Solar Flares Could Seriously Disrupt GPS Receivers

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Graduate student Alessandro Cerruti left and Professor Paul Kintner work on the antenna on the roof of Phillips Hall. They have found that the kinds of large solar flares expected in five years or so could produce massive outages of all GPS receivers ...
Graduate student Alessandro Cerruti, left, and Professor Paul Kintner work on the antenna on the roof of Phillips Hall. They have found that the kinds of large solar flares expected in five years or so could produce massive outages of all GPS receivers on the day side of the Earth. Robert Barker/Cornell University Photography

A minor solar flare in September 2005 produced a noticeable degradation of all GPS signals on the day side of the Earth. When scaled up to the larger solar flares expected in 2011-12, Cornell researchers expect massive outages of all GPS receivers on the day side of the Earth.


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