How the Upper Atmosphere Shapes — and Breaks — Global Positioning Infrastructure
The ionosphere is the largest single source of GNSS error after satellite clock and orbit corrections, and during geomagnetic storms that error can grow by an order of magnitude within hours. The May 2024 storm knocked out high-accuracy positioning for up to 20 hours across North America and Australia. Governments, infrastructure operators, and anyone whose systems depend on reliable positioning or satellite communications will find the physics and classification of ionospheric scintillation here, a full account of that 2024 event, and the regional exposure patterns worth understanding if your infrastructure spans more than one geography.
Published by Qontra Research · Orbital Sustainability Research Unit · Intelligence Research Unit