Tracing a powerful GNSS interference source over Europe
74 points by mimorigasaka 3 hours ago | 14 comments
yladiz 2 hours ago
Related Veritasium video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz23G_UXCGA
replysippeangelo 2 hours ago
The theory that they broadcast communication on a band near GPS in order to discourage jamming of their early warning system sounds likely. Flexing the ability to jam GPS is pointless, since it's obvious that any state actor who has military satellites in orbit has considered this option or have the capability already. Therefore, the disruptions must either be regular tests of the capability, or just actual communication. Right?
replysam_lowry_ 30 minutes ago
The video did not settle on the jamming of von der Leyen plane on approach to Plovdiv, but AFAIR it was a lie. Never acknowledged by von der Leyen nor by her press secretary though.
replyNKosmatos 2 hours ago
TLDR (conclusion from the paper):
"By a combination of these techniques the satellite Cosmos 2546 (NORAD ID 45608) was identified with high confidence as
one source of the interference. Further analysis pointed to the Russian Edinaya Kosmicheskaya Sistema, an early warning
constellation to which Cosmos 2546 belongs, as collectively responsible for the wide-area transient interference causing GNSS
degradation across Europe since 2019."
replyjeroenhd 2 hours ago
Additionally:
reply> Note that Cosmos 2546 was launched in May 2020 and so cannot be responsible for the interference events that occurred in 2019. Moreover, Cosmos 2546 was not over Europe during some interference events after May 2020. But during all events on the 75 days shown in Table 1 there was at least one EKS satellite above a 35∘ elevation angle with respect to every reference station that observed the interference. Thus, it is highly probable that the EKS constellation is collectively responsible for the wide-area transient GNSS interference events noted since 2019.
Working on construction projects on the Romanian coastline (just South of Ukraine) and on the Polish continental waters (just West of Kaliningrad) we experienced jamming on a daily basis.
Russia signed the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) in 1967, this may be a treaty violation of this or other treaties, something like that or retaliation regarding it may be possible.
You can hack the satellite, or use other electronic warfare options to jam or interfere with it's operations.
You can shoot it down with a missile.
The X-37B is in space right now and interfering with space assets is a pretty obvious possibility for why it exists at all, but it's secret so nobody says these things.
Obviously a bad idea, but frying it with some sort of high powered electromagnetic pulse would seem the smartest option with plausible deniability.
I wonder if the US already has such weapons in orbit.