Observed solar radio burst effects on GPS/wide area augmentation system carrier-to-noise ratio

[1] The first direct observations of Global Positioning System (GPS) L1 (1.57542 GHz) carrier-to-noise ratio degradation due to a solar radio burst are presented for an event that occurred on 7 September 2005. Concurrent carrier-to-noise ratio data from GPS satellites are available from receivers at Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and also from Anderson, South Carolina, United States. The right-hand circularly polarized (RHCP) signals from this solar radio burst caused a corresponding decrease in the carrier-to-noise ratio of about 2.3 dB across all visible satellites. The maximum solar radio burst power associated with this event was 8700 solar flux units (1 SFU = 10^-22 W/m²/Hz) RHCP at 1600 MHz. Direct observations of GPS semicodeless L2 carrier-to-noise ratio degradation from receivers in Brazil are also presented for a solar radio burst that occurred on 28 October 2003. The maximum degradation at GPS L1 was about 3.0 dB, and a degradation of 10.0 dB was observed on the semicodeless L2 signal. Scaling to historic solar radio burst records suggests that GPS L1 receivers could fail to produce a navigation solution and that semicodeless L1/L2 receivers will fail.