GPS Satellite Orbits

Nominally the Global Positioning System (GPS) consists of 24 satellites (21+3 active spares). The satellites are in almost circular orbits approximately 20 000 km above the surface of the Earth. The siderial revolution period is almost precisely half a siderial day (11h 58m). All GPS satellites, therefore, are in deep 2:1 resonance with the rotation of the Earth with respect to inertial space. This particular characteristic gives rise to perturbations to be discussed in section 2.3.3. Thanks to this particular revolution period essentially the same satellite configuration is observed at a given point on the surface of the Earth at the same time of the day on consecutive days (the constellation repeats itself almost perfectly after 23h56mUT).

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