Seen & Heard: Lighthouses no more, GPS mitigates natural disasters

“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.

Bikes get tricked out

Image: Snik Bike

Snik Bike is a new app-paired tracking device designed to help users track their bikes if they are lost or stolen, reported North Shore News. Snik Bike Security Co-founder Fraser Vaage developed Snik Bike after having two of his bikes stolen. Snik equips any bike with a rechargeable location device that can be installed in five minutes or less. After pairing the device, the bike is automatically registered with Project 529, which is an online bike registration service. Vaage emphasized that while this device is not a ride-tracking software, such as Strava, it acts as an odometer, tracking overall mileage. The battery is only activated when a bike is stolen, Vaage said, therefore, it’s unlikely Snik will run out of battery. However, if it does, the device diverts to AirTag technology as a backup.

Lighthouses no more

Image: Wiltser/E+/Getty Images

With the wide adoption of GNSS, lighthouses on U.S. shorelines are no longer needed for navigation. To preserve these properties, the General Services Administration has been transferring ownership of the lighthouses to anyone willing to preserve them, reported The Guardian. This year, six lighthouses are being offered to federal, state or local government agencies, non-profits, educational organizations or anyone willing to make them publicly available for educational, cultural, or recreational purposes.

Location data ad weather resiliency

Image: DenisTangneyJr/E+/Getty Images

A Southern Methodist University research team, led by Nicos Markris, measured Dallas’ resilience by recording anonymous cell phone location data among residents in the Dallas metroplex before, during, and after the February 2021 North American winter storm. Measuring a city’s resilience is critical for planning responses to future events and uncovering potential vulnerabilities. By averaging location data, Makris and his team outlined the movement patterns of Dallas residents during a typical week. They compared the normal movement patterns to those during and after the week of the winter storm to determine when Dallas started getting back to normal.

GPS mitigates natural disasters

Image: Philip Thurston/E+/Getty Images

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) is testing new ways to detect tsunami-like ocean waves before they cause catastrophic damage. The GNSS Upper Atmospheric Real-Time Disaster Information and Alert Network (GUARDIAN) is a new experimental monitoring system that can use data from clusters of GPS and other satellites to detect deadly waves triggered on Earth. Radio signals from GNSS are examined by scientific ground stations around the world. That data is then reviewed by the JPL’s Global Differential GPS network to help mitigate disasters. The GUARDIAN is still evolving and may be used in the future to develop early warning strategies, according to the United Nations’ International Committee on GNSS.