WAAS is a system developed by the Federal Aviation Administration to improve the Global Positioning systems accuracy. WAAS originally was developed for aircraft safety. Using WAAS technology, aircraft can use GPS for all phases of flight including takeoffs and landing. WAAS enabled GPS to be accurate enough for planes to take off and land in total darkness or other hazardous conditions. WAAS enables accuracy within 1.0 meters laterally and 1.5 meters vertically within the USA, Canada, Alaska and Hawaii.

Europe and Asia are now working on their own system to improve their technology similar to WAAS. Europe has the "Euro Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service" (EGNOS) and Japan is working on their "Multi-Functional Satellite Augmentation System" (MSAS) .

WAAS technology is used in many GPS applications today even though it was originally developed for air flight. Many GPS units including handhelds now use WAAS technology.

The system consists of a network of approximately twenty five ground based Wide Area Reference Stations (WRS) in North America and Hawaii that measures small variations in GPS data in the western hemisphere. The ground stations monitor and analyze the data and then forward it to the WHS master stations. They then transmit this data to Ground Uplink Stations (GUS) that transmits the data and WAAS enabled receiver gives the user the more accurate information. It happens at such speed the user never sees anything except the improved information on their receiver.

This is a simplified explanation of how WAAS works. It is not meant to be scientific explanation but is simplified so the average person gets the idea of what WAAS enabled does for everyday users.

Author LaZinnia Manley All Rights Reserved 08-03-2009