Notice of Solar Activity for Monday and Tuesday.

Matthew D. Sibole

Well-Known Member
5PLS
Please take note:

SPACE WEATHER CONDITIONS on NOAA

G1
minor
Predicted 2021-09-27 UTC
R1-R2
5%
R3-R5
1%
S1 or greater
1%

G2
moderate
Predicted 2021-09-28 UTC
R1-R2
5%
R3-R5
1%
S1 or greater
1%

G
none
PrevNext
G2 (Moderate) Geomagnetic Storm Impacts
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Power systems: High-latitude power systems may experience voltage alarms, long-duration storms may cause transformer damage.
Spacecraft operations: Corrective actions to orientation may be required by ground control; possible changes in drag affect orbit predictions.
Other systems: HF radio propagation can fade at higher latitudes, and aurora has been seen as low as New
 

Eric Tweet

Active Member
Some handy NOAA tools I've been poking around at after catching wind of the G1/G2 forecast:

See here, for a nifty GPS space weather dashboard.

Or a simple text-based 3-day forecast of Geomagnetic activity (Gn), Solar radiation (Sn), and Radio Blackout activity (Rn)

And a groovy event timeline of those activity categories and more!

Or have a glance at WAM-IPE to see some animations of forecasted ionospheric conditions (electron content and max. usable frequency)
For any fans of serious jargon, take a look at the description of their Whole Atmosphere Model-Ionosphere Plasmasphere Electrodynamics (WAM-IPE) Forecast System
"... with a spectral hydrostatic dynamical core utilizing an enthalpy thermodynamic variable to 150 vertical levels on a hybrid pressure-sigma grid, with a model top of approximately 3 x 10-7 Pa ..."
 

Mark Wheeler

Active Member
During these two days, what affects would you anticipate seeing with GPS Survey? And is avoiding field work recommended?
 

Shawn Billings

Shawn Billings
5PLS

Watch the k-index. It's not the only thing to watch for, but it's the simplest and most significant thing the watch for when surveying during solar activity. 20 years ago, the Sun was in an extraordinary period of activity. The solar cycle is 11 years. In 2000-2001 the solar cycle had a double maximum and it was extremely active with many solar flares, coronal mass ejections and Sun spots spewing solar winds. The charged particles in these winds cause disturbances in our ionosphere (auroras) and scintillation in the upper atmosphere makes models less reliable since the thickness of the ionosphere is not as consistent and the affect on GNSS signals can be troublesome here on Earth. Our GPS equipment at the time was not as sophisticated as it is today. The last time I recall a paying attention to solar activity was about 6 years ago. The Triumph-LS sailed right through it. In 2000 it would cause peak to peak residuals to be higher, delay time to fix, and in some cases prevent any solution at all. But in recent times I've not noticed any affects. It could be that some days when we see a little questionable quality in our results that it may be due to solar activity, but I've seen GPS salespeople attribute any abnormal behavior to solar activity because it's mysterious and sounds scientific enough to quell the concerns of their unsuspecting customers.

The k-index about would routinely get in the red zone in 2000, and it was a problem. Even yellow was problematic, but I'm not sure how often it's reached those values since the solar activity died down in 2002 and beyond. The Sun has not been as active since, but I suppose we're about to enter a new peak on the cycle so who knows what the year will bring. In 2000 it was important on any critical mission to evaluate satellite availability in mission planning software and to look at the solar weather forecast. After the Sun sets, the ionosphere does settle quite a bit, so in those days we could have some success with night sessions. We didn't do that often, but there were a few occasions.
 

Mark Wheeler

Active Member
This may have been solar related or just the doldrum time of day. For Massachusetts th LS+ gets bad around noon time. In the open I was getting bogus results for about a half hour. I would shoot a point and move to the next. Distance to last would tell me I had not moved. It got in a pattern of collecting a bad shot (usually showing a distance to last of a hundreth or two) verifying itself incorrectly. If I recognized this and waited awhile another bucket typically jumped in and gave me a much more realistic number. Happened multilple times in a row. I would go back and forth between two shots with clear relative difference and get totally wacky results (in the open). This was scary wacky. I will have to try to weed out the bizzare shots. Possibly solar activity enhancing the mid day doldrums. The Software fix will be more than welcome.
 
This has been happening to me also, for the last two days, same symptoms...I thought it was my unit going bad, so I feel a little bit better, but very frustrating.
 

Shawn Billings

Shawn Billings
5PLS
With the LS connected to the internet, go to the project screen and you'll see a button for "Send Project to Support". Once you send it, reply to this thread with the name of the project and the serial number of your Triumph-LS.
 

Mark Wheeler

Active Member
Sending project 21-175 LDC Spencer, S/N 803. A good example are points 8054-8076 (sept. 30, 12:07-12:22) At this time I was connected to the State RTN. Shot 8054 is wrong, with several subsequent locations there are pairs of points within a few hundreths, where in the field they are several feet.
Mark
 
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