submitted by JoFerg [link] [2 comments]

Image credit: Mike-wise/Flickr

The same thing that limits the accuracy of your GPS unit to within a few meters also prevents meteorologists from making precise weather predictions. Atmospheric water vapor interferes with radio signals as they are sent from GPS satellites and this same vapor scrambles weather radar, making certain things like storm predictions very difficult.

One researcher believes that by creating a map of atmospheric water vapor, some of this interference could be accounted for, leading to much more accurate weather for... Read the full story on TreeHugger

European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) - better than 2 meter accuracy

Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) - 1.0 metre laterally and 1.5 metres vertically

Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS) - Japan - 1.5-2 metres horizontally and laterally

GPS Correction - 1.5-2 meters

Local Area Augmentation System - 0.5 meter accuracy when later phases deployed

Europe's Galileo (2013) - a few centimeter accuracy

The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) is a satellite based augmentation system (SBAS) under development by the European Space Agency, the European Commission and EUROCONTROL. The official start of operations was announced by the European Commission on 1 October 2009. The system is showing outstanding performances in terms of accuracy (better than two metres) and availability (above 99%); it is intended to be...



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Networking sensors attached to taxis could ease the hunt for street parking.

Anyone who's driven in a crowded downtown knows that parking can mean almost endless circling in the hunt for a space close to your destination. Now engineers at Rutgers University in New Jersey have combined simple ultrasonic sensors, GPS receivers, and cellular data networks to create a low-cost, highly effective way to find the nearest available parking space.

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[ Filed under Travel Gear or in the More category ]

Is seems sometimes like design is spinning out of control, like a broken compass forever searching for some distant magnetic north. Take a deep breath, relax, turn off your car engine and shut down the distracting voice of your vehicle GPS. Really, how does that thing not drive you mad (pun intended)?

Designed for auto or pedestrian purposes, Francisco Lindoro and Regimantas Vegele have created a much simpler device that uses lights to point you in the right direction – a kind of cross between a classic magnet-driven compass and a contemporary global positioning system.

A team funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) is returning to Haiti this week to investigate the cause of the January 12, magnitude 7 earthquake there.The geologists will collect crucial data to assess whether the quake could trigger another major event to the east or west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital.

In 1946, a M8.1 quake hit the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola, and produced a tsunami that killed almost 2,000 people. The last major earthquake in this part of Haiti was 150 years ago.The greater geological setting is the northern boundary between the Caribbean and North America tectonic plates where vast slabs of the Earth's surface grind past each other in a horizontal motion.

"Closeness to the surface is a major factor contributing to the severity of ground shaking caused by an earthquake of any given magnitude," said Dr David Rothery, a planetary scientist with the Open University, UK.

"Furthermore, shaking tends to be greatest directly above the source. In this case the epicenter was only 15 km from the centre of the capital, Port au Prince, which therefore suffered very heavily."

A team funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) is returning to Haiti this week to investigate the cause of the January 12, magnitude 7 earthquake there.The geologists will collect crucial data to assess whether the quake could trigger another major event to the east or west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital.

In 1946, a M8.1 quake hit the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola, and produced a tsunami that killed almost 2,000 people. The last major earthquake in this part of Haiti was 150 years ago.The greater geological setting is the northern boundary between the Caribbean and North America tectonic plates where vast slabs of the Earth's surface grind past each other in a horizontal motion.

"Closeness to the surface is a major factor contributing to the severity of ground shaking caused by an earthquake of any given magnitude," said Dr David Rothery, a planetary scientist with the Open University, UK.

"Furthermore, shaking tends to be greatest directly above the source. In this case the epicenter was only 15 km from the centre of the capital, Port au Prince, which therefore suffered very heavily."

Since the ground shook Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, on January 12 and sent the densely populated city into chaos, scientists have been harnessing every possible tool to quickly assemble a detailed picture of a region in which scientific research had already been difficult to conduct.

“The question we are trying to address right now is if there could be other faults nearby or perhaps other portions of the fault to the east or west that could go,” says Eric Calais, a geophysicist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., who has used GPS stations to monitor the area since 2003.