Tech | February 10, 2010 | 44 comments

Solar flares set to wreak havoc on GPS signals

source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/solar-flares-set-to-wreak-havoc-with-gps-signals/

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absworldone
The sun's activity isn't usually a hot topic around these parts, but when it threatens to derail satellite navigation services around the world, it must surely take center stage. UK researchers have corroborated Cornell's 2006 warning that our solar system's main life-giver is about to wake up and head toward a new solar maximum -- a period of elevated surface activity and radiation.

It is precisely that radiation, which can be perceived in the form of solar flares, that worries people with respect to GPS signaling, as its effects on the Earth's ionosphere are likely to cause delays in data transmission from satellites to receivers and thereby result in triangulation errors.

Still, it's more likely to be "troublesome than dangerous," but inaccuracies of around 10 meters and signal blackouts that could last for hours are being forecast in the absence of any intervening steps being taken. So yes, you now have another reason not to trust your GPS too much.
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    Sun,  GPS,  Solar Flares
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44 comments // Solar flares set to wreak havoc on GPS signals

  • Stever_B
  • Argon18
    • 0
      Argon18  

    • "Scientists warn the next solar maximum will cause some serious disruptions for GPS navigation users. Researchers estimate sat-nav receivers will be blinded for tens of minutes, probably a few times a year at the solar maximum, and there's little that can be done to mitigate the problem, with the exception of complex (and expensive) directional antennas used in military applications.

      Solar flares - vast exhalations of magnetic energy from the Sun's surface - spray out radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from low-energy radio waves through to high-energy gamma-rays, along with bursts of high-energy particles toward the Earth.

      The radiation or waves that come from the Sun can make sat-nav receivers unable to pick out the weak signal from satellites from the solar flare's aftermath.
      Besides the blindness problem, researchers also expect sat-nav users will face unpredictable positioning errors. Based on the last solar maximum, Cathryn Mitchell of the University of Bath estimates the UK may see positioning errors of about 10 metres."

    • 2 years ago
  • Miikey
    • 0
      Miikey  

    • Some one should make a website that archives all theses 2012 doomsday stories. It should also have forums, so I can chat to equally minded nut cases. Maybe we can have a section here on current?

    • 2 years ago
  • echoz
    • 0
      echoz  
    • Miikey:

      maybe that self-confessed nut case is you then =P or maybe *I'm* just out of touch, but at least finally someone like Miikey who makes me wanna say tommic commendably has much better science sense =) flares are no joke. Ask NASA how comically inclined they feel to simply laugh about it. Now THAT's funny cuz I can just imagine the look on their faces. but neither is possibly complementary adjoining unpredictable magnetic reversal. I'm not adding credence to doomsday scenario but it seems the implications are far more serious than something I thought was more honestly laughable that being Y2K...the only ones who stood to lose anything it seemed were those guarding slave debt lol BANKERS!!! lol what a f'world it is =P it deserves to burn! but maybe we could laugh a little of our surer way to hell to TRY making it a little easier just getting there, heh, I guess *shrug*

    • 2 years ago
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  

    • A Gamma Ray Burst within a thousand light years from earth that is directed our way and your biblical fantasies can come true. Everything on this plant will be toasted like a charcoal marshmellow. It is thought that one was responsible for the third mass extinction of species on Earth. Life must start anew at the most basic levels of amino acids. End of days will not come because a professed God is angered or to punish sinners it will come with the cosmos doing what it does.
      The evolution of desrtuction and birth of the cosmos over and over again its a never ending cycle that goes on infinitum.

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • tommic:

      "It is thought"? pulleeze Last year two months IN A ROW one month apart to the day both on FRIDAY meteors missed us. I wonder why. Haiti got hit with a quake 5 & 6 miles UNDER THE GROUND and 230,000 people died, but Chicago's quake was just 3 miles under ground and they didn't have any casualties I've heard of. What don't you understand about "shot over your bow"?

      We've been warned. That's my thought and I'll stack it on top of your billion years ago speculations, if's and maybe's all day long. The day has come for Christ Jesus to clean this mess up that your scientists and chemists have caused. I don't think it, I know it. The Bible prophecies are falling like dominoes. Your ignorance of them doesn't make them wrong.

    • 2 years ago
  • echoz
    • 0
      echoz  
    • Image
    • tommic:

      "the end won't come...because of [any] God...but because of the cosmos ending...[in] a never ending cycle" =)

      To tommic, from the (not merely professed, but Wholly Self-Evident) Eternal:

      I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. (Rev 23:13)

      Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7)

      The question God is asking you is, "Were you there in the beginning?" So that I might ask, how would you know better than He? =D

      I assure you, Job had more wisdom when he actually answered God, saying he'd simply shut his mouth.

      http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2534/4180598460_90fff1abde.jpg

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • tommic:

      Echoz makes good points tommic. I can only add this, that the people who wrote the Hebrew Scriptures were a whole heckuva lot healthier than we are today and also this => they were not strapped to a world economy to filter all their ideas past -and gain approval of their scientific peers- before opening their mouth... having to always consider the financial damage that will come to their WALLETS if they say the wrong thing.

      What these people tell us today is 1,000 levels of highly suspect.

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • echoz:

      The Bible writers 2, 3 & 4,000 years ago were made of the same stuff as Socrates and Aristotle. I'll throw in with their unbiased and unpaid for writings any day of the week.

    • 2 years ago
  • echoz
    • 0
      echoz  
    • Image

    • =) but it was my prerogative to laugh when I read what seemed like more blind faith "...and there is nothing we can do about with todays technology"

      I wonder what 'technology", if ever, is going to have the Unimaginable Power to stand up to our colossal Sun =D lol indeed...If there were any such thing, I'd surely be tempted to call Him my Eternal God =P cuz I think most scientists, given fight or flight opportunity, would, if it were possible, simply opt for a much safer flight...but that's not going to happen for Unbelievers.

      "But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment ..." 2 Peter 3:7

      http://hotair.cachefly.net/hotair.com/wp/wp-content/themes/hotair/images/hotair_...

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • echoz:

      I expect there will be plenty of literal fire involved. But what exactly is supposed to burn??? Peter wrote the heavens and the earth. If we take that 100% literal then nothing would be left of the universe! So perhaps he meant something else? Comes verse 10 he expands writing "elements being intensely hot will be dissolved and earth and the works in it will be discovered". Also before that the heavens will pass away with a hissing sound.

      Do heavens ever hiss? But people do, and people are made of earth (the elements), and people refuse God's rules and choose to continue in sin (works in it). The "heavens" are those people at the top of the pyramid now running things. They are the "heavens" that God's Kingdom will erase no doubt using some real fire. The "earth" is those of us else who refuse to live righteous lives.

    • 2 years ago
  • echoz
    • 0
      echoz  
    • Image
    • Gravity_Man:

      hehe =) Gravity_Man, well, because you asked, yes indeed the cosmos DOES in fact STILL 'hiss' ...from the initial POWER when our Eternal God said "Let there be light" creating Everything we take for granted. Science today happens to call that discovery of reality "cosmic microwave background radiation"... It permeates everything! =) THAT's HIS signature B-i-i-i-i-iiiii-G BAAAANNNNNGGGGG POWAH we can STILL "hear" today!!!! =) I doubt it's going away any time soon eiher ;)

      But Gravity', there IS a new heaven, AND a new earth coming for those who trust in the Lord. see Rev 21:1:

      "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea..." interesting "no sea" eh? wonder what could make that happen, hmmm? =D Especially when no one is afraid anymore to piss the Eternal off for merely selfish "personal" motives. Heh.

      Deus Volent...Latin for "[As] God wills"...(and WARNS us to actually "get real" I might add)

      http://www.cobankopegi.com/b/wmap.jpg

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • echoz:

      I'm aware of universal hiss, and that hissing will never end, certainly not because of anything we do here on earth. That hissing is a constant. The "sea" that will be no more is this human society sloshing around all over the map. Under God's one government we will no longer be sloshing around. We'll settle down in worship of the one true God (Psalm 83:18).

      All false religions that do not lead to that God will be gone forever, no doubt after much hissing.

    • 2 years ago
  • echoz
    • 0
      echoz  
    • Image
    • Gravity_Man:

      lol 'no doubt after much hissing' lol indeed ;)~

      '...Echoz but the star represents Bible Truth (Light) being poured out..." the interpretation is close enough for me =P

      Stars usually embody spiritual entities in biblical texts even older than Revelation:

      Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7)

      The question God is asking Job is, "Were you there in the beginning?" God then lists two sets of witnesses that were there in the beginning: morning stars and sons of God. Morning stars are indeed angels as can be derived from "The seven stars are the angels" (Revelation 1:20), "They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera" (Judges 5:20), and "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations" (Isaiah 14:12)! Yes, even Satan himself was once a morning star wanting to "exalt my throne above the stars of God" (Isaiah 14:13); however, Jesus said, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10:18). Of course, the morning star is Jesus: "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star" (Revelation 22:16). --http://www.rcmintl.org/SonsofGod.html

      http://blog.beliefnet.com/flowermandalas/imgs/Book%20of%20Job%20-%20MorningStars...

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • echoz
    • 0
      echoz  
    • Gravity_Man:

      ha! well I would thank you Gravity'. ;) but who ever honestly tries to reinvent any wheel--unless it was attempted of some megalomaniacal corporation also trying to patent circumference, and radius and the mere fact of 360-degrees in all of life. =D

      Well, *shrug* sadly, Monsanto does come to mind for that...pattenting God's original design on pigs, et. al... But pretty soon we won't even be able to think certain thoughts because people are stupid enough to try to patent "Smart" even, at OUR expense of course!!! But quite "naturally" CEOs and their "board" of mafiosos won't have to pay for it cuz we do it for them until our backs break.

      Meanwhile people are too stupid to realize where that strain is coming from.

      Hey, just bring on that sun Gravity_!!! Build your machine!! PULLLLL!!!! HEAVE it closer!!!! =P

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • tommic
    • +1
      tommic  

    • Don't laugh at this. The next solar maximun is due to start in 2011, a large coronal mass ejection can swell the earths atmosphere causing all satillites in low earth orbit to come crashing down, the waves of radiation can disable and blow transformers which reduce power from power plants to deliver it to consumers. Knock airliners out of the sky due to electronic failure. If transformers are blown in a cme it can take months if not years to get back online. There are only a handfull of manufactures worldwide who produce transformers. One of the great dangers to society as we know it, we could be thrown back 150 years in a very short period. We will have very little time to act if this indeed does happen and happen it will its just a matter of time.

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • -2
      Gravity_Man  
    • tommic:

      Well, I wasn't gonna laugh til ya got to the part about 1,600 planes aloft suddenly falling down my chimney. But, my chances are good. My airport is small. They don't do a lot of flights. Okay, I'm ready. Bring it on! hmm, that phrase didn't work out so well for the last guy who used it.

      Whew. Thanks tommic for this cutting edge explanation. Looks like it's about too late to bring my shielded Gravity Wheels into production so we'll jus hafta surf the wild wave together. And do what we always do => trust that Daddy Warbucks has plenty cards up his sleeve.

      Besides, inventor Robert Kostoff already has his wheel in production I think. His is too big for being inside a single home but, maybe we could put one on each city block in America and put a big tin foil cover over it.

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Gravity_Man:

      There seems to be right many people trying to solve the Gravity Wheel riddle. They're a tough nut to crack. Took me 10+ months if you don't figure in my horizontal design of 1989. I picked up the gauntlet again in 1996 but I was in the beginning stages of some awesome circulatory diseases caused by my doctors refusing to help solve my foot pain from the 89 accident... so being barely able to walk for the dried out muscle-less feet bones grinding against each other I was unable to do any aerobics. All that was left was for me to plow through arterio and athero.

      It cost me a lot of time. Anyway, it seems no one wants to just come out and ask me how to fix the Wheels, choosing instead to try and compress 10 months down assuming if I can do it they can also. I reckon we'll skip rope into 2011 just like we just skipped rope out of 2009... but spinning a small home-sized generator isn't rocket science unless you just can't figure it out, then I guess it is.

      btw, the Chicago quake was really an underground caldera implosion. When the millions of gallons of melting snow water goes into it I would choose to be somewhere else.

    • 2 years ago
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  
    • Gravity_Man:

      I only said it can happen that does not mean it will happen in the next solar maximun. But through the twenty two year cycles that the sun goes through it is only a matter of time. Maybe 2 years maybe two hundred but it will happen and there is nothing we can do about with todays technology

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • Nephwrack
  • Argon18
    • 0
      Argon18  
    • Nephwrack:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j4qr7UU2MQ

      Not unless you can devise a way to channel the cosmic rays more directly through your GPS and concentrate them.

      But since they are so random in their effects you never know what super powers you would get. Are you willing to risk that you would be turned into something like the Thing? Is that risk worth the chance you could get powers like "Flaming On?"

      It would most likely be better just to arrange to have all GPS to be upgraded so that they were shielded from interference of solar flares

    • 2 years ago
  • echoz
  • officialmtcm
  • Michael_Muscente
  • Nephwrack
  • nursediesel
    • 0
      nursediesel  

    • Gravity_Man: Yea, that would suck to be there! Hope the people are pre-warned. Not like that helped in New Orleans, THO!
      We just keep adding more feet of snow here in western PA. They keep hauling it away in dump trucks, where? I don't know. I know it's going to be very wet when the weather breaks. We are rivers, streams, creeks and springs every where you look.... that's why we have such awful pot holes with the freezing and thawing we have soooo much underground water here.

    • 2 years ago
  • absworldone
  • jjammedjr
  • echoz
  • Nephwrack
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Image
    • echoz:

      Revelation being symbolic Wormwood is likely not a real star because a real star falling on Planet Earth would do more than kill 1/3 of the people. Thanks for the fine post there Echoz but the star represents Bible Truth (Light) being poured out upon false christians and their false churches ("fountains"), and those who still insist the churches are NOT false find those Bible Truths to be a very bitter "water" to drink.

      Time to Get Out while there is still time => Revelation 18:4.

      Regarding yesterday's events => http://forum.signonsandiego.com/showpost.php?p=3946246&postcount=5293

    • 2 years ago
  • echoz
    • 0
      echoz  
    • Nephwrack:

      does it REALLY say that, or are you just another eisegesistical ;)~ judgemental prick spouting off bullshit, Neph'(elim)? ...surely the latter condition deprives you of better Wisdom.

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  

    • Ok NOW is the time to wonder across the wrong border. Like into N. Korea. You can say My G.P.S. malfunctioned. Not that anyone over there is ging to care. But hey when the U.S. Goverment ask you why you can say sun flares

    • 2 years ago
  • jjammedjr
  • jjammedjr
  • Gravity_Man
  • bailey78
  • Chapisbored
    • +2
      Chapisbored  

    • As the world becomes less moral, god increases the sun's temperature proportionately.

      No but seriously, my iphone's GPS tells me i'm in the woods when im on the interstate so this isn't very good news for me.

    • 2 years ago
  • Incredulous
  • nursediesel
    • +1
      nursediesel  

    • Ahhh, solar flares. Such fun. Can't live with them, can't live without them. Maybe they'll melt all this snow!
      BTW, thanks for the info!

    • 2 years ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • nursediesel:

      If the snow in Chicago melts too fast right after the underground caldera implosion they're calling an earthquake you could have a big mudslide headed straight down into the depths of hell... otherwise in the future to be known as "The Chicago Sinkhole of 2010". (4 AM this morning, 3.8 - 4.3 thereabouts)

    • 2 years ago
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