The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system. GPS provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day.
GPS satellites circle the Earth twice a day. Each satellite allows GPS devices to decode and compute the precise location of the satellite. GPS receivers measure the distance to each satellite by the amount of time it takes to receive a signal. With distance measurements from a few more satellites, the receiver can determine a user’s position and display it electronically.
Wildlife Computers uses GPS in its terrestrial applications. Rainier-S20 tags contain smart transmission protocol where each Argos uplink contains up to four GPS locations, the latest and three randomized from the archive. Users receive precise GPS fixes and are date and time stamped to within two minutes of the actual position.