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Malfunction of satellite navigation systems GPS and GLONASS caused by powerful radio emission of the Sun during solar flares on December 6 and 13, 2006, and October 28, 2003

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Abstract

Poor quality of functioning of GPS during solar flares on December 6 and 13, 2006 is analyzed in this paper. These flares were accompanied by extremely high (unexampled) level of the solar radio emission flux. A comparison is made of these events with the solar flare on October 28, 2003. Statistically reliable experimental evidence is obtained that GPS positioning was partially paralyzed on the sunlit side of the Earth during the strongest bursts of solar radio emission. The obtained results give a serious ground to revise the role played by space weather factors in operation of modern satellite systems and to take these factors into account more carefully, when such systems are designed and exploited.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, 664033, Russia

    E. L. Afraimovich, V. V. Demyanov, N. S. Gavrilyuk, A. B. Ishin & G. Ya. Smolkov

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  1. E. L. Afraimovich
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  2. V. V. Demyanov
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  3. N. S. Gavrilyuk
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  4. A. B. Ishin
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  5. G. Ya. Smolkov
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Correspondence to E. L. Afraimovich.

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Original Russian Text © E.L. Afraimovich, V.V. Demyanov, N.S. Gavrilyuk, A.B. Ishin, G.Ya. Smolkov, 2009, published in Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, 2009, vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 146–157.

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Afraimovich, E.L., Demyanov, V.V., Gavrilyuk, N.S. et al. Malfunction of satellite navigation systems GPS and GLONASS caused by powerful radio emission of the Sun during solar flares on December 6 and 13, 2006, and October 28, 2003. Cosmic Res 47, 126–137 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S001095250902004X

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