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Standalone Magnetometry Is the New GPS – IEEE Spectrum

June 3, 2026

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Written by Editor

Image: Shutterstock

What’s new: An article about forms of navigation using aspects of the earth’s magnetic field. 

Why it’s important: Autonomous navigation is becoming more interesting for a number of applications in a world where interference with GNSS is becoming more and more common.

What else to know:

  • Our readers will understand that the phrase “the New GPS” is more than a bit overstated. Timing is the underlying and most used feature of PNT from GPS. It is not available from navigation-only systems.
  • One of the companies in the article, AstraNav, is a longtime RNT Foundation member.

 

Standalone Magnetometry Is the New GPS 

Companies are turning the tiny compasses in phones into full navigation alternatives

GPS signals are too weak to be accurate deep inside big buildings. In conflict zones like Ukraine and the Strait of Hormuz, adversaries jam and spoof signals. So the hunt has been on for decades for GPS alternatives that might work both indoors and outside, and in even more unconventional places, such as underwater.

One tantalizing option involves using the Earth’s magnetic field. It’s always present, even if it’s weak or subject to noise from nearby local magnetic fields. For more than a decade, some companies have combined maps they’ve previously made of local magnetic fields with other technologies such as Bluetooth or radio-frequency identification (RFID) to offer indoor mapping services.

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