Lost GPS signals now verified as caused by Northern Lights

William Atkins
Monday, 23 June 2008 18:31

Science - Climate

U.K./U.S./Finland researchers conclude—in the first-of-its-kind study—that satellite navigation systems can fail due to the magnetic activity of the Northern Lights.

Satellite navigation (sat-nav) systems, or officially called global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs), are used to pinpoint the location of vehicles (such as aircraft, ships, boats, and cars), pedestrians, and other objects here on Earth.

As of 2007, the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) is the only fully operational one. However, Russia, the European Union, and China are pursuing the development of their own systems.

Now, for the first time, a direct link has been established between the loss of accuracy on a GPS receiver (even resulting in loss of signal) and intense electrical activity within the Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights.

The research was published in the American Geophysical Union's International Journal of Space Weather under the title “GPS scintillation in the high arctic associated with an auroral arc.”

The researchers involved in the study are: Andrew M. Smith, Cathryn N. Mitchell, Robert J. Watson, Robert W. Meggs, all of the Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Bath (United Kingdom); Paul M. Kintner, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University (U.S.A.), Kirsti Kanristie, Space Research Unit at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (Finland), and Farideh Honary, Communications Systems at Lancaster University (U.K.).

The researchers observed at 0123 Universal Time (UT) on November 8, 2004, the rapid fading of GPS signals at three scintillation receivers (sat-nav systems), closely positioned together in northern Norway. Their observations occurred before, during, and after an intense electrical event of the Northern Lights.

Although the event only lasted about ten seconds, its intensity (and the similar intensities of other ones) can cause the GPS receivers to malfunction. CONTINUED