A Taiwanese researcher says global positioning systems (GPS) are susceptible to interference from thunderstorms and so should not be relied upon in extreme weather conditions.
Lin Chien-hung (林建宏), an assistant professor at the Plasma and Space Sciences Center of National Cheng Kung University, said the strong atmospheric convections in a thunderstorm can create atmospheric oscillations -- tides -- that rise between 90km and 120km above ground, just under the ionosphere.
ATMOSPHERIC TIDES
Ions from the tides accumulate at that level and could interfere with electromagnetic waves, he said.
When transmission of electromagnetic waves is impeded, Lin said, signals from GPS satellites to GPS devices on the ground will be distorted, causing a phenomenon dubbed "GPS confusion,"in which the device gives inaccurate directions.
"Some of my friends told me stories of using a GPS device in thunderstorms," Lin said.
GETTING LOST
"They hoped the device could lead them out of the mountains despite the heavy rains. But even though they followed the directions given by GPS devices, they found themselves in the middle of nowhere," Lin said.
He said such stories have inspired him to do more research on the interaction of atmospheric convections and GPS devices.
Using the data collected by FORMOSAT-3, a climate satellite launched and operated by the government-funded National Space Organization and its US partners, Lin analyzed atmospheric variations during thunderstorms and observed how atmospheric tides created disruptions in electromagnetic waves.
ANOMALIES
Based on the data gathered by an IMAGE satellite in 2002, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration has listed four areas as "equatorial regions with anomalies in ionospheric activities."
These regions are: the Amazon valley, the Congo River valley, Indonesia's rain forests and the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where most tropical storms form, he said.
"Taiwan is in the mid-Pacific region, where a thunderstorm near the ground will disturb the upper atmosphere and could impact the functions of a GPS device," Lin said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS