GPS Goes bye bye's in 2011

[+Jonovich]

Erm... Not something to look forward to...

 

Navigation, power and communications systems that rely on GPS satellite navigation will be disrupted by violent solar activity in 2011, research shows.

 

A study reveals Global Positioning System receivers to be unexpectedly vulnerable to bursts of radio noise produced by solar flares, created by explosions in the Sun's atmosphere.

 

When solar activity peaks in 2011 and 2012, it could cause widespread disruption to aircraft navigation and emergency location systems that rely heavily on satellite navigation data.

 

For full story go here

 

J

[+walkergeoff and wife]

Hmmm....

 

GPS has been in use for many years, and was used in the 1st Gulf War. It was certainly around at the time of the last high level of solar activity. Why are there no statistics in the article about what happened then?

 

Or is this yet another scare story so beloved by modern scientists?

[+jerryo]

We're about due another bird flu scare aren't we?

Edited October 17, 2006 by jerryo

[+Jonovich]

GPS has been in use for many years, and was used in the 1st Gulf War.

 

Hmmm maybe that explains how the whole Bravo Two Zero story got off to such a bad start?

 

Or is this yet another scare story so beloved by modern scientists?

 

Most probably... Could be a push for publicity to gain more NewScientist subscribers?

 

J

[+Jonovich]

We're about due another bird flu scare aren't we?

 

Hmm... I can see the headlines, Migratory Flu ridden birds sent off course to UK by Solar flare activity disrupting their GPS navigation systems

 

J

[+Kelsborrow Wayfinders]

My next DNF will now read "Couldn't find due to violent solar activity" it sounds so much better than couldn't find due to general incompetence.

[+chizu]

 

Or is this yet another scare story so beloved by modern scientists?

 

Actually, I think it's journalists and media people that publish these stories and write them in such ridiculous overblown apocalyptic terms. Scientists just give the story, the media puts the spin on it.

[+Jonovich]

My next DNF will now read "Couldn't find due to violent solar activity" it sounds so much better than couldn't find due to general incompetence.

 

Try caching at night instead then

 

J

[terrible2u]

and the mayan calendar happens to end just then!

 

brothers and sisters, this is the end of earth an mankind. if you want a trip out, join me and my church, my alienfriends will fly you out of this mess! simply contribute a tenth of your savings and earnings to following bank account: UBS XXX-XXXXXXX.X, zurich, switzerland. ah, dont forget to send me in your emailadress so i can give you the coordinates of where the mothership lands..

[+Geo-Kate]

I certainly hope this won't happen, I was thinking not long ago how much we use GPS, for caching and driving.

 

This story reminded me of a report I heard a few years back that I have not heard of since. Whilst studying rock and lava samples, geologists discovered from the orientation of the iron particles in the rocks, that Earth's magnetic feild periodically flips so north become south, and vice versa.

 

Obviously, this doesn't just 'happen', but takes many years of magnetic chaos. The report went on to say that we are overdue for another flip. This would cause chaos with satellites, the ionosphere, our electrical supply ans so on and so forth. That had lots of people worried at the time.

 

I am sure I read that we were over due for another super-eruption of an atomic winter creating scale, and we are late for a massive impact from space, similar to the one that killed the dinosaurs.

 

Don't our scientists just love putting the willies up us????

 

PS Did that sparrow just sneeze?

[+The Forester]

Hmmm maybe that explains how the whole Bravo Two Zero story got off to such a bad start?

 

B20 was a complete cockup, but not due to GPS. In fact, the #2i/c had been very well trained in Advanced Land Navigation and all other members of the patrol (including the NCO i/c) had been well trained in the subject by an instructor who had been extremely well trained. They were well able to navigate from their initial infil point to their objective(s) and to their planned exfil point and along their bugout route when the whole mission turned to a pile of pants due to a series of (mostly planning) cockups. The guys were well trained and mostly well equipped. The disaster which befell B20 was entirely due to piss-poor preparation by the planner and the failure of the recovery which was due to factors which did not include navigational matters.

 

GPS actually performed very well during DesertStorm/Granby, despite not being ready for war or even peacetime use. The satellite constellation was nowhere near ready for operational use, and the system wasn't fully commissioned until about five years later.

 

GPS sats are 'hardened' for the electromagnetic pulses which are to be expected during nuclear war and therefore they are more, not less, resistant to the effects of electromagnetic blasts from solar coronal mass ejections than most satellites.

 

During the last solarmax episode there were no significant interruptions to GPS service due to solar flares. During the next solarmax, I expect fewer problems, as we shall have more satellites available to fill in for any which blink.

[+Kryten]

This story reminded me of a report I heard a few years back that I have not heard of since. Whilst studying rock and lava samples, geologists discovered from the orientation of the iron particles in the rocks, that Earth's magnetic feild periodically flips so north become south, and vice versa.

 

This is true but it doesn't happen overnight and takes hundreds of years to reverse and stabilise. As the reversal process is taking place, the magnetic poles wander over the earths surface and sometimes other pairs of poles temporarily come into existance. Life on the earths surface will be extremely unpleasant while this is happening because we will have little or no protection from harmful solar radiation which is normally screened out.

[nobby.nobbs]

This story reminded me of a report I heard a few years back that I have not heard of since. Whilst studying rock and lava samples, geologists discovered from the orientation of the iron particles in the rocks, that Earth's magnetic feild periodically flips so north become south, and vice versa.

 

This is true but it doesn't happen overnight and takes hundreds of years to reverse and stabilise. As the reversal process is taking place, the magnetic poles wander over the earths surface and sometimes other pairs of poles temporarily come into existance. Life on the earths surface will be extremely unpleasant while this is happening because we will have little or no protection from harmful solar radiation which is normally screened out.

 

to be honest they don't know just how long it takes as we've never seen it happen. has happened numerous times in the past as recorded in the oceanic crust between america and here. total flip not just a wander of the poles. we are over due one.

 

the supervolcano that is yellow stone park is over due an eruption.

 

global warming is going to swich off the north atlantic drift and we're all going to freeze.....

 

where's chicken little when you need him?

[+The Forester]

they don't know just how long it takes as we've never seen it happen. has happened numerous times in the past as recorded in the oceanic crust between america and here. total flip not just a wander of the poles. we are over due one.

 

We know that it happens in well under a hundred years. By measuring thickness of sedimentary layers and knowing deposition rates, we have a measure of time. The cooldown rate of solidifying molten lava is also calculable. We know that the magnetic field locks in to rocks as they solidify, so by measuring the direction of magnetism of rocks in different parts of a lava flow we can see that the earth's magnetic field and altered measurably in the time that it takes a single lavaflow to cool down. Major lavaflows, such as the Deccan Traps in India have been extensively surveyed and the evidence clearly shows that magnetic reversals happen very quickly.

 

We also know that we are well overdue for such a reversal and we also know that the strength of the magnetic field is declining quite rapidly at the moment, which is a sure sign of the beginnings of a reversal. Such reversals have certainly occurred before in the histoy of mankind. We know that from the evidence of ancient campfires found in Australia. The rocks used by early 'aboriginals' to encircle fireplaces have been shown to have magnetic directions which were locked in to the rocks when they cooled after the fire went out. Those directions show beyond doubt that the magnetic North Pole was in the Southern hemisphere at the time of the campfires.

[+Pharisee]

Just to give y'all something else to worry about...

 

There are vast deposits of stuff called methane hydrate (frozen methane gas) locked up in the seabed along the continental shelf. According to a 'National Geographic' TV channel I was watching recently a rise of one or two degrees in the sea temperature will release billions of tons of methane gas into the atmosphere (the planet is about to phart). As methane is the worst of the 'greenhouse' gasses, this will cause the global temperature to rise a further 5°C and make the planet unihabitable.

 

Apparently this is suspected to be the cause of the biggest mass extinction in the planets history which happened at the end of the 'Age of the Reptiles' long before dinosaurs were around.

 

All of which has nothing at all to do with geocaching... sorry

[+Geo-Kate]

So basically, in the not too distant future, we will have no GPS, and the poles will be in a state of flipping and could spend a few years roaming the earth. That will make geocaching a bit tricky!

On top of that, Earth will get flatulance, there will be no magnetic shelding, and a volcano in Yellowstone will send 1/2 the planes into a nuclear winter. Again making caching less pleasent. See, it is relevant!

 

With global warming, as mentioned above, we could soon see the diversion or stopping of the Gulf Stream, which gives us most of our warmth in the winter. Ironically, global warming will see the British isles suffering from the same kind of winters as Canada and Russia see. Will Snowmobiles be a new icon on our caches?

 

So, with all these iminant catastrophes just around the corner, is anybody taking bets as to wich one(s) will get us first??

[+The Mars Bars]

 

So, with all these iminant catastrophes just around the corner, is anybody taking bets as to wich one(s) will get us first??

 

Probably the "Millenium Bug" Y3K !

 

Theres always Letterboxing to fall back on..

 

Cheers

Dave

[nobby.nobbs]

don't forget the meteor impact.. we are statistically due a biggie there as well!!!

 

but on the birghter side of things the way north korea and several others are going we aren't going to have to worry too much about a natural or semi natural end to things

 

anyone setting a cache on the moon? will be interesting to sit down in a deck chair in the Mare Tranquillitatis moon base.

[+housefamily]

Navigation, power and communications systems that rely on GPS satellite navigation will be disrupted by violent solar activity in 2011, research shows.

 

Does this mean I can get my life back???