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Since most of our GPS and cellular devices have been developed and deployed during a period of unusually weak solar electromagnetic activity, I've been wonderin
by csense 13y ago
Since most of our GPS and cellular devices have been developed and deployed during a period of unusually weak solar electromagnetic activity, I've been wondering and worrying about how big of a disaster is waiting to happen when the sun returns to "normal."
- flatline 13y agoThat would seem to fly in the face of what the article said, specifically the 2003 solar storm and this: "Several solar scientists speculated that the sun may be returning to a more relaxed state after an era of unusually high activity that started in the 1940s." Would you mind elaborating on the weak period of solar activity?
- sliverstorm 13y agoEven if GPS stopped working, given some time we could work around it. There'd be some issues in the short term, but GPS is used because it is easier than inertial navigation systems, (thankfully) not because it's the only choice.
- InclinedPlane 13y agoIt's not just easier, GPS is vastly more reliable and accurate than almost any other method of navigation. So much so that it's starting to be relied on in many industries. For example, airplanes are starting to move away from a radar based method of air traffic control to a GPS based system. Every airplane will simply continuously transmit its GPS coordinates as part of its transponder message. From this you can create a highly accurate map of where every plane is, except much more accurate than with radar.
- sliverstorm 13y agoThanks, radar air traffic control is another good example. The world would not end without GPS, it would just make things harder :)