Applanix recently announced that it is now shipping L2C ready L1/L2 GPS receivers in its Position and Orientation System (POS) products. The POS products are used as a component for the company’s air, land, and marine integrated inertial/GPS geospatial solutions. The new GPS receivers have been built with the future capabilities of GPS in mind, allowing L2C functionality to be activated via a simple in-field feature upgrade. Users can now be ready to take full advantage of the L2C capabilities when available, without the need to invest in additional hardware.
Anticipating the additional workload of more complex signals during acquisition and tracking, the L2C capable receivers contain hardware and firmware to support the longer codes of the new GPS signal format. The L2C GPS signal has been designed for civilian use, and offers a stronger and more robust carrier phase differential solution for precise RTK positioning than current generation codeless L2 can provide. Used in conjunction with the original L1 GPS carrier signal, ionosphere delay and other distortions become more correctible, resulting in greater position, navigation and timing accuracy, and reliability. The L2C GPS signal will also offer better L2 signal to noise ratios because receivers can track the L2C code directly, and makes it easier to resolve and dramatically reduce multipath effects (incorrect position readings resulting from signal reflections).
