
Galileo navigation system facing service degradation or loss of signal - leemailll
https://insidegnss.com/galileo-interruptus/
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ChuckNorris89
Fun fact, the Galileo system was designed to be more accurate and difficult to
jam than the civilian GPS but after the US saw this a potential threat and
considered shooting down the satellites in case of a global conflict, the
design was switched to a frequency they could easily jam.[1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(satellite_navigation)...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_\(satellite_navigation\)#Tension_with_the_United_States)

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jki275
What makes a frequency easy to jam?

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wil421
>The frequency initially chosen for Galileo would have made it impossible for
the US to block the Galileo signals without also interfering with its own GPS
signals.

Not an answer to your question but it was more about being able to jam GNSS
while still being able to use GPS.

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jbverschoor
That would actually be the sane solution against stupid warfare..

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diggan
Since the website itself is not working, here is gsc-europa's own dashboard:

[https://www.gsc-europa.eu/system-status/Constellation-
Inform...](https://www.gsc-europa.eu/system-status/Constellation-Information)

This is the specific incident: [https://www.gsc-europa.eu/notice-advisory-to-
galileo-users-n...](https://www.gsc-europa.eu/notice-advisory-to-galileo-
users-nagu-2019025)

Seems to have started 2019-07-11 14:45 (UTC) so a couple of days ago.

Apparently, they used to have failures with the clocks
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(satellite_navigation)...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_\(satellite_navigation\)#Clock_failures))
so might be something similar.

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wybiral
> Apparently, they used to have failures with the clocks

That would explain if a few of them were weird, but the report said "SATELLITE
AFFECTED: ALL" which would be quite a coincidence if each clock on each
satellite failed at the same time.

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wybiral
The recent update on the report seems to point to an Italian facility that
relates to timing though:

> Guenter Hein, Professor Emeritus of Excellence at the University FAF Munich
> told us, “As far as I know, it is a problem of the PTF [Precise Timing
> Facility] in Italy – time has an impact on the whole constellation!”

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wybiral
The link seems under heavy stress right now but here's an archive of it:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190713001332/https://insidegns...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190713001332/https://insidegnss.com/galileo-
interruptus/)

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PeterStuer
You can find the current system status and its history here [https://www.gsc-
europa.eu/system-status/Constellation-Inform...](https://www.gsc-
europa.eu/system-status/Constellation-Information)

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f_50C137y
Wow! I've been having some issues navigating whilst driving with Google Maps
and Strava for running these last few days. I assumed the issue was my
smartphone, but I am curious to know if the issue was, in fact, due to the
Galileo issues listed.

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reportingsjr
If you're using a phone for those services then almost certainly not. Almost
all phones support multiple GNSS (GPS, galileo, GLONASS, etc) so one going
down shouldn't cause issues.

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wybiral
There was a recent study [1] looking into the economic impact of GPS in the US
which "estimate that the loss of GPS service would have a $1 billion per-day
impact". Not sure how that translates to Galileo GNSS.

[1]
[https://www.rti.org/sites/default/files/gps_finalreport.pdf](https://www.rti.org/sites/default/files/gps_finalreport.pdf)

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riffraff
IIUC, the analysis assumes other systems would also be disrupted, as modern
devices support multiple location services (gps, galileo, glonass).

So there isn't really a case of GPS failing while Galileo works and viceversa,
it's just "everything fails" vs "something works".

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jakegold
_The EU 's stance is that Galileo is a neutral technology, available to all
countries and everyone. At first, EU officials did not want to change their
original plans for Galileo, but have since reached the compromise that Galileo
is to use a different frequency. This allows the blocking or jamming of either
GNSS without affecting the other._

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buboard
Ok first slack, twitter, facebook, and now this? I told you it’s aliens

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wybiral
* slides on tin foil helmet *

Well, yeah, they've been trying to distract people away from the whole Area 51
thing.

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6d6b73
All of the satellites? What could possible cause all of them to fail at the
same time? It's not hardware because they weren't all switched at the same
time. Software?

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nabla9
Satellites are just part of the GNSS system. There are multiple control
centers and network of sensor , uplink, telemetry, tracking and control
stations around the world.

The problem is most likely on the ground. When GNSS satellites are not getting
updated data from the ground stations their accuracy starts to degrade.

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Rebelgecko
From the updated version of the linked article, looks like the ground station
that keeps the clocks synced up is down or not giving the sats accurate date

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the-dude
Just a coincidence.

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jimmaswell
I think someone is refusing to return a slab to someone.

