New reports confirm near-perfect performance record for civil GPS service

The U.S. Air Force released two technical reports demonstrating that the Global Positioning System (GPS) continues to deliver exceptional performance to civilian users around the world. GPS is a U.S. Air Force satellite system that provides highly dependable positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services to military and civilian users around the world, free of direct user charges.

Operated by the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, the GPS constellation provides precise PNT services worldwide 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

The 2014 and 2015 performance reports confirm that the GPS Standard Positioning Service (SPS) satisfied nearly all measurable performance commitments documented in the GPS SPS Performance Standard, furthering the status of GPS as the “Gold Standard” for PNT.
The GPS Directorate at the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center commissioned the GPS SPS performance reports to enhance public transparency of the real-world performance of civil GPS. The reports confirm that GPS met all of the evaluated commitments for calendar years 2014 and 2015 with one exception.

This exception was that the reporting notification commitment for scheduled GPS satellite interruptions during calendar year 2014 was only met in 29 of 30 cases (96.7%). The vast majority of GPS users were not impacted by this single delayed notification. In this single case, the U.S. Air Force only provided 17 hours of advanced notice, as opposed to the SPS PS commitment of at least 48 hours advanced notice, before the scheduled satellite interruption.

The commitments evaluated in the reports include those of accuracy, integrity, continuity, and availability of the GPS signals-in-space. For example, the signal-in-space ranging accuracy of the GPS civil signals was significantly better than the published standard of “7.8 meters or better at the 95th percentile.” This metric represents a key component in the total “user range error” that GPS receivers experience.

Most impressively, the oldest GPS satellites still provided an average signal-in-space accuracy of 2.8 meters during their worst performing month of 2015 – surpassing the target accuracy metric by over 300 percent. On average, the signal-in-space accuracy of the GPS constellation in 2015 was 1.4 meters, which is a 0.4 meter improvement over the accuracy in 2013.

The GPS SPS performance reports are generated by Applied Research Laboratories, the University of Texas at Austin (ARL:UT), which is a Department of Defense University-Affiliated Research Center. Using data from 33 GPS monitoring and reference stations located around the globe, the ARL:UT team assesses GPS performance against the commitments defined in the 2008 GPS SPS Performance Standard (published at www.gps.gov/technical/ps/ ). The ARL:UT reports focus on those commitments that can be verified by anyone with knowledge of standard GPS data analysis practices, familiarity with the relevant signal specifications, and access to a Global Navigation Satellite System data archive.

“The GPS Directorate remains committed to providing highly accurate and reliable PNT services to our users around the globe. The use of published standards to transparently guide data-driven decision making is how we have become the ‘Gold Standard’ in PNT,” said Col. Steven Whitney, Director of the GPS Directorate. “The GPS Directorate is working every day on improved capabilities to ensure users receive the maximum benefit of the PNT services offered by GPS.”

ARL-UT expects to complete the 2016 SPS performance report later this year. The 2013, 2014, and 2015 reports are publicly available for free download at www.gps.gov/systems/gps/performance/. The National Coordination Office for Space-Based PNT maintains the GPS.gov website to provide official information about GPS to the public.

Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, California, is the U.S. Air Force’s center of excellence for acquiring and developing military space systems. Its portfolio includes GPS, military satellite communications, defense meteorological satellites, space launch and range systems, satellite control networks, space-based infrared systems and space situational awareness capabilities.