GPS Jamming, Spoofing

Rarely do we have days without notice of deliberate GPS interference somewhere in the U.S., usually from the military. But that’s only one source of GPS errors.

BTeter

Wednesday, June 05, 2024 at 07:53 AM ET

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A spoofing transmitter is typically identified because it is ground-based instead of space-based. (Drawing courtesy of GPSPATRON.)

Key Takeaways:

Modern WAAS GPS, while precise, is vulnerable to natural ionospheric disturbances, unintentional/intentional jamming (signal loss), and increasingly, insidious spoofing that alters a receiver's perceived location.
GPS spoofing, a growing and alarming issue particularly in Eastern Europe and conflict zones, provides misleading position data, posing a significant safety risk by creating complex navigational challenges for pilots.
Aviation authorities like the FAA and EASA are issuing safety alerts, recommending pilots closely monitor avionics, report any GPS/GNSS degradation, and be prepared to operate without satellite navigation systems.
Loss or spoofing of GPS can significantly degrade integrated avionics beyond navigation, affecting critical systems such as moving maps, terrain overlays, and even attitude information in general aviation aircraft.

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Modern WAAS GPS provides ILS-like precision position and guidance, which can be affected by natural ionospheric disturbances and unintentional or intentional jamming. Spoofing by altering the apparent WAAS GPS position is also a growing problem, particularly in Eastern Europe. It’s time we explored these GPS errors.

WAAS/GPS Fundamentals

The GPS satellites transmit their orbital data in a long extended-data stream. The time of arrival of the low-amplitude data stream from the satellite is critical in determining the aircraft’s position. The GPS satellites, owned by the Department of Defense, are not geostationary—they rotate around the Earth in low orbits. “WAAS satellites” are in geostationary orbits much higher than the GPS satellites.