Solar Flares - did anyone notice ?

[AeroJ]

Saw an interesting update from Coastal Drones warning about 'X class' solar flare activity (which I had never heard of).

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That was apparently on May 13th / 14th. Anybody have any GPS related weirdness that day ? It did apparently take a power network down, so not the 'normal' sort of minimal flare activity we usually don't need to worry about...

I wasn't flying those days, so didn't even check UAV Forecast to see what it predicted.

 

[Meta4]

Anybody have any GPS related weirdness that day ?

Despite the warnings that we hear every time, about what might happen, it had no effect, just as it always does.

I wasn't flying those days, so didn't even check UAV Forecast to see what it predicted.

UAV forecast might tell you that the Kp index was high, but after seeing these warnings for 10 years and still not a single drone incident that could be attributed to the solar activity, it's hard to take them seriously.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

I flew a job on the 14th, not a hint of any problems at all.

 

[Army Vet]

Solar flare activity typically affects lower frequency bands. Such as Ham Radio. If strong enough can also induce noise in the higher bands where drones exist.

 

[DarR-T]

Regional magnetic conditions and forecasts

Information on current regional conditions and forecast for regions of Canada

www.spaceweather.gc.ca

 

[Fader McG]

Well it looks like will be getting some solar activity within the next day or two, so if anyone is game to test whether or not CMEs can impede flight, here's your chance.

G4 (Severe) Geomagnetic Storm Watch in Effect for 2 June UTC-Day
published: Saturday, May 31, 2025 14:53 UTC (from NOAA)

"A G4 (Severe) geomagnetic storm watch is in effect for 2 June. A powerful coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from the Sun the evening of 30 May. The CME is anticipated to arrive at Earth later on Sunday, 1 June. The CME arrival will likely lead to immediate geomagnetic disturbances with the potential for G3 (Strong) levels, and a chance for G4. Conditions will likely intensify as CME progression continues and G4 levels become more possible on Monday, 2 June. Geomagnetic storm levels will likely begin subsiding by Tuesday, 3 June, with G1-G2 (Minor-Moderate) still possible. Confidence in an Earth-arrival component to this CME is good. However, timing and intensity are more uncertain. These watches represent potential based on our best analyses. We will not know the true nature of this CME’s geomagnetic storm potential until the CME arrives at our solar wind observatories located 1 million miles from Earth. Upon arrival at those spacecraft, we will know the magnetic strength and orientation that are very important to what levels and duration of geomagnetic storm conditions are expected to occur. As always visit our website for the latest information and updates."

 

[AeroJ]

On UAV forecast, KP is up at 4.67 from tomorrow night and into Monday, though it's higher than 'normal' for most of Sunday too, moreso latterly.

Important to remember that KP doesn't just affect the number of satellites that your craft sees, but also may, and I quote 'change the propagation delay through the ionosphere, making GPS positioning inaccurate even if the receiver has all satellites locked.

UAV Forecast's advice file continues...

Even during a major storm, the extent to which you see these problems will depend on many other factors. One major factor is your latitude: ionospheric disturbances are worse at high and equatorial latitudes, and less noticeable at mid latitudes. Another factor is the time of day: most disturbances occur in the evening between the hours of 8pm and midnight. The effects also vary; sometimes everything will be fine, while at other times you'll lose lock completely for a few seconds or even a minute, 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 electronics of your aircraft.

In general it's better to play it safe during solar storms, even though most of the time you won't notice any issues. Happy flying!

I was planning on doing a flying day tomorrow - wind and rain are minimal and the sun is out most of the day, but my instinct (and lack of DJI refresh on my Mini4P) suggests I should just leave it, even though the risk is quite minimal.

I realise quite a few of you would plough on regardless, but actually there is nothing I NEED to video this weekend, so it is playing ultimately safe (but possibly unnecessarily cautious) to just wait til next week when it's all blown over so to speak !

 

[AeroJ]

As I write this (South East UK, 1 pm) KP index currently up in the 8's, the highest I have ever seen it in this country since I started flying ! So I popped outside with my Mini4P to get the lay of the land without actually taking off.

And I am glad I didn't. Sitting in my back garden with an open view of the sky, this UAV usually takes about 2 mins to acquire 26+ satellites. Today it spent ages struggling to get the minimum, could barely scrape 13 for a home point, couldn't get above 15 after 10 minutes, and thereafter satellite count was regularly dropping back down to 11/12 and staying there for extended periods of time, at which point FLY notifies No GPS - fly with caution.

I also sat glued to the map for a while, but nothing there moved dramatically. But definitely some disturbance to 'the force' there, and certainly enough to persuade me not to fly in it ! People continue to insist we can safely ignore even the highest KP disturbances, but my test today does seem to suggest a degraded GPS performance, and I wouldn't like to be conducting any sort of GPS guided manoeuvre or RTH actions whilst it was dropping in and out like that.

 

[Felix le Chat]

As I write this (South East UK, 1 pm) KP index currently up in the 8's, the highest I have ever seen it in this country since I started flying ! So I popped outside with my Mini4P to get the lay of the land without actually taking off.

And I am glad I didn't. Sitting in my back garden with an open view of the sky, this UAV usually takes about 2 mins to acquire 26+ satellites. Today it spent ages struggling to get the minimum, could barely scrape 13 for a home point, couldn't get above 15 after 10 minutes, and thereafter satellite count was regularly dropping back down to 11/12 and staying there for extended periods of time, at which point FLY notifies No GPS - fly with caution.

I also sat glued to the map for a while, but nothing there moved dramatically. But definitely some disturbance to 'the force' there, and certainly enough to persuade me not to fly in it ! People continue to insist we can safely ignore even the highest KP disturbances, but my test today does seem to suggest a degraded GPS performance, and I wouldn't like to be conducting any sort of GPS guided manoeuvre or RTH actions whilst it was dropping in and out like that.

Glad you tried the acid test and thanks for sharing your first hand observations. Anyone who has operated radios will tell you solar activity affects any transmitted RF signal whatever the wavelength. This 'event' also features a CME which is estimated to be a near miss.

 

[Meta4]

And I am glad I didn't. Sitting in my back garden with an open view of the sky, this UAV usually takes about 2 mins to acquire 26+ satellites. Today it spent ages struggling to get the minimum, could barely scrape 13 for a home point, couldn't get above 15 after 10 minutes, and thereafter satellite count was regularly dropping back down to 11/12 and staying there for extended periods of time, at which point FLY notifies No GPS - fly with caution.

There's definitely a high level of solar activity as shown by this Aurora activity app.

... and confirmed by the Aurora I saw a short time ago.

But this activity didn't seem to make any difference to GPS reception, satellite acquisition time or position accuracy.
The Mavic 4 pro went to 30 sats in about 30 secs and recorded a home point.

A tablet and a handheld Garmin GPS also had good reception after a normal short time to acquire.

People continue to insist we can safely ignore even the highest KP disturbances, but my test today does seem to suggest a degraded GPS performance

I'll go flying in a few hours when the Kp is predicted to be back up to 8 and I have no doubt it will fly just as well as it normally does.

 

[AeroJ]

Was expecting big KPs this evening, so popped up to the top field just now to repeat the test above.

This time I went to a bigger, more open field than my back garden, and indeed GPS results were correspondingly better.
This time we found 20 satellites in the first minute, and they remained addressable / stable for the next 10 mins or so until I gave up and finished the test. Checking my KP charts when I got in however revealed it had dropped to KP5 anyway, which is barely out of 'normal' range !