Everything under the Sun

The National Weather Service has pointed to a disruptive solar flare last December 6th as being indicative of the vulnerability of satellite navigation. During that flare the whole GPS constellation had been affected, some units just losing accuracy and others losing function altogether. The next peak solar flare cycle is expected in 2011. The debate is now on over whether the system needs to be protected against the RF energy generated by solar flare activity. Achieving invulnerability is only possible by addition of solar filters and/or upping the satellite's radiated power output. Both options would be expensive. In an obvious fishing expedition for R&D funds, the researchers are promoting the view that widespread economic disruption could be one possible outcome, industry dependency upon GPS having continued to grow exponentially. Chairman of the physics department of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Dale E. Gary, said the December burst produced 10 times more radio noise than any sunburst previously recorded. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory had a representative there and he agreed. The flare's effect was compared to the difference between normal conversation levels and front row at a rock concert. The FAA admitted that its accuracy enhancing WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System), the GPS signals' ground-based refining booster, had also been affected. The scientists' concerns stem from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration briefing upon Space "weather". Monitoring space-based electromagnetic energy influx is now the role of the Weather Service's newly created Space Environment Center.