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The incidents highlighted in a scientific article are among the first known cases in which this type of disturbance would have originated in space. The study “confidently identifies the source, and points to a small group of Russian early warning satellites.
A network of Russian satellites has caused brief disruptions to GPS signals across Europe on possibly dozens of occasions since 2019, a new investigation suggests.
It has become a recurring concern in recent years and was cited as the cause of a Ukrainian drone explosion in a Romanian port on Friday.
Military forces in various parts of the world regularly resort to interference and spoofing GPS signals to protect themselves from drone attacks, but this type of disruption is, as a rule, located and affects specific geographic areas.
The incidents highlighted in the new scientific article are among the first known cases in which this type of disorder would have had origin in spacesomething that could have far-reaching implications.
Moscow has repeatedly denied being involved in GPS jamming.
The investigation was led by respected global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) expert Todd E. Humphreysdirector do Radionavigation Laboratory da University of Texas at Austin.
In , pre-published on Friday in arXivscientists claim that they were detected disturbances in GPS signals at stations in Europein Greenland and Canada at the same time.
Disturbances generally last between three and five seconds and the data suggests “a single source per event”, says the article.
“The affected terrestrial receivers cover such a vast geographic area that no single source on the ground or in an aircraft could reach them all; hence the hypothesis of a space origin,” the paper says.
Since 2019, the article has identified 75 dias in which at least one “transient large-scale GNSS interference event” occurred. The disturbances occurred mainly on weekdays and during working hourswhich, says the article, “suggests human involvement”, since a purely random phenomenon would appear at more varied times.
After analyzing which satellites were in the area at the times the disturbances were detected, the authors reach a significant conclusion, says .
The article states that the data allows “confidently identify the source”, and point to “a small group of Russian satellites early warning, in Molniya orbits, designed to cover high latitude regions for longer.”
The study, which not enough to say that GPS disturbances are being caused intentional wayadds that “if they are deliberate, they announce aqualitative escalation in GNSS interference”.
According to , which cites a person familiar with the matter, senior US Air Force officials were informed about these interferences.
“The person confirmed that interference was occurring and that the Russian satellite network was responsible, but did not specify the number of incidents or the intent,” the newspaper wrote.
