Madrid, July 4, 2024.
- According to ANZEN Engineering, this highly unlikely phenomenon is one of the rare causes that could trigger
a complete failure of all satellites involved in transmitting GPS signals. - GPS satellites are arranged in constellations in medium Earth orbit, enabling global coverage and providing
favorable conditions to achieve the system’s required precision. - The service rarely fails because the constellation is designed to operate with redundancy, with multiple
satellites complementing each other.
ANZEN Engineering, a company specializing in safety and reliability engineering in the aerospace and defense sectors, considers a global GPS failure to be “unlikely.”
“One of the rare causes that could lead to a simultaneous failure of all satellites transmitting GPS signals is a solar storm,” explains Pablo López Negro, Director of Innovation at ANZEN.
A solar storm occurs when the Sun emits a large amount of charged particles and electromagnetic radiation. “When these particles and radiation interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere, they can cause several effects, including disruptions to GPS systems,” he notes.
According to Pablo López, the charged particles and electromagnetic radiation from a solar storm can interfere with the signals exchanged between GPS satellites and ground receivers, potentially causing location errors or even total loss of the GPS signal.
In addition, “high-energy particles from a solar storm can damage satellites in orbit, which could lead to a loss of functionality and interrupt geolocation services,” he adds.
Why doesn’t GPS usually fail?
Unlike geostationary satellites —such as those used for television broadcasts— that are positioned in a fixed orbit 35,786 km above the Earth’s equator, “the satellites used for geolocation are positioned in medium Earth orbit, at about 20,000 km altitude,” Pablo López explains.
This means they are not stationary relative to a point on Earth, and their lower orbit allows for faster travel around the planet, enabling global coverage —though not necessarily continuous coverage unless there is a sufficient number of satellites. Additionally, the orbit is high enough —completely outside the influence of the upper atmosphere— minimizing disturbances and improving the precision of navigation systems.
These satellites are arranged in constellations to provide simultaneous, continuous coverage across most of the globe. Moreover, the constellation includes more satellites than the minimum required to provide the service, “which greatly reduces the probability of failure,” Pablo López points out. He emphasizes that, “if a failure does occur, it’s unlikely that it would affect all satellites in the constellation, which are designed to operate redundantly, meaning they complement each other.” This design improves system reliability and ensures continuous coverage.
A solar storm is one of the few scenarios that could disrupt the service, either by affecting signal transmission or by causing simultaneous failures in multiple satellites, effectively disabling redundancy. “This is what we refer to as a ‘Common Mode Failure,'” López Negro explains, adding that “to safeguard against this, we would need an alternative technology that is not affected by these phenomena.”
What would happen if GPS failed?
“Thirty or forty years ago, the average person might experience nothing more than a temporary television signal loss during a satellite broadcast,” the aerospace engineering expert points out, noting that, back then, satellite-based space missions provided valuable services to society but were not considered critical.
“Today, nearly a quarter of the way into the 21st century, some satellite-based missions are critical to society. These services must be guaranteed with a very high level of reliability. Many current missions now provide essential services like global connectivity and positioning, which are fundamental to the operation of various products and services on the ground,” Pablo López explains.
According to the expert, “a 24-hour GPS signal outage would have a significant impact” —not only on people’s daily lives, such as driving, locating services, and time synchronization on electronic devices— but also on the economy. Global trade, which relies on navigation systems for maritime and air transport, would face delays and financial losses. For businesses, commercial operations that depend on geolocation for logistics, fleet management, and service delivery would be severely disrupted. “Not to mention the consequences for security and defense,” he warns.
About ANZEN Engineering
ANZEN Engineering is an international engineering company specialized in critical systems for the aerospace and defense sectors. Founded in 2019, it supports technically complex projects around the world, providing expertise in safety, reliability, airworthiness, ILS, cybersecurity, and MBSE. Its multidisciplinary team works with globally recognized standards, ensuring the certification and robustness of the platforms it supports. With a presence in Europe, the U.S., and the Middle East, ANZEN strengthens its position as a strategic, reliable, and independent partner committed to technical excellence and sustainable innovation.
Media contact
Raquel Parra
r.parra@iprisma.es
