preview

Comparing Loran-C and GPS Navigation Systems Essay example

Best Essays

Electronic navigation systems are presently a very significant component of marine, land and aeronautic navigation as a result of their important role in ensuring safe navigation. Navigation is according to Oxford Dictionaries (n.d.) “The process or activity of accurately ascertaining one’s position and planning and following a route”. They help navigators to locate their positions in land, sea and air. In marine navigation, there are many types of navigation systems were used by mariners. Some of them are land- based navigation systems such as Loran- C, Decca and Omega. Others are satellite- based navigation systems like GLONASS, GALILEO, and GPS (Anwar, 2006). This essay shall compare between Loran- C and GPS navigation systems to prove …show more content…

The point at which these two LOPs intersect is the vehicle’s position (Khalique, 2011). Loran-C do not only provide with positioning services, it also provide “timing services for both civil and military air, land and marine users” (Navigation Center, 2012). In the past, Loran-C was one of the main navigation systems in many parts of the world. However, in the present time, it does not play the same role and do not have the same importance as before. In fact, some of its main operators and maintainers (the US) stopped their Loran-C signal i.e. stopped using Loran-C because it became an old system that no longer in use as a result of the emergence of new technologies (Navigation Center, 2012). GPS has the ability to fix its users’ positions in three dimensions (longitude, latitude and altitude). Moreover, it enables its users to determine their ships or planes velocity and their time (Navigation Center, 2012). GPS is also a radionavigation system like Loran-C. However, it is based on satellites not on land transmitters like Loran-C. GPS consists of three parts: 27 satellites orbiting the earth (in 2006), which are provided by atomic clocks and have a period of 12 hours; control stations, that supervise the satellites performance and send navigation messages contain updates for the satellites (clocks updates, for instance). The third part is the user, which consists of GPS receivers (Khalique, 2011). The GPS determine positions by transmitting

Get Access