Solar bursts may threaten GPS

The difference between that burst and normal solar radio emissions "was like the difference between the noise level of a normal conversation and the noise level in the front row of a rock concert," he said.

"This is a wake-up call" to improve technology, commented Anthony J. Mannucci, group supervisor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Patricia H. Doherty, co-director of the Institute for Scientific Research at Boston College, said the burst affected but did not shut down the Federal Aviation Administration's Wide Area Augmentation System, which uses GPS signals to assist in navigation.

Most of the WAAS ground stations were able to maintain contact with enough satellites to continue working, though their accuracy was somewhat affected, she said.

The stations have to maintain contact with at least four satellites to work, but usually monitor at least 10 to increase their accuracy, she said. Most were able to meet the minimum, she said.

The briefing came at a Space Weather Enterprise Forum convened by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to discuss the effects of solar activity. Because of its increasing importance, Johnson said, the Weather Service's Space Environment Center was converted from a mainly research center in 2005 to an operational center reporting on solar activity and its impacts.

MORE FROM TECH AND GADGETS

Tech and gadgets Section Front

Google to put ancient Iraq artifacts online Google sorry for offensive pic in Obama search Newsweek: Why Murdoch's Bing deal is a bad idea U.K. cops arrest people ‘just for the DNA’ Gifts for the hardcore techies Woman loses benefits over Facebook pics Just because it’s on Twitter, it (still) isn’t true Oddball gifts for techies Library group offers text search to 4.6M books Nokia’s netbook raises the bar — and the price Tech and gadgets Section Front   Add Tech and gadgets headlines to your news reader: