Solar Storms to disrupt GPS, Solar Companies--NOAA

 Three large explosions from the Sun over the past few days have prompted U.S. government scientists to caution users of satellite, telecommunications and electric equipment to prepare for possible disruptions over the next few days.

"The magnetic storm that is soon to develop probably will be in the moderate to strong level," said Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist at the Space WeatherPrediction Center, a division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

He said solar storms this week could affect communications and global positioning system (GPS) satellites and might even produce an aurora visible as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin.

An aurora, called aurora borealis or the northern lights in northern latitudes, is a natural light display in the sky in the Arctic and Antarctic regions caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere.

Major disruptions from solar activity are rare but have had serious impacts in the past.

In 1989, a solar storm took down the power grid in Quebec, Canada, leaving about six million people without power for several hours.

The largest solar storm ever recorded was in 1859 when communications infrastructure was limited to telegraphs.

The 1859 solar storm hit telegraph offices around the world and caused a giant aurora visible as far south as the Caribbean Islands.

Some telegraph operators reported electric shocks. Papers caught fire. And many telegraph systems continued to send and receive signals even after operators disconnected batteries, NOAA said on its website.

A storm of similar magnitude today could cause up to $2 trillion in damage globally, according to a 2008 report by the National Research Council.

"I don't think this week's solar storms will be anywhere near that. This will be a two or three out of five on the NOAA Space Weather Scale," said Kunches.

SOLAR SCALE

The NOAA Space Weather Scale measures the intensity of a solar storm from one being the lowest intensity to five being the highest, similar to scales that measure the severity of hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.

The first of the three solar explosions from the sun this week already passed the Earth on Thursday with little impact, Kunches said, noting, the second was passing the Earth now and "seems to be stronger."

And the third, he said, "We'll have to see what happens over the next few days. It could exacerbate the disturbance in the Earth's magnetic field caused by the second (storm) or do nothing at all."

Power grid managers receive alerts from the Space Weather Prediction Center to tell them to prepare for solar events, which peak about every 12 years, Tom Bogdan, director of the center said.he man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new! A E.

Wireless network HARMS GPS ?

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WASHINGTON (AP) — New test results show that a proposed nationwide wireless broadband network would produce significant interference with GPS systems used for everything from aviation to high-precision timing networks to consumer navigation devices. Changes to the proposal could reduce interference, but wouldn’t eliminate it.
The findings, based on extensive equipment tests conducted in Las Vegas, increase pressure on the Federal Communications Commission to block a Virginia company called LightSquared from launching the network, which is designed to compete with super-fast systems being rolled out by ATT and Verizon Wireless.
Although the FCC in January gave LightSquared approval to build the system, the agency said it would not let the company turn on the network until GPS interference problems are resolved. The agency required LightSquared, GPS equipment makers and GPS users to establish a working group to study the matter.
That group filed its report with the commission on Thursday, with the two sides offering different interpretations of the test results.
LightSquared insisted that the interference problems are fixable.
But GPS equipment makers, and companies and government agencies that rely on GPS technology, warn that the planned network would jam their systems because LightSquared would use airwaves close to those already set aside for GPS.
They say that sensitive satellite receivers — designed to pick up relatively weak signals coming from space — could be overwhelmed when LightSquared starts sending high-powered signals from as many as 40,000 transmitters on the ground. GPS signals, they say, will suffer the way a radio station can get drowned out by a stronger broadcast in a nearby channel.
“The FCC needs to consider other options for the LightSquared signals where they do not run up against the laws of physics,” said Charles Trimble, co-founder of Trimble Navigation Ltd., which makes GPS systems.
With the working group report complete, the FCC will now seek public comments. The FCC said it will review the report, adding that it has “a long-standing record of resolving interference disputes.”
The working group’s report follows the release of federal test results that also found significant interference with GPS systems used by a broad cross-section of government agencies, including the Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA.
Faced with growing GPS industry resistance, LightSquared last week proposed to launch its network using a different slice of airwaves located farther away from GPS frequencies. It also proposed to transmit signals at lower power levels to ensure that its network would not interfere with most nearby GPS systems.
Most of the testing conducted by the working group was based on the company’s original plan to use airwaves next to the GPS band.
The working group said that plan would produce significant, across-the-board interference. Among the findings:
– GPS systems used for aviation would be unavailable over entire regions of the country at normal aircraft altitudes.
– GPS receivers built into cellular devices could experience interference at significant distances from LightSquared’s base stations — resulting in delayed or inaccurate location readings.
– Space-based GPS receivers used in NASA science missions could be disrupted.
Although the working group conducted only limited testing based on LightSquared’s proposal to use different airwaves, it said the change could reduce problems for some GPS receivers, including those used in aircraft navigation and cellphones.