GPS Rollover Event May Cause Devices, Systems To Go Haywire

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, someone on a scanner list for DC-area scanner listeners.

GPS Rollover Event May Cause Devices, Systems To Go Haywire
By Juliette Goodrich April 2, 2019 at 9:27 pm

by Juliette Goodrich and Molly McCrea

(KPIX 5) — On or around April 6th 2019 , will your handy-dandy global positioning system (GPS) device be working properly? ... Or, if you’re driving south on U.S. Highway 101, heading to your job in San Jose, will your GPS show your car is traveling to the Farallon Islands? ... If you’re on a hike in the Coyote Hills, will your GPS device display that you are walking around at the Stanford Shopping Mall?

Here’s the deal: if your GPS begins to go a little haywire around this time, you may be experiencing what’s called “GPS Week Rollover Event.” The issue may remind us how much the world relies on GPS. .... The imminent system update has the attention of Brad Parkinson, a recalled emeritus Professor at Stanford University and best known as the lead architect, advocate, and developer of GPS.
....

“We’re completely reliant upon GPS,” remarked GPS expert Dana Goward, who served as the maritime navigation authority for the United States. ... He is currently serving as President of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation or RNTF. The nonprofit is dedicated to protecting, toughening, and augmenting GPS signals.

Goward explained that GPS works by sending out timing signals. On each satellite, there are multiple atomic clocks. GPS relies on precision timing to operate. ... “Essentially, all the GPS satellites are just very, very precise clocks,” said Goward. ... In that timing signal, there is a timestamp containing a code. The code is based on the week and seconds in that week when “GPS Time” began or was set. That date started on January 6, 1980.

But since “GPS time” uses only 10-bits to count the weeks and seconds within that week, it can only cover a finite period of time before it runs out of space. ... “It turns out it happens roughly every 20 years,” said Parkinson. ... That finite period of time is 1,024 weeks or precisely 19.7 years. This period of GPS time called an epoch. When GPS time reaches its finite period, it “rolls over” or resets to zero.
....

“If you’re driving your car and it were to suddenly say you’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, be very suspicious,” cautioned Parkinson.
....

GPS Week Number Roll Over (WNRO)

An accurate accounting of time is of critical importance to nearly every modern organization. Because of its low cost and universal availability, The Global Positioning System (GPS) has become the standard time keeper for many commercial users across the globe.

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What is the GPS Week Number Rollover?

How do I Prepare for the GPS Week Number Rollover?

What Resources are Available?

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[Submariner]

1. I'll be driving the shore road north on the Route 1

I guess I'll need to watch for GPS turns to the right onto the coastal rocks and into the Gulf of Maine.

[unblock]

3. ha! i will *start* my driving in the middle of the pacific ocean, so when the event happens,

*poof!*, i'll be at my intended location!

[unblock]

2. should we be worried that programmers capable of coding all kinds of amazing things

can't write code to cater for one of the most obvious and easily predicted events ever?

well, the world completely fell apart when "y2k" happened, and also, hell, the last time this exact event happened, so gosh, let's just assume programmers didn't write code to handle this.

[Wednesdays]

4. I remember hearing that the fix for the Y2K problem

would become available by the year 1901.