Euroscience Open Forum 2012

Satellite navigation (SatNav) technology is more than route planning for a motorist. Most critical services depend on precise timing to the nanosecond scale, derived from the GNSS (global navigation satellite systems) clock: banking, power systems, and telecommunication networks. Can we imagine what life would be like in the event of a GNSS blackout?

Extreme events of space weather such as solar storms are part of natural phenomena that impact the earth. With our increasing reliance on space-based technologies (satellite-based communications, broadcasting, SatNav etc) society today is ever more vulnerable to space weather than even 50 years ago.

This session will help us reflect on our everyday dependence on SatNav, the fragility of SatNav infrastructure to natural threats, and current research to ensure it works reliably 24/7, no matter what.