Session A1: Navigation Security and Authentication

Transient Space-Based GNSS Interference: Observations and Analysis
Zachary L. Clements and Todd E. Humphreys, University of Texas at Austin
Location: Holiday 1 (Second Floor)
Date/Time: Wednesday, Sep. 10, 11:48 a.m.

This paper presents the analysis of a space-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) interference source responsible for multiple transient wide-area GNSS outage over Europe, Greenland, and Canada. Within the past decade, there has been a sharp increase in GNSS outages due to deliberate GNSS jamming and spoofing. An overwhelming majority of these cases can be traced to accidental leakage into the GNSS frequency bands, personal privacy devices, or electronic warfare spillover from nearby conflict zones. In contrast to the terrestrial or near-terrestrial sources responsible for most GNSS outages, this paper investigates GNSS interference source emanating from a spaced-based source. GNSS observables from a network of terrestrial-based GNSS reference stations are used to characterize the interference from 2019 to 2025. This paper offers three main contributions. First, it presents a detection framework for this type of interference. Second, it details the spatial and temporal patterns of wide-area GNSS outage events from the space-based interference source. Third, it presents satellite identification strategy to narrow down the number of candidate satellites.