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Flightradar24's new GPS jamming map

flightradar24.com

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Re: Flightradar24's new GPS jamming map

#91
post #11

It's kind of neat how this works: > As part of the ADS-B messages we receive from each aircraft, the Navigation integrity category (NIC) encodes the quality and consistency of navigational data received by the aircraft. The NIC value informs how certain the aircraft is of its position by providing a radius of uncertainty. > Poor NIC values alone might indicate a problem with an aircraft’s equipment or unfavorable pos…

Do aircraft systems really only use GPS and not the full constellation of navigational satellite systems?

Besides GPS, the GNSS currently includes other satellite navigation systems, such as the Russian GLONASS, and may soon include others such as the European Union’s Galileo and China’s Beidou.

https://www.terrisgps.com/gnss-gps-differences-explained/

Re: Flightradar24's new GPS jamming map

#93
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is Eagle Pass, TX. The infamous, massive border crossing area where suspected criminal border crossers are corraled under the bridge, where Elon visited, etc. The jamming is done to make crossing the border without going through the checkpoint more difficult

Is there some official source for that? If so, is it just GPS or do other GNSS constellations get jammed too?

Since even phones can receive and understand the other systems' signals, if one wants to jam, one would probably jam them all...

Re: Flightradar24's new GPS jamming map

#94

The data is taken from aircraft [EDIT: not airlines; see traceroute66's comment], so it doesn't give full coverage of the world, but it does include other satellite navigation systems aside from just GPS. Looks like the jammed/interfered areas are: * A large part of Eastern Europe around Ukraine is missing data, and there are many jammed/interfered areas around it, including the southern coast of the Black Sea and pa…

> Part of Germany near Berlin, possibly part of the Ukraine-related jamming/interference?

Of the four tiles in that area (for March 19th at least), one is entirely in Poland, one is covering the Polish-German border, one is a bit of the German coast around Rügen but mostly the Baltic Sea, and the other is Bornholm (island in the Baltic Sea) and a bit of the Swedish coast.

My guess is, this is part of a larger system to limit Russian military use of the Baltic, and possibly also a single layer of defence against Russian aircraft and missiles targeting Berlin and Copenhagen. Likewise, I would guess that the strip of interference from St Petersburg in the direction of Moscow is a similar single-layer of defence by Russia.

At this resolution, it also looks like the west is interfering with access to St Petersburg and someone (could reasonably be either side) is worried about Kaliningrad, but that image is also also making me think "WTF?" about the Gulf of Riga.

The single tile near Kandalaksha (Russia) suggests something interesting is going on there, but I have no idea what that might be, and there's a non-zero possibility that it's a deliberate red-herring to make western analysts waste time — as an analogy, imagine a troll releasing three greased pigs with the numbers "1", "2", and "4" painted on the side.

Re: Flightradar24's new GPS jamming map

#95
post #91
post #11

It's kind of neat how this works: > As part of the ADS-B messages we receive from each aircraft, the Navigation integrity category (NIC) encodes the quality and consistency of navigational data received by the aircraft. The NIC value informs how certain the aircraft is of its position by providing a radius of uncertainty. > Poor NIC values alone might indicate a problem with an aircraft’s equipment or unfavorable pos…

Do aircraft systems really only use GPS and not the full constellation of navigational satellite systems? Besides GPS, the GNSS currently includes other satellite navigation systems, such as the Russian GLONASS, and may soon include others such as the European Union’s Galileo and China’s Beidou. https://www.terrisgps.com/gnss-gps-differences-explained/

The linked page already says that it reports on the constellation, not just GPS:

"The map uses are color coded overlay to indicate low (green) to high (red) levels of interference with global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). Often just referred to as GPS, there are actually multiple systems beside the US GPS constellation, such as Russia’s GLONASS, Europe’s Galileo, China’s BeiDou, and others."

Re: Flightradar24's new GPS jamming map

#96
post #9

So how should I interpret this? The map lacks geopolitical boundaries, so it's hard to interpret. There looks like a big hole of no data over Ukraine, where I'd most expect GPS jamming, but I suppose there are no civilian flights either. Maybe they could setup an GPS observation station on the ground at a surveyed point to get data there. There's a big red blob over Turkey, is that maybe the southern edge of the reac…

I see 2 red cells on the US/Mexico border right about Texas/Coahuila region. Navigating that dessert region without GPS or with GPS for that matter can be deadly.

Organized crime in Mexico would probably do it to prevent other people from using migration routes they control and reduce police efficacy. Of course, slightly rogue Mexican police or even US vigilantes also have an incentive.

Re: Flightradar24's new GPS jamming map

#97
post #91
post #11

It's kind of neat how this works: > As part of the ADS-B messages we receive from each aircraft, the Navigation integrity category (NIC) encodes the quality and consistency of navigational data received by the aircraft. The NIC value informs how certain the aircraft is of its position by providing a radius of uncertainty. > Poor NIC values alone might indicate a problem with an aircraft’s equipment or unfavorable pos…

Do aircraft systems really only use GPS and not the full constellation of navigational satellite systems? Besides GPS, the GNSS currently includes other satellite navigation systems, such as the Russian GLONASS, and may soon include others such as the European Union’s Galileo and China’s Beidou. https://www.terrisgps.com/gnss-gps-differences-explained/

Like the article states, many people use GPS as a shorthand for GNSS generally. In any case, they're all at similar frequencies, so typically they'll all go out together if there's significant interference.

Re: Flightradar24's new GPS jamming map

#98
post #86

I love this feature, especially how they were able to create it from data that they were already getting, but personally my excitement about it is overshadowed by how colorblind unfriendly it is. Considering how many people are colorblind, ~4% of the global population, or roughly 1 out of 25 people, it's remarkable how often designers get this detail wrong.

macOS and iOS have systemwide settings for color blind people. You can remap colors.

Re: Flightradar24's new GPS jamming map

#100
post #11

It's kind of neat how this works: > As part of the ADS-B messages we receive from each aircraft, the Navigation integrity category (NIC) encodes the quality and consistency of navigational data received by the aircraft. The NIC value informs how certain the aircraft is of its position by providing a radius of uncertainty. > Poor NIC values alone might indicate a problem with an aircraft’s equipment or unfavorable pos…

> A single observer can't really say for certain that jamming is happening; you need a distributed sample from multiple different sensors over a period of time to have reasonably high confidence. Could you use RTLSDR triangulation to hone in on granular lat long of jamming sources? https://www.rtl-sdr.com/detecting-gps-jammers-in-augmented-r... https://www.rtl-sdr.com/kiwisdr-tdoa-direction-finding-now-f...

With synchronized receivers you could do some rudimentary direction finding. Note that synchronizing SDRs is much more achievable if they're physically nearby (e.g. can run a cable between them for a common clock) vs if they're physically distant observers (can't exactly use GPS time for synchronization if you're measuring GPS interference)
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