Trimble Navigation Ltd. [TRMB], of Sunnyvale, Calif., has won a three-year contract to supply its high precision 4700 GPS receivers for SuomiNet, a university-based, national GPS network that is being developed for atmospheric research and education.

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research awarded the SuomiNet contract with funding from the National Science Foundation and the member universities.

Trimble officials said the contract is for an indefinite quantity of the 4700 receivers, but they expect it to amount to at least 100 systems per year.

They said their 4700 receiver, with its Micro-centered antenna, is ideal for geodetic and scientific research because it can make accurate measurements down to the millimeter level. It is compact, lightweight, has low power consumption and is able to tolerate extreme environmental conditions.

In the SuomiNet program, the 4700 receivers will be used to make thousands of accurate measurements per day of the upper and lower atmosphere. The atmosphere induces delays in GPS signals, which can be converted into water vapor and ionospheric measurements.

This data will be available in real-time on the Internet and will help university researchers and scientists study, model and assimilate information to improve their understanding of meteorology, regional and global climatic changes, floods and astronomy, Trimble officials said.