Solar Radio bursts significantly affect GPS Technology

A panel of researchers has found that Global Positioning System (GPS) and other communication technologies on earth may be threatened by powerful solar flares. The findings were announced on Wednesday at the first Space Weather Enterprise Forum in Washington D.C.

Bursts of energy from the sun on microwave radio frequencies can interrupt wireless communication several times a year. Solar bursts are more prone to occur around the solar maximum, which is the most active portion of the sun’s eleven year cycle.

The first discovery of solar radio bursts at a much lower frequency was made in 1942 by radars installed during World War II. After the war, solar radio study became a recognized field of research and the Air Force started collecting data, since these solar bursts constantly affected radars used during and after the war to send and receive signals.

Anthea J. Coster, an atmospheric scientist at the Haystack Observatory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that as banks use the system to synchronize money transfers, "so space weather can affect all of us, right down to our wallet."

Last year in December, one of such solar radio burst occurred, which confirmed the fact that it can have serious impact on the Global positioning System generally known as GPS and also on other wireless communication systems which use radio technology.

These solar bursts begin with a solar outburst that infuses high energy electrons into the solar atmosphere, resulting in the emergence of radio waves, which in return propagate to the earth and cover a broad frequency range. These waves act as noise disturbances on the radio frequencies which are used by the Global positioning System and result in the disruption of service and having serious impacts on the tracking system temporarily.

Dale Gary, a physicist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology said, “This solar radio bursts occurred during the solar minimum, yet produced as much as 10 times more radio noise than the previous record.”

“This was enough to swamp GPS receivers over the entire sunlit side of Earth” he further added.

The Global Positioning System receivers use a range of scientific applications, which in turn also get effected by these solar disturbances causing the whole GPS to halt for a specific time period. These applications include a very high precision positioning service that can spot a user’s location with 10 to 20cm accuracy anywhere in the world.

During such solar bursts, which are expected to increase both in impact and frequency in the year’s to come, the GPS receivers stop functioning and tracking the GPS signal, which raises many questions on the reliability of technological advancements in the context of environmental effects.

The GPS network is highly affected by such solar radio bursts and only a good comprehension of how solar bursts affect wireless communications will help designing of safer and more reliable wireless technology in the future.