Positioning by GPS can be derived today with a precision of a few millimeters. A GPS receiver determines the distance between the electrical phase center of its antenna and the phase center of a GPS satellite’s transmitting antenna as a pseudorange or a carrier phase observation. It is well known that the phase center of the antenna is not a stable point.

How would the world look like if you were standing on an arbitrary point on earth? It is not easy to imagine, how a randomly chosen location would look like since most pictures that come into our mind are somewhat special: our home, Piccadilly Square, a picture from National Geographic, or a photo that had been taken on top of a famous summit.

Many intelligent people into IT jobs in India are below their intellectual capabilities…
They are like coolies who are working for wages …

Filipo Rodriguez, Gian Paolo Plaia

Application of cognitive psychology for reduction of mapping errors

Human factors contributing to mapping errors made by operators working on digital mapping systems were studied from Cognitive Psychology perspective to evolve suitable strategies to reduce errors.
Mapping errors
Study area
Large scale topographic maps of better than 1:5000 scale with 1 to 2 m contours are …

Study on Galileo services consolidation
The European GNSS Supervisory Authority has issued a call for tenders for a study on Galileo service consolidation. The general aim of the project is to conduct a critical review of the current Galileo integrity baseline concept, based on the evolution of integrity requirements for Galileo, and receive proposals for new global Galileo integrity concepts. For details visit: http://ted.europa. eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:039425- 2008:TEXT:EN:HTML

Iran’s space ambitions ride on Safir
Iran has successfully recently launched a sub-orbital rocket called Safir (Envoy). The payload that was launched by Safir sent real-time data back to earth from about 250 km. Next, a satellite called Omid (Hope) will be placed in a near-polar orbit satellite, at an altitude of 650 km and will pass over Iran six times every 24 hours.

Jharkhand state in India goes online at the grassroots level
Common service centres would be set up at each of the 4,562 panchayats in the state by soon where villagers can avail services like registration of certificates, filing commercial taxes among others. According to R. S. Sharma, Secretary of IT, 3000 of such centres has already been set up. Use of GIS for digital mapping of districts shall also be done to locate the villages and also to calculate
the amount of rainfall an area receives in a year to facilitate irrigation. Water harvesting mapping using GIS shall also be emphasised. www.telegraphindia.com/

India orders over one hundred SIGMA 95 navigation systems
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) of India has just ordered from Sagem Défense Sécurité (SAFRAN Group) more than 100 SIGMA 95N navigation systems. These systems will be used on the Indian Air Force Sukhoi fighters and the Tejas fighters from the Indian LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) program. SIGMA 95N is a standalone inertial laser gyro navigation system with integrated GPS/Glonass. It brings highprecision navigation and a high degree of operating flexibility to combat aircraft.

2.2 million cars in Europe have a telematics device
According to Berg Insight, 2.2 million passenger cars in Europe had an on-board telematics device at the end of 2007. It forecasts that the major breakthrough for telematics in Europe will come with the introduction of the eCall system proposed by the EC, which holds a high probability of becoming a reality in the early 2010s. berginsight.com

Topcon and Sokkia merge
The merger between Topcon Corporation and Sokkia Co, Ltd, both with corporate headquarters in Japan, was confirmed on 5 February. Both companies are the two largest Japanese manufacturers of survey equipment. Sokkia will become a wholly owned subsidiary of
Topcon Corporation.