KP Index 5.33

[Mrktn]

Hi, UAV for my area gives the KPI as above. Safe to fly my Mini 3 Pro?

Thanks

 

[GFields]

Hi, UAV for my area gives the KPI as above. Safe to fly my Mini 3 Pro?

Thanks

Yes, should be fine

K-index Alerts are issued when the NOAA estimated Kp-indices reach 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9. The K-index quantifies disturbances in the horizontal component of earth's magnetic field with an integer in the range 0-9 with 1 being calm and 5 or more indicating a geomagnetic storm.

 

[Mrktn]

Yes, should be fine

K-index Alerts are issued when the NOAA estimated Kp-indices reach 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9. The K-index quantifies disturbances in the horizontal component of earth's magnetic field with an integer in the range 0-9 with 1 being calm and 5 or more indicating a geomagnetic storm.

Thanks

 

[msinger]

UAV for my area gives the KPI as above. Safe to fly my Mini 3 Pro?

Yep! I'm not even sure why that app continues to show the KPI as there is no history of it negatively affecting DJI drones.

 

[Mrktn]

Yep! I'm not even sure why that app continues to show the KPI as there is no history of it negatively affecting DJI drones.

Thanks for confirming

 

[Meta4]

Hi, UAV for my area gives the KPI as above. Safe to fly my Mini 3 Pro?

Even if it showed 8, you could fly without any worry.

 

[Mrktn]

Even if it showed 8, you could fly without any worry.

Thanks

 

[KJC Imaging]

Above 3 could mean your GPS signal is disrupted or degraded. Pay close attention to the position of the home point on the map and be ready for strange drone behaviors. If you can wait, don’t fly in a geomagnetic storm.

 

[Parkerjh]

I fly 20 times a week at minimum for 10 years. I've never once given a split second thought to KPI. I think it's nothing to worry about and I've never heard of a single issue related to DJI drones

 

[KJC Imaging]

There is a long history of Kp index affecting systems that use GNSS including DJI drones.

The Kp number is a system of measuring aurora strength. It goes from 0 to 9 (0 being very weak, 9 being a major geomagnetic storm with strong auroras visible).

Kp's of 1-4 are completely safe. At a Kp of 5, you'll have problems perhaps 1% of the time. At a Kp of 6, you'll lose an average of 5% of your locked GPS satellites; at 7, you'll lose roughly one third.

So when you’re looking at the aurora forecast page, you are looking out for high Kp numbers. The higher the number, the more risk you take on. Anything above (and including) Kp5 is classed as a geomagnetic storm.

Solar activity interferes with GPS and other GNSS signals in two ways, both due to disruptions in the ionosphere.

(1) It decreases the signal-to-noise ratio and affects carrier frequency, causing the receiver to lose lock on some satellites. Instead of 9 satellites, you might lock only 6, or the number might fluctuate from second to second.

(2) It changes the propagation delay through the ionosphere, making GPS positioning inaccurate even if the receiver has all satellites locked.

Even during a major storm, the extent to which you see these problems will depend on many other factors, including your latitude (worse at high latitudes) and the time of day (worse at night). Sometimes everything will be fine. At other times you'll lose lock completely, or appear to have a lock but the position will actually be wrong by hundreds of feet.

The storms can also interfere with radio control signals, or with the on-board electronics.

Some people have flown 75 times a day for 200 years and never encountered an issue with high Kp numbers. Perhaps they’ve flown at low latitudes; perhaps their drones have prioritized vision position systems that aren’t affected by geomagnetic storms; perhaps they’ve been lucky. They may even tell you not to worry about the Kp number. However, just because it hasn’t happened to them, doesn’t mean it won’t happen to you. People who survive long aviation careers heed warnings and avoid the pitfalls that prematurely ended the lives or careers of others who ignored the warning signs.

So therefore, in general it's better to play it safe during solar storms at Kp of 6 and above, even though most of the time you won't notice any issues. At 7 or higher, you're better off sitting inside and flying a simulator.

 

[msinger]

There is a long history of Kp index affecting systems that use GNSS including DJI drones

Can you share several threads (from any forum) where it has been confirmed that the Kp index negatively affected a DJI drone?

I read DJI drones forums regularly and haven't come across any such threads yet. With such a long history, I'm guessing you can easily point us to several threads.

 

[Parkerjh]

There is a long history of Kp index affecting systems that use GNSS including DJI drones....

Did you write the blog post that you cut and pasted that from and have actual knowledge of this science or just passing along the oft-repeated theoretical impacts to drones?

 

[Meta4]

There is a long history of Kp index affecting systems that use GNSS including DJI drones.

There's a long history of people claiming that high Kp index events will cause havoc to drones.
But despite all the claims, there has never been a single drone flying incident that could be attributed to the high Kp index.
There are only so many cut and paste the-sky-is-falling warnings you can hear before they lose credibility.

 

[KJC Imaging]

Can you share several threads (from any forum) where it has been confirmed that the Kp index negatively affected a DJI drone?

I read DJI drones forums regularly and haven't come across any such threads yet. With such a long history, I'm guessing you can easily point us to several threads.

Sure.

Errors with MAVIC MINI! Flyaways caused two crashes! | DJI FORUM

Electromagnetic interference crash | DJI Phantom Drone Forum

Every time someone reports a flyaway or a crash with a drone using GNSS for positioning, the cause could be geomagnetic interference. These folks usually blame the manufacturer and may not have checked Kp index or even heard of it.

 

[Meta4]

Sure.

Two forum posts where uninformed flyers suggest that the cause of an incident might have been a high Kp index does not prove anything.

Every time someone reports a flyaway or a crash with a drone using GNSS for positioning, the cause could be geomagnetic interference.

That's an extremely unscientific approach, and it's proved to be wrong.

 

[msinger]

Errors with MAVIC MINI! Flyaways caused two crashes! | DJI FORUM

Electromagnetic interference crash | DJI Phantom Drone Forum

I'm not seeing any evidence in those threads that confirms any of the issues shared were definitely caused by a high Kp index. But, I guess I cannot fault you since such evidence doesn't exist.

 

[KJC Imaging]

Two forum posts where uninformed flyers suggest that the cause of an incident might have been a high Kp index does not prove anything.

That's an extremely unscientific approach, and it's proved to be wrong.

Proved, how, specifically?

I'm not seeing any evidence in those threads that confirms any of the issues shared were definitely caused by a high Kp index. But, I guess I cannot fault you since such evidence doesn't exist.

in my 2500+ hours flying MQ-9 I saw many lost link and GPS FOM issues during high Kp periods. We had ways to cope with them, and there are ways to mitigate the risk. E.g., today here in AK the Kp is 8 so I chose to fly my Heewing T-1 Ranger VTOL which has twin RC links and selectable Stabilize and QStabilize modes. On my second battery the aircraft lost GPS and veered dramatically, but I was able to select QStabilize mode and keep it steady. I don’t know for certain if that was a loss of GNSS caused by the geomagnetic storm we are in, but it could have been. So I wouldn’t advise people flying aircraft with no way to fly independently of GNSS to fly in high Kp conditions. Just my experience.

 

[msinger]

in my 2500+ hours flying MQ-9 I saw many lost link and GPS FOM issues during high Kp periods. We had ways to cope with them, and there are ways to mitigate the risk. E.g., today here in AK the Kp is 8 so I chose to fly my Heewing T-1 Ranger VTOL which has twin RC links and selectable Stabilize and QStabilize modes.

Now, that's far more interesting than the copy you pasted from some random sources on the Internet.

However, I'm not sure the experience is a 1-to-1 comparison with DJI drones. If people were having that much trouble flying DJI drones in high Kp conditions, then I'd expect to see thousands (at least hundreds?) of flight logs examinations where that ended up being the case. Almost all of the "flyaway" stories we've looked at in this forum were caused by pilot error (confirmed by the flight logs).

 

[Meta4]

Proved, how, specifically?

Your example relies on kindergarten level non-reasoning.

Every time someone reports a flyaway or a crash with a drone using GNSS for positioning, the cause could be geomagnetic interference.​

That makes as much sense as suggesting that every time someone reports a drone flying incident, the cause might be alien drone-abduction or Jewish space lasers.
Sir Isaac Newton didn't come up with his three laws of motion, by repeating some myths for which there was no evidence.

 

[KLJ5]

There is a long history of Kp index affecting systems that use GNSS including DJI drones.

The Kp number is a system of measuring aurora strength. It goes from 0 to 9 (0 being very weak, 9 being a major geomagnetic storm with strong auroras visible).

Kp's of 1-4 are completely safe. At a Kp of 5, you'll have problems perhaps 1% of the time. At a Kp of 6, you'll lose an average of 5% of your locked GPS satellites; at 7, you'll lose roughly one third.

So when you’re looking at the aurora forecast page, you are looking out for high Kp numbers. The higher the number, the more risk you take on. Anything above (and including) Kp5 is classed as a geomagnetic storm.

Solar activity interferes with GPS and other GNSS signals in two ways, both due to disruptions in the ionosphere.

(1) It decreases the signal-to-noise ratio and affects carrier frequency, causing the receiver to lose lock on some satellites. Instead of 9 satellites, you might lock only 6, or the number might fluctuate from second to second.

(2) It changes the propagation delay through the ionosphere, making GPS positioning inaccurate even if the receiver has all satellites locked.

Even during a major storm, the extent to which you see these problems will depend on many other factors, including your latitude (worse at high latitudes) and the time of day (worse at night). Sometimes everything will be fine. At other times you'll lose lock completely, or appear to have a lock but the position will actually be wrong by hundreds of feet.

The storms can also interfere with radio control signals, or with the on-board electronics.

Some people have flown 75 times a day for 200 years and never encountered an issue with high Kp numbers. Perhaps they’ve flown at low latitudes; perhaps their drones have prioritized vision position systems that aren’t affected by geomagnetic storms; perhaps they’ve been lucky. They may even tell you not to worry about the Kp number. However, just because it hasn’t happened to them, doesn’t mean it won’t happen to you. People who survive long aviation careers heed warnings and avoid the pitfalls that prematurely ended the lives or careers of others who ignored the warning signs.

So therefore, in general it's better to play it safe during solar storms at Kp of 6 and above, even though most of the time you won't notice any issues. At 7 or higher, you're better off sitting inside and flying a simulator.

NOTAMS where I live in British Columbia have for the past 2 days issued warnings to not use RNAV or VNAV approaches due GPS unreliablitly. Thanx for your excellent and highly informative post.