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I was looking for the equations that are used by the GPS receiver to calculate its position and time correction (bias). By looking at the Navigation Equations on Wikipedia, I don't see any account for special or general relativity in the equations. Where and when does that correction occur?

Hopefully this is not a duplicate of "Why GPS depends on relativity". I understand the why. But what I don't get is why does not the time correction (i.e. bias) that is calculated from the navigation equations already account for the relativistic difference between the clocks?

mhmhsh
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1 Answers1

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The correction is just making the clock multiplier in the on-board computer slightly different so that the computer's knowledge of where it is in its orbit is correct.

See also That 10km/day error predicted if GPS satellite clocks not corrected for relativity

ps Rather than retypeset them here, the equations for the SR/GR corrections and their derivations are described very well by Neil Ashby of U Colorado

Martin Beckett
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