Image: Lotte-Camillia-Holst-Hansen, NRK
What’s New: Northern Norway has been jammed almost every day this year. The Norwegian government is responding by setting up instruments to measure it.
Why it’s Important:
- Norway has tried diplomatic measures to get Russia to stop. Russia won’t even admit they are doing it.
- Many aviation approaches to airports in the area during marginal and bad weather are only possible using GPS.
- First responder and other systems are often impacted.
- Previous measurements have shown the jamming is so precise that only GPS signals are impacted. GLONASS signals at nearby frequencies are left untouched.
Background: This has been happening since at least 2017.
Strong increase in GPS jamming over Finnmark
Russian GPS jamming has hit Eastern Finnmark almost every day so far this year. Meters are now being set up to map the extent.
For several years, Finnmark has been exposed to GPS, but in the last year something special has happened.
After Russia went to war in Ukraine, such jamming has increased sharply.
According to the National Communications Authority (Nkom), last year there was a fivefold increase in the number of days with GPS failures over the airspace in Finnmark.
And the activity has not stopped after the New Year.
– We already see figures for this year, the first two months, that this development continues, says acting director Marianne Øhrn Johannessen in Nkom.
READ MORE IN ENGLISH OR NORWEGIAN
