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Airbus A320 – intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical for flight

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Re: Airbus A320 – intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical for flight

#11
post #6
post #5

Solar radiation like solar wind, or sunlight? They don’t say.

“Analysis of a recent event” I presume they mean a Coronal Mass Ejection.

There was a very large CME ten days ago. The NOAA scale had predicted a high likelihood of disruptions, and had specifically suggested that spacecraft and high altitude aircraft could be impacted.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

https://kauai.ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/CMEscoreboard/prediction/de...

Re: Airbus A320 – intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical for flight

#12
post #9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Analysis of a recent event” I presume they mean a Coronal Mass Ejection.

I feel like the event was something that happened to a plane. That said, I wouldn't think sunlight would be penetrating to the chips running the plane.

> The grounding of Airbus A320neo aircraft around the world can be traced back to an incident on a JetBlue flight operating a Cancun to New Jersey service on 30 October.

> At least 15 passengers were injured and taken to the hospital after a sudden drop in altitude on the flight from Mexico was forced to make an emergency landing in Florida, US aviation officials said at the time.

> The Thursday flight from Cancun was headed to Newark, New Jersey, when the altitude dropped, leading to the diversion to Tampa International Airport, the US Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

> Pilots reported “a flight control issue” and described injuries including a possible “laceration in the head,” according to air traffic audio recorded by LiveATC.net.

> Medical personnel met the passengers and crew on the ground at the airport. Between 15 and 20 people were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, said Vivian Shedd, a spokesperson for Tampa Fire Rescue.

> Pablo Rojas, a Miami-based attorney who specialises in aviation law, said a “flight control issue” indicated that the aircraft wasn't responding to the pilots.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/360903363/what-happened-fligh...

Re: Airbus A320 – intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical for flight

#14
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like the event was something that happened to a plane. That said, I wouldn't think sunlight would be penetrating to the chips running the plane.

> The grounding of Airbus A320neo aircraft around the world can be traced back to an incident on a JetBlue flight operating a Cancun to New Jersey service on 30 October. > At least 15 passengers were injured and taken to the hospital after a sudden drop in altitude on the flight from Mexico was forced to make an emergency landing in Florida, US aviation officials said at the time. > The Thursday flight from Cancun wa…

> At least 15 passengers were injured and taken to the hospital after a sudden drop in altitude on the flight from Mexico was forced to make an emergency landing in Florida, US aviation officials said at the time.

I’m surprised passengers are allowed to unbuckle for so much of each flight. You can get injured while buckled it, but that seems less common.

Re: Airbus A320 – intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical for flight

#15
post #7

I’d really, really like to know what microcontroller family this was found on. Assuming that this is a safety processor (lockstep, ECC, etc) it suggests that ECC was insufficient for the level of bit flips they’re seeing — and if the concern is data corruption, not unintended restart, it means it’s enough flips in one word to be undetectable. The environment they’re operating in isn’t that different from everyone els…

I am worried about a software fix for what looks like hardware problem.

Re: Airbus A320 – intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical for flight

#16
post #7

I’d really, really like to know what microcontroller family this was found on. Assuming that this is a safety processor (lockstep, ECC, etc) it suggests that ECC was insufficient for the level of bit flips they’re seeing — and if the concern is data corruption, not unintended restart, it means it’s enough flips in one word to be undetectable. The environment they’re operating in isn’t that different from everyone els…

An early revision of the Raspberry Pi 2 would crash if you hit it with a bright light like a camera flash. Specifically a xenon flash.

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=99167

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=99042

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/xenon-death-flash-a-free-ph...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyptwlzRqaI

Re: Airbus A320 – intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical for flight

#17
post #15
post #7

I’d really, really like to know what microcontroller family this was found on. Assuming that this is a safety processor (lockstep, ECC, etc) it suggests that ECC was insufficient for the level of bit flips they’re seeing — and if the concern is data corruption, not unintended restart, it means it’s enough flips in one word to be undetectable. The environment they’re operating in isn’t that different from everyone els…

I am worried about a software fix for what looks like hardware problem.

[deleted]

Re: Airbus A320 – intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical for flight

#18
post #15
post #7

I’d really, really like to know what microcontroller family this was found on. Assuming that this is a safety processor (lockstep, ECC, etc) it suggests that ECC was insufficient for the level of bit flips they’re seeing — and if the concern is data corruption, not unintended restart, it means it’s enough flips in one word to be undetectable. The environment they’re operating in isn’t that different from everyone els…

I am worried about a software fix for what looks like hardware problem.

It could be as simple as storing multiple copies of the relevant data and adding a checksum, something like that.

Hardware fix is the ultimate solution but it might be possible to paper over with software.

Re: Airbus A320 – intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical for flight

#19
post #15
post #7

I’d really, really like to know what microcontroller family this was found on. Assuming that this is a safety processor (lockstep, ECC, etc) it suggests that ECC was insufficient for the level of bit flips they’re seeing — and if the concern is data corruption, not unintended restart, it means it’s enough flips in one word to be undetectable. The environment they’re operating in isn’t that different from everyone els…

I am worried about a software fix for what looks like hardware problem.

software fixes are totally fine since the chance of two redundant pairs failing within the time it takes to correct these errors is more zero's than there are atoms in the universe. (each pilot has a redundant computer and because there's two pilots there's two redundant pairs)
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