About Richard B. Langley

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Richard B. Langley is a professor in the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Fredericton, Canada, where he has been teaching and conducting research since 1981. He has a B.Sc. in applied physics from the University of Waterloo and a Ph.D. in experimental space science from York University, Toronto. He spent two years at MIT as a postdoctoral fellow, researching geodetic applications of lunar laser ranging and VLBI. For work in VLBI, he shared two NASA Group Achievement Awards.

Professor Langley has worked extensively with the Global Positioning System. He has been active in the development of GPS error models since the early 1980s and is a co-author of the venerable “Guide to GPS Positioning” and a columnist and contributing editor of GPS World magazine. His research team is currently working on a number of GPS-related projects, including the study of atmospheric effects on wide-area augmentation systems, the adaptation of techniques for spaceborne GPS, and the development of GPS-based systems for machine control and deformation monitoring. Professor Langley is a collaborator in UNB’s Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network project and is the principal investigator for the GPS instrument on the Canadian CASSIOPE research satellite now in orbit.

Professor Langley is a fellow of The Institute of Navigation (ION), the Royal Institute of Navigation, and the International Association of Geodesy. He shared the ION 2003 Burka Award with Don Kim and received the ION’s Johannes Kepler Award in 2007.

Posts by Richard B. Langley

Innovation Insights: A history of techniques and services that contributed to the refinement of the ITRF Posted on 15 Aug 2024 in the From the Magazine & Innovation & Latest News categories.

The satellite Doppler positioning technique was pioneered in the early space age, using the Doppler frequency shift of satellite signals to determine receiver positions. This concept was first utilized by the U.S. Navy to develop the Transit navigation system. Read more»

Innovation Insights: GNSS jamming and spoofing Posted on 24 May 2024 in the Defense & From the Magazine & Latest News & UAV/UGV categories.

While the use of GNSS jamming and spoofing can be detected on the ground and by aircraft overflying locations where the activity is taking place, these signals can be more comprehensively studied from space using satellites carrying receivers with appropriate spectrum coverage. Read more»

Innovation Insights: What is a CubeSat? Posted on 27 Feb 2024 in the From the Magazine & GNSS & Innovation & Latest News categories.

This is an introduction to the February 2024 Innovation article, “GNSS Timing Measurements from a Low-Earth Orbiting Satellite.” In 1999, professors Jordi Puig-Suari at California Polytechnic State University and Bob... Read more»

Innovation Insights: Science in paradise Posted on 17 Nov 2023 in the Innovation & Latest News & Opinions categories.

In this quarter’s “Innovation” column, we have an article by some members of the team who built and operate the GNSS-R system on the top of Haleakalā. They explain how the system works and some of the preliminary observations and results they have obtained. More science in paradise! Read more»

Innovation Insights: Falcon Gold analysis redux Posted on 09 Aug 2023 in the From the Magazine & Innovation & Latest News categories.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota are taking a fresh look at the Falcon Gold data using some innovative analysis tools. In this quarter’s Innovation column, researchers at the University tell us about their work and its potential benefit. Read more»

Innovation Insights: Antennas and photons and orbits, oh my! Posted on 15 May 2023 in the Featured Stories & Featured Stories & Innovation & Latest News & Online Exclusives categories.

While I’m likely preaching to the choir here, GNSS cannot work unless we have an accurate description of the orbits of the satellites and the behavior of their atomic clocks. Read more»

Innovation Insights: What is carrier phase? Posted on 23 Feb 2023 in the From the Magazine & Innovation categories.

A carrier is basically a harmonic electromagnetic wave — a pure continuous sinusoidal wave with a single constant frequency and amplitude. Read more»

Innovation: Software-defined radios for GNSS Posted on 22 Nov 2022 in the From the Magazine & Innovation categories.

A Step-by-Step Exposition of an Educational Resource

Researchers discuss their development and testing of additional freely available SDR codebases covering all four GNSS (GPS, Galileo, BeiDou and GLONASS). Read more»