GPS (gps)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: gps   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does GPS mean? 

• GPS (noun)
  The noun GPS has 1 sense:

1. a navigational system involving satellites and computers that can determine the latitude and longitude of a receiver on Earth by computing the time difference for signals from different satellites to reach the receiver

  Familiarity information: GPS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GPS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A navigational system involving satellites and computers that can determine the latitude and longitude of a receiver on Earth by computing the time difference for signals from different satellites to reach the receiver

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

Global Positioning System; GPS

Hypernyms ("GPS" is a kind of...):

navigational system (a system that provides information useful in determining the position and course of a ship or aircraft)

 Context examples 

Both electron depletion and electron increases in this layer can possibly cause radio communications to fail, reduce the accuracy of GPS systems, damage satellites and harm electrical grids.

(Solar Storms Can Drain Electrical Charge Above Earth, NASA)

The latest study used data from NASA satellites, as well as GPS stations across Greenland, to analyze changes in ice mass.

(Study: Greenland's Ice Melting Faster than Previously Thought, VOA)

The research team used advanced data-processing techniques on data from 1,300 GPS stations in the mountains of California, Oregon and Washington, collected from 2006 through October 2017.

(Sierras Lost Water Weight, Grew Taller During Drought, NASA)

The colors represent the relative strengths of the earthquake-induced ionospheric disturbances as captured by the GPS signals, with red being high and blue being low.

(GPS Data Show How Nepal Quake Disturbed Earth’s Upper Atmosphere, NASA)

In budding yeast, GPS is a suppressor of lethal G-protein subunit-activating mutations in the pheromone response pathway.

(G Protein Pathway Suppressor 2 Protein, NCI Thesaurus/LocusLink)

Now, researchers believe they have figured out how they do it—by using the Earth's magnetic field as a natural GPS.

(Antarctic seals may use Earth's magnetic field to navigate while hunting, NSF)

Researchers followed 82 newly licensed teen drivers over a one-year period, equipping their vehicles with cameras and GPS technology to track the driver’s activity and environment.

(Reaching for objects while driving may raise teen crash risk nearly sevenfold, National Institutes of Health)

Despite being less accurate than scientific-grade equipment, the GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers in a smartphone can detect the permanent ground movement (displacement) caused by fault motion in a large earthquake.

(Crowdsourced Smartphone Data Could Give Advance Notice for People in Quake Zones, JPL)

Magnetic eruptions on the sun can impact air travel, disrupt satellite communications and bring down power grids, causing long-lasting blackouts and disabling technologies such as GPS.

(Newest solar telescope produces first images, National Science Foundation)

Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

(Solar Dynamics Observatory Captures Images of a Mid-Level Solar Flare, NASA)