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WAAS Ground Segment

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WAASWAAS
Title WAAS Ground Segment
Author(s) GMV.
Level Basic
Year of Publication 2011
Logo GMV.png


The Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) is an GPS Augmentation system developed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), with the goal of improving its accuracy, integrity, and availability. Essentially, WAAS is intended to enable aircraft to rely on GPS for all phases of flight, including precision approaches to any airport within its coverage area.

WAAS uses a network of ground-based reference stations, in North America and Hawaii, to measure small variations in the GPS satellites' signals in the western hemisphere. Measurements from the reference stations are routed to master stations, which queue the received Deviation Correction (DC) and send the correction messages to geostationary WAAS satellites in a timely manner (every 5 seconds or better). Those satellites broadcast the correction messages back to Earth, where WAAS-enabled GPS receivers use the corrections while computing their positions to improve accuracy.[1]

WAAS Ground Segment

WAAS Reference Station Barrow, Alaska

The WAAS Ground Segment is composed of multiple Wide-area Reference Stations (WRS). These precisely surveyed ground stations monitor and collect information on the GPS signals, then send their data to three Wide-area Master Stations (WMS) using a terrestrial communications network. The reference stations also monitor signals from WAAS geostationary satellites, providing integrity information regarding them as well. As of October 2008 there were 38 WRSes: twenty in the contiguous United States (CONUS), seven in Alaska, one in Hawaii, one in Puerto Rico, five in Mexico, and four in Canada.[2]

Using the data from the WRS sites, the WMSes generate two different sets of corrections: fast and slow. The fast corrections are for errors which are changing rapidly and primarily concern the GPS satellites' instantaneous positions and clock errors. These corrections are considered user position-independent, which means they can be applied instantly by any receiver inside the WAAS broadcast footprint. The slow corrections include long-term ephemeric and clock error estimates, as well as ionospheric delay information. WAAS supplies delay corrections for a number of points (organized in a grid pattern) across the WAAS service area.

Once these correction messages are generated, the WMSes send them to two pairs of Ground Uplink Stations (GUS), which then transmit to satellites in the Space segment for rebroadcast to the User segment.

List of reference stations

Each FAA Air Route Traffic Control Center in the 50 states has a WAAS reference station, except for Indianapolis. There are also stations positioned in Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico.[2] Listed below are the coordinates of the site centroids in North America:

City ICAO airport code Location Elevation
Bethel, Alaska PABE 60.787898226ºN 161.841705626ºW 52.202 m
Billings, Montana KBIL 45.803726761ºN 108.539727967ºW 1112.261 m
Barrow, Alaska PABR 71.282786134ºN 156.789914977ºW 15.581 m
Cold Bay, Alaska PACD 55.200376531ºN 162.718528459ºW 53.652 m
Fairbanks, Alaska PAFA 64.809686817ºN 147.847403468ºW 149.888 m
Honolulu, Hawaii PHNL 21.312783159ºN 157.920876933ºW 24.922 m
Juneau, Alaska PAJN 58.362530123ºN 134.585495176ºW 16.024 m
Mérida, Yucatán (Mexico) MMMD 20.931919004ºN 89.662872977ºW 29.157 m
Mexico City (Mexico) MMMX 19.431653193ºN 99.068389463ºW 2236.638 m
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco (Mexico) MMPR 20.679034758ºN 105.249200735ºW 11.077 m
San José del Cabo, Baja California (Mexico) MMSD 23.160416093ºN 109.717667886ºW 104.286 m
Tapachula, Chiapas (Mexico) MMTP 14.791340027ºN 92.367991216ºW 54.922 m
Kotzebue, Alaska PAOT 66.887352636ºN 162.611355542ºW 10.911 m
Iqaluit, Nunavut (Canada) CYFB 63.731446844ºN 68.543393603ºW 9.998 m
Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada) CYQX 48.966447828ºN 54.597532074ºW 146.891 m
Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) CYWG 49.900606898ºN 97.259280113ºW 222.046 m
Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador(Canada) CYYR 53.308720955ºN 60.419401330ºW 37.842 m
Albuquerque, New Mexico KZAB 35.173560874ºN 106.567308273ºW 1620.154 m
Anchorage, Alaska PAZA 61.229174557ºN 149.780364869ºW 80.654 m
Aurora, Illinois KZAU 41.782616622ºN 88.331308050ºW 195.922 m
Nashua, New Hampshire KZBW 42.735705193ºN 71.480378445ºW 39.141 m
Leesburg, Virginia KZDC 39.101556058ºN 77.542750106ºW 80.085 m
Longmont, Colorado KZDV 40.187286655ºN 105.127181633ºW 1541.389 m
Fort Worth, Texas KZFW 32.830614792ºN 97.066488376ºW 155.604 m
Houston, Texas KZHU 29.961833882ºN 95.331462501ºW 10.947 m
Hilliard, Florida KZJX 30.698824796ºN 81.908178358ºW 2.141 m
Olathe, Kansas KZKC 38.880140378ºN 94.790729104ºW 305.814 m
Palmdale, California KZLA 34.603503189ºN 118.083872233ºW 763.546 m
Salt Lake City, Utah KZLC 40.786007936ºN 111.952158417ºW 1287.420 m
Miami, Florida KZMA 25.824644475ºN 80.319246501ºW -7.882 m
Memphis, Tennessee KZME 35.067423639ºN 89.955391700ºW 68.788 m
Farmington, Minnesota KZMP 44.637444415ºN 93.152039309ºW 262.667 m
Ronkonkoma, New York KZNY 40.784293219ºN 73.097181151ºW 6.108 m
Fremont, California KZOA 37.543019928ºN 122.015922570ºW -3.459 m
Oberlin, Ohio KZOB 41.297135898ºN 82.206391657ºW 224.115 m
Auburn, Washington KZSE 47.286919203ºN 122.188372739ºW 82.128 m
San Juan, Puerto Rico TJZS 18.431249167ºN 65.993480433ºW -28.547 m
Hampton, Georgia KZTL 33.379671593ºN 84.296678124ºW 261.142 m

Notes

References

  1. ^ WAAS in Wikipedia
  2. ^ a b WAAS and LAAS Status,FAA presentation at 47th meeting of the Civil Global Positioning System Service Interface Committee, September 25, 2008