Something is jamming GPS over Europe. Here's what we found
Veritasium · 34:17 · 3 weeks ago
Something is jamming GPS signals across Europe from a Russian military satellite in orbit.
-
Signal drops detected — Receivers across Europe showed sudden drops in signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 10 at exact moments starting in 2019 .
-
Continental scale pattern — Interference hit stations from Svalbard to Spain and Poland at the same instant, ruling out any ground source .
-
Source height calculation — Geometry required the transmitter to sit at least 1,200 km up, far above the ISS .
-
Non-solar clues — Events lasted only three to five seconds, hit a narrow 5 MHz band at 1,577.5 MHz, and stayed centered over Europe .
-
Business-hour pattern — Disruptions clustered on Tuesdays through Thursdays during European working hours, pointing to deliberate operation .
-
Raw data breakthrough — High-resolution recordings from Amsterdam and Trondheim matched only one satellite's orbit to within 200 meters .
-
Russian satellite identified — Cosmos 2546, part of a missile-warning constellation in Molniya orbit, aligned perfectly with every timing measurement .
-
Why does Cosmos 2546 transmit at a frequency slightly offset from GPS?
-
How would losing GPS affect everyday systems like banking and shipping?