at angle ty inclined other? wt satellites required determine position object earth?
GPS Education
global positioning system | automotive gps devices | recreational gps devices
at angle ty inclined other? wt satellites required determine position object earth?
The "Professor" answer is largely but not entirely correct. There are slightly more than 24 GPS satellites in orbit at any one time; some are used as spares should one fail. They are NOT in geosynchronous orbit. They are in a lower orbit such that at any given moment several are visible (i.e. above the horizon) from any point on the earth. The orbit height is ~20000 km, and the 24 satellites are distributed among six orbital planes angled at 60 degrees to one another.
In order to get an accurate fix on your location, your receiver needs to get signals from at least 3 at any given moment; the more it "sees" at once, the more accurate a fix it can calculate based on the time differences between the transmitted signals from each satellite.