Marine GPS is currently benefiting from a brand new technology named WAAS, which has been developed by a couple Government agencies to boost the accuracy of GPS information for aviation functions. Though this new technology remains in its infancy, it has already brought Marine GPS accuracy to within 3 meters, and many leading GPS produces are already producing WAAS capable devices.
WAAS stands for Wide Area Augmentation System and is essentially a brand new system of satellites operating with ground stations whose chief role is to make adjustments to GPS signal readings, which normally get obscured by satellite orbit Geotab, atmospheric rhythms and delay in signal transmission. The ground channels track GPS studying from many GPS satellites and forwards it to a few master floor stations whose role is to retransmit the fixed data back to some static satellites for retransmission back to the coming satellites .
The consequent improvement in precision of the GPS reading appears to be in the assortment of 3 to 5 times greater than GPS alone, which now translates to some pinpoint accuracy of about 3 meters. Three meter may not look like a good deal, but considering the typical had been 10 meters, to boat in open seas makes a significant difference.
The very first mission for WAAS was going to boost GPS readings precision for aviation purposes, but the new technology is finding its way to marine GPS too. WAAS is also a completely free system and the arrangement of this info works with existing GPS signals, meaning that almost any GPS device equipped with a WAAS antenna may gain from it. What is more, newer Garmin marine GPS, Lawrence marine GPS and Magellan, that are the top manufactures of marine GPS devices currently have WAAS capable marine GPS systems in the marketplace.
The present infrastructure of the WAAS system in the moment has just been designed to encourage all North America and cannot cover remote areas beyond the USA, but other areas like Asia and Europe will also be growing parallel systems and finally, GPS users around the globe will have access to more exact positioning GPS information by tapping in these systems.