I see unusually high geomagnetic activity recently. Does this actually affect the quality of GNSS? If over a certain value, say 5, should I avoid doing that work or are there steps I can take to minimize errors? I'm guessing redundant long shots on key points throughout the day.
Each time this comes up there isn't any disruption that seems to effect our GPS.
However, don't be complacent, another Carrington event could be a civilization disruption event, something that strong would cause havoc.
And it wasn't the strongest by a long way. A Miyake Event would finish us. The Carrington Event was 1859, it blew up telegraph lines, anything electrical was effected, imagine it happening now. Then imagine it worse, much worse.
I don't know if there is a hard rule, but once it goes into the yellow and red zones it can certainly, BUT not always cause issues, in some cases RTK/RTN fails to fix or takes a long time and then poor residuals with plenty of satellites. I have the NOAA space weather forecast come to my email twice daily and also have an app on my phone that also pushes notifications out. It is simply good practice to know what is happening that may affect the satellites and thus your solution.
For high precision GNSS static surveys it is crucial to have quiet ionospheric conditions. Kp index of 5 or higher would usually mean stop field operations.
Good info. Thanks.
Coming from one working(ed) in the control segment I wouldn't sweat it. Perhaps 24 hrs static logs being compared across multiple days...a CORS station, tectonic plate stations...they may pick up some fuzz. Average Joe...take redundant measurements a few hours apart. Especially if you are in lower latitudes, you will most likely not see anything. Now you head up "Norff" and get yourself into a K7-9 Northern Light Party then power down and enjoy the spectacle!
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