A specific coverage area is automatically generated from the current selection and satellite footprints can also be drawn, with a high quality satellite image provided as a background map.

Options include report distance to the ten nearest stations from any location, reference station information, measurement of distances, zoom, pan and re-centre facilities, and selected quality of background images.

Featuring state-of-the-art internet mapping technology, the service is maintained and operated by Fugro Survey AS of Norway.

Meanwhile, Veripos, a subsidiary of Halliburton Subsea, has announced plans to establish a new dual frequency Inmarsatbased Differential GPS service covering the entire Caspian Sea area with the supplementary siting of three land-based reference stations at Aktau, Atyrau and Baku. They will provide rapid update rates and low data latency with fully redundant communication links connected to Veripos' main DGPS Network Control Centre (NCC) in Aberdeen.

The new service, says Veripos, will be typically capable of supplying Caspian offshore users with accuracies of 1m over ranges up to 2000km, with positional solutions being derived from use of proprietary Gemini software.

The complete network will also permit computation of multiple reference station position solutions for added reliability and precision while being fully compatible with all types of GPS receiver using the RTCM SC104 V2.1 correction format. Similar Veripos high-accuracy Inmarsat and HF-based DGPS networks are maintained for Brazil, Canada, Gulf of Mexico and Trinidad as well as Europe, the Mediterranean and West Africa.