Written and published on 29 September 2017

• SUSPICIOUSOBSERVERS NOTES EARTH EFFECTS OF YESTERDAY’S GEOSTORM
• QUESTION: COULD THE AIRLINES BE COVERING UP FLIGHT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FAILURES CAUSED BY SOLAR STORMS?
• CIVILIAN AIRLINES FLIGHTS NO LONGER INCLUDE ENGINEERS OR NAVIGATORS
• THE STATE OF eLORAN AS A BACKUP FOR GNSS FAILURE: IN THE WINGS, BUT NOT YET HERE
• CARRINGTON EVENT LARGE AIRCRAFT IN-FLIGHT SCENARIO

Dear Ones,

SUSPICIOUSOBSERVERS NOTES EARTH EFFECTS OF YESTERDAY’S GEOSTORM

I was viewing this video just, to do with the effects of yesterday’s solar storm …

Video: “Record-Breaking Comet, Solar Storm Effects | S0 News Sep.29.2017,” by SuspiciousObservers … https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=27&v=lm4QuCXy3Bc ..

Here’s the Kp index from the solar storm (which was only moderately severe), and had to do with influx of solar winds to Earth:

Image: Kp Index, 29 September 2017 12:30:02 UTC, from NOAA/SWPC … public domain because .gov … This image shows 8 3-hour intervals ‘in the red’ in the last 2 and a half days. Of these, 2 bars were Kp=7, 3 bars were Kp=6, and 3 bars were Kp=5

Nevertheless, these Earth events were apparently associated to the solar storm:

• A global booking system failure for the airlines, resulting in massive flight delays (1)
• A transformer fire, resulting in a power outage for 6,000 customers in Snohomish, WA (2)
• A power outage on a train in the Philadelphia, PA, area, leading the travellers to self-evacuate (3)
• Playstation went down again. This is a product of Virgin Media, a British internet services provider (4)

QUESTION: COULD THE AIRLINES BE COVERING UP FLIGHT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FAILURES CAUSED BY SOLAR STORMS?

When the airlines’ booking systems go down, I wonder if flight tower communications or aircraft flight management systems might also be down … If that were true, surely the airlines wouldn’t want to make this public? Could such a coverup be going on?

CIVILIAN AIRLINES FLIGHTS NO LONGER INCLUDE ENGINEERS OR NAVIGATORS

I read in Wikipedia that civilian airline flights no longer include flight engineers or navigators. Instead, these tasks are undertaken by airlines’ flight management systems (FMS), which depend upon GPS and INS, often with radio navigation backup. (5)

As to this airline radio navigation backup, I’ve read at SWPC/NOAA that geostorms can affect both high frequency and low frequency radio wave transmissions. (6)

Large commercial aircraft, in flight, use VHF (very high frequency) radio when near land, and short-wave nagivation while over the oceans (because they are then out of VHF radio range). (7)

Thus, it appears that all large commercial aircraft are at navigation risk from geostorm radio blackouts … whether they are over land, or over the ocean when the storm hits.

THE STATE OF eLORAN AS A BACKUP FOR GNSS FAILURE: IN THE WINGS, BUT NOT YET HERE

I’ve done some reading on eLORAN as a backup for failure of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS). It looks like there’s a proposal to get it up and running, and that this proposal has passed the House of Representatives:

Link: “House Passes Bill Requiring eLORAN to Safeguard GPS,” by Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, 24 July 2017 … https://rntfnd.org/2017/07/24/house-passes-bill-requiring-eloran-to-safeguard-gps/ ..

As far as I can tell, this bill has yet to be approved by the Senate. On the other hand there is the good news that eLORAN and LORAN testing was underway in June 2017:

Link: “eLORAN and LORAN Testing Underway in Late June — GPS World,” by Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, 7 June 2017 … https://rntfnd.org/2017/06/07/eloran-and-loran-testing-underway-in-late-june-gps-world/ ..

CARRINGTON EVENT LARGE AIRCRAFT IN-FLIGHT SCENARIO

Until eLORAN is available as a backup, then, to the extent that FMS rely on GNSS, then, they are set up for quite some difficulties should there be a Carrington event. Worst case scenario would be loss of many, or most, in-flight aircraft because of navigation failure during such an event.

Those large aircraft that succeeded in landing would be navigated down by eyesight, out of luck, since there would be no navigators onboard, if I understand it correctly? Then, air traffic control would also be down, so there would be a considerable hazard of collision with other large aircraft on landing.

On the other hand, small aircraft, which are used to piloting by sight, might be relatively ok to fly and land at small craft airports.

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

…………………………………………..
FOOTNOTES

(1) Link: “Airlines Suffer Worldwide Delays After Global Booking System Fails,” by Christopher Jasper, Thomas Seal, and Benjamin D Katz, September 28, 2017, 4:43 AM PDT September 28, 2017, 7:00 AM PDT … https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-28/airlines-suffer-worldwide-delays-as-amadeus-booking-system-fails ..

(2) Link: “Fire at Snohomish substation spreads to brush near homes,” posted 1:56 pm , September 28, 2017, by Q13 New Staff, updated at 03:51 pm, 28 September 2017 … http://q13fox.com/2017/09/28/fire-at-snohomish-substation-spreads-to-brush-may-be-threatening-homes/ ..

(3) Link: “Traffic: Power outage leads SEPTA customers to self-evacuate,” by Katherine Scott, at ABC Action News at WPVI-TV, Philadelphia, PA … http://6abc.com/traffic/power-outage-leads-septa-customers-to-self-evacuate/2464333/ ..

(4) Link: “PSN down – PS4 users get ’server maintenance’ error as online gaming network not working: PSN is down right now with the PS4 online servers not working for hundreds of users,” by Dion Dassanayake, published: 11:20, Thu, Sep 28, 2017 |updated: 11:28, Thu, Sep 28, 2017 … http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/gaming/859350/PSN-down-not-working-server-status-PS4 ..

(5) Link: “Flight Management System,” in Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_management_system ..

(6) Link: “NOAA Space Weather Scales: Radio Blackouts,” at Space Weather Prediction Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration … http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation ..

See also: Link: “Geomagnetic Effects on Radio Propagation,” by Natural Resources Canada … http://www.spaceweather.gc.ca/tech/se-hf-en.php ..

(7) Link: “Shortwave Bands,” from Wikipedia …https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave_bands ..

…………………..

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

…………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………….

solar events, Carrington events, GNSS, eLORAN, flight management systems, global navigation, SuspiciousObservers, airline navigation, geostorms, flight navigation, short-wave radio, geostorms, radio blackouts, transportation,