GLONASS

The Global’naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikova Sistema (GLONASS) is a global navigation satellite system developed by the Russian Federation. Similar to its US counterpart, the NAVSTAR global positioning system (GPS), GLONASS provides dualfrequency L-band navigation signals for civil and military navigation. Initiated in the 1980s, the system first achieved its full operational capability in 1995. Following a temporary degradation, the nominal constellation of 24 satellites was ultimately reestablished in 2011 and the system has been in continued service since then. This chapter describes the architecture and operations of GLONASS and discusses its current performance. In addition, the planned evolution of the space and ground segment are outlined

Time and Reference Systems

Geodesy is the science of the measurement and mapping of the Earth’s surface, and in this context it is also the science that defines and realizes coordinates and associated coordinate systems. Geodesy thus is the foundation for all applications of global navigation satellite system (GNSS). This chapter presents the reference systems needed to describe coordinates of points on the Earth’s surface or in near space and to relate coordinate systems among each other, as well as to some absolute system, visually, a celestial system. The topic is primarily one of geometry, but the geodynamics of the Earth as a rotating body in the solar system plays a fundamental role in defining and transforming coordinate systems. Therefore, also the fourth coordinate, time, is critical not only as the independent variable in the dynamical theories, but also as a parameter in modern geodetic measurement systems. Instead of expounding the theory of geodynamics and celestial mechanics, it is sufficient for the purpose of this chapter to describe the corresponding phenomena, textually, analytically and illustratively, in order to give a sense of the scope of the tasks involved in providing accurate coordinate reference systems not just to geodesists, but to all geoscientists