"GPS failing? Blame the Northern Lights"

archchancellor

Article in The Telegraph:

Border_Collie · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 2:39 pm Post subject:

It appears to me that all 24 satellites would have to be affected but they are spread around the Globe with 12 overhead wherever you are in the World. Only 4 sats. are needed for 3D navigation purposes and devices use signals from the strongest 4. They way I see it at least 9 of the 12 would have to be affected to cause any problems.
_________________
Formerly known as Lost_Property
And NO that's NOT me in the Avatar.

gardenshed · Frequent Visitor Joined: Jul 05, 2007 Posts: 466

suppose it depends how far north you are, is there a diagram of the sats in relation to the earth, i presume they must be geo stationary anyway

Border_Collie · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 4:25 pm Post subject:

archchancellor · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:14 pm Post subject:

Darren · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 6:55 pm Post subject:

It's a common misquote. The Navstar satellites are in a semi-geosynchronous orbit not geostationary, i.e. they move constantly in predicted orbits.
_________________
Darren Griffin

lbendlin · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 7:33 pm Post subject:

however, these orbits _do_ leave holes over both poles. You can see that when you let VisualGPS or other tools plot the locations for over 12 hours.

Combined with the northern lights this is certainly affecting navigation, but only in the extreme polar regions, above/below +/- 70 degrees
_________________
Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

gardenshed · Frequent Visitor Joined: Jul 05, 2007 Posts: 466

	PocketGPS
	Web