Now we're getting closer to things we should be concerned about....Paste the link if you can't access the links/don't receive the image
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7204617/Stronger-radiation-from-the-Sun-will-cause-sat-navs-to-fail-scientists-warn.html
Be Well.
David
Stronger radiation from the Sun 'will cause sat-navs to fail', scientists warn
Britain’s satellite navigation networks could soon experience problems and disruptions caused by higher levels of radiation coming from the Sun, scientists warn.
Researchers said satnav devices were facing the threat from an expected increase in solar flares from the Sun that could cause unpredictable errors in navigation.
Experts said the bursts of radiation caused by the flares interfere with signals from satellites orbiting the earth, causing receivers to fail and lose track of their position.
Now British scientists say the Sun is on its way to another “solar maximum”, which will cause the stronger levels of radiation to hit the earth.
It is feared this will cause satnav receivers to be blinded for minutes at a time and could result in drivers becoming lost or involved in accidents.
It could also cause problems to emergency services, high-precision surveying, shipping and even military operations, they added.
Prof Cathryn Mitchell, from the University of Bath, said while the sun’s affects on navigation were difficult to project, the errors could last hours or even days.
“It varies quite a lot across the Earth; looking at the UK it will be about 10-metre errors in the positioning,” Prof Mitchell told the BBC.
"Ten metres out is probably going to be OK for a satnav system in a car but if you're using the system for something safety-critical like ships coming into harbour for navigation or possibly in the future landing aircraft, you're looking for much greater accuracy and more importantly, much greater reliability."
Bob Cockshott, a director of the government-funded Digital Systems Knowledge Transfer Network, said the problem would be more “troublesome than dangerous”.
"You might find for a number of hours or even a day or two you couldn't go out surveying or be able to dock your oil tanker at the deep-ocean oil well," he said.
"It's more at the annoyance level than something that's going to bankrupt your business."
The news could explain why systems unexpectedly lose the signal when they had perfect reception only moments before.
There have been several recent examples of satnav blunders where drivers, blindly following their systems have caused accidents by taking a wrong turning or attempting to programme the device while driving.
Researchers have previously said the solar burst could be strong enough to affect civil aviation navigation systems but to a lesser degree than the GPS network, which uses a different satellite system.
A study in 2008 found the natural light shows of the Northern Lights – or Aurora Borealis – interfere with the signals from global positioning satellites, which are used by Sat-Navs to pinpoint the locations of vehicles, boats and aircraft.
A recent survey found young drivers were increasingly abandoning maps and were instead relying almost entirely on satnav to get to their destination.
Figures show that last year satellite navigation systems were blamed for causing around 300,000 people to crash in Britain.
A further 1.5 million admitted performing sudden direction changes because they were following the devices' directions.
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