Solar Activity and RF ID Technology

Solar Activity and RF ID Technology
April 7, 2010
By: Eric Gakstatter

It’s time to touch on the solar activity subject again, as there was an
event earlier this week and rumors began to fly. The mainstream press
jumped on a story back in January when the first solar flare of Solar
Cycle 24 occurred. Of course, journalists were writing about worst-case
scenarios in the event of extreme solar events that could cause power
grids to fail, GPS to stop working, etc.

While that is true, it’s a real stretch and the typical “sky is falling”
reporting. In reality, the solar flare back in January had no effect on
GPS operations. In fact, it would take an event 10-20 times stronger
than last January’s to begin to notice any effect on GPS operations.
Earlier this week (Monday 0800 GMT), the first geomagnetic storm of
Solar Cycle 24 occurred.

Geomagnetic storms are the ones that will give GPS users problems,
although this one didn’t because it was relatively minor. The last
geomagnetic storm strong enough to noticeably affect GPS users occurred
in December 2006. During such an event, it might interrupt your GPS
receiver for 10-15 minutes. Most users would not notice or they might
attribute it to a local system malfunction. By the time they investigate
and reset the system, the event would have passed and the user is back
in operation. It would be barely noticeable, if at all.

See:
http://www.gpsworld.com/survey/solar-activity-and-rf-id-technology-9797?print=1