Principles of the Global Positioning System
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this advanced Earth Sciences course on how GPS works and how it is applied to geophysics and engineering. Content shifts with student interest year to year, sometimes emphasizing millimeter-level positioning for regional and global geophysical studies, other times focusing on kinematic positioning for moving objects with slightly less precision. Throughout, the course concentrates on the fundamental physical and mathematical limitations of satellite positioning systems, aiming to give students the grounding needed to extend GPS methods into areas not yet fully studied. Materials include lecture notes and course readings from MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, free to access under MIT OpenCourseWare's open license. There is no instructor interaction or certificate, but the materials are self-contained for independent study of satellite geodesy and positioning theory.