SpatialSource premium subscribers probably noticed the announcement already, but Geoscience Australia has called for tenders to update the receivers and antennae infrastructure used to track GNSS satellites. The tender issued is part of the government’s planned initiative to upgrade Australia’s global positioning technology [PDF link] and bring it in line with existing global systems.
The infrastructure is expected to densify and improve the GNSS Network in Australia and be capable of observing signals from the range of new GNSS constellations including GPS and GLONASS, as well as the newer Quasi Zenith Satellite System (Japan), BeiDou (China) and Galileo (Europe).
Australia’s national tracking network is made up of 25 core ground-based reference stations, including in Antarctica and around 100 stations spread across the mainland and Tasmania. Each of those stations contains a receiver and an antenna that constantly tracks GPS signals transmitted from space. It is this infrastructure that is set to be updated.
Continuous data collected from the sites helps to refine Geoscience Australia’s national co-ordinate system and improve the general accuracy of GPS technology in Australia.
You can read more at the Canberra Times.
