¿¿Adiós al GPS??

[guillembcnx]

Estimados cófrades,


Sin querer ser alarmista, les copio un artículo (lamentablemente en inglés) que me envió un amigo, que habla de como la creciente actividad solar, que tendrá un pico en el año 2011, podría dejar sin funcionamiento al sistema GPS:

"Solar Activity Could Harm Satellites

Reports are circulating this week reminding the satellite industry just how vulnerable it may be to abnormal activities surrounding the planet's sun. Because not only does the sun have a direct and immediate effect on our weather and climate, solar flares could potentially set the world's technological advancements back decades if the right (or wrong) conditions exist.
Said David Johnson, director of the National Weather Service, "Our increasingly technological dependent society is becoming increasingly vulnerable to space weather."
Advancements like GPS - which has become heavily relied upon for everything from navigating vehicles and airplanes to simple banking transactions - could become casualties of powerful solar flares. What has the scientific community talking was an unexpected flare a few months back that affected nearly every GPS receiver on half of the planet. According to the pros, some receivers had a significant reduction in accuracy while others completely shut down.
The scientists say solar activity rises and falls in 11-year cycles - the next expected in 2011. But protecting satellite systems like GPS (and DBS or DVB, for that matter) is no simple task. According to Paul Kintner Jr., professor of electrical engineering at Cornell University, there are two possible ways to shield the technology, both of which are not cheap: either alter all GPS antennas to screen out solar signals, or replace all of the satellites with ones that broadcast a stronger signal."
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Hasta aquí el artículo.

Casualmente había leído en estos días otro artículo que no descarta una inversión de los polos magnéticos terrestres (algo que parece que ha pasado frecuentemente en la historia de nuestro planeta) hecho que hará, según el artículo que "los medios de comunicación modernos (como satélites o redes) se vean profundamente afectados."
El artículo en cuestión pueden verlo en http://www.tendencias21.net/Reproduc...tre_a1495.html

Por lo que parece, más vale volver al viejo sextante, y no volverse muy tecnológico-dependiente, no??

Una ronda para todos y a no estresarse!!