr. NK Agrawal
can be contacted at
nande@rediffmail.com
Galileo update
Galileo – the European Programme for Global
Navigation Services for civil purposes is an initiative
led by European Union. We provide regular updates
to our readers on the Galileo programme.
Europe and Russia to restart talks
on Galileo and Glonass operations
Negotiations on interoperability
between the European Galileo and
Russian Glonass satellite navigation
systems are expected to restart
soon, after a yearlong hiatus. The
hope of talks follows an agreement
on dialogue structures between the
European Commission and Russia’s
Federal Space Agency (FSA).
A trilateral steering board has been
created for discussions between the
EC, European Space Agency and
the FSA. ESA already has working
groups covering areas of co-operation
under its framework agreement
with the FSA, including satellite
communications, global navigation
and technology. These will include EC
representatives and will report to the
new steering board. A new working
group on Earth observation will also
be created. www.flightglobal.com
Emergency service based on
Galileo precursor EGNOS
Alcatel Alenia Space has announced
that it will demonstrate the first
emergency service based on EGNOS,
a precursor of Galileo, in Lisbon,
Portugal. The integrated end-to-end
Location-Based Solution (LBS),
designed under the coordination
of Alcatel Alenia Space, enables
the Civil Security forces and Fire
Brigades to locate emergency calls
from mobile phones and efficiently
guide the intervention team.
Using EGNOS-enhanced accurate
positioning integrated with the
telecom network and the emergency
control centre application, the service
improves the speed and efficiency of
the rescue, increases the team safety
and optimizes the resources needed
for overall incident management.
This emergency management
solution has been developed in the
scope of the European Research
and Development project SCORE
(Service of Coordinated Operational
Emergency & Rescue using EGNOS).
As prime contractor of SCORE,
Alcatel Alenia Space is leading a
consortium of 8 European companies
dedicated to establish solutions for
emergency call positioning (E112)
and rescue force guidance during
accidents or natural disasters.
Launched in February 2004, SCORE
is managed by the GJU (Galileo Joint
Undertaking) and publicly funded
under the 6th Framework Program
of the European Commission, with
partners coming from Austria, the
Czech Republic, France, Italy,
the Netherlands, Portugal and
Spain. www.spacedaily.com
Launch of second Galileo
test satellite postponed
The second experimental satellite,
Giove-B, for the European satellite
navigation system Galileo will
probably be postponed several
months. Instead of being launched in
April, the satellite called Giove-B will
probably take off between September
and November, a spokesperson
from the European Space Agency
ESA told. www.heise.de
28 April 2006