Europe-wide GPS Jamming Events: Satellite Source Investigation Summary
Generated: 2026-06-05 · API: Gemini 2.5 Flash · Modes: Summary
Europe-wide GPS Jamming Events: Satellite Source Investigation Summary
Clip title: Something is jamming GPS over Europe. Here’s what we found Author / channel: Veritasium URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz23G_UXCGA
Summary
In November 2024, Professor Todd Humphreys, a GPS expert, received a mysterious tip-off about unusual data from 2021. Investigating a dataset collected by a network of GPS monitoring stations across Europe, he and his student, Zack Clements, discovered something surprising: at precise moments on 75 days since 2019, receivers across the network reported a sudden, simultaneous drop in their signal-to-noise ratio. This indicated that navigation signals were being overwhelmed. The disruption spanned across Europe, from Svalbard in the north to Spain in the south, and as far west as Canada and east as Poland, with the blast center appearing to be in Poland or Kaliningrad. Initial hypotheses of ground-based interference were dismissed because such a broad effect cannot be caused by terrestrial sources due to the Earth’s curvature. Similarly, solar interference was ruled out because the events were too brief (3-5 seconds) and confined to a narrow frequency band (5 MHz wide, centered at 1577.5 MHz), unlike typical broadband solar bursts. The only plausible explanation for such wide-area, simultaneous impact was a source high above the Earth, at least 1,200 km up, pointing to a satellite.
The subsequent investigation involved sifting through orbital mechanics to identify the potential culprits. Using constraints that the source must have been visible to all affected stations simultaneously, researchers narrowed down over 15,000 active satellites to 14 primary suspects. One candidate, an Algerian satellite, was ruled out after further analysis showed it was also a victim of the interference, not the source. The remaining satellites lacked sufficient public documentation to confirm their capabilities, leading to a standstill. The breakthrough came with raw radio signal data from two specialized receivers in the Netherlands and Norway. This high-resolution data allowed for precise measurement of the tiny time difference in which the jamming signal arrived at each station. By comparing these measurements to the known orbital paths of all satellites, a single culprit emerged: a Russian satellite, Cosmos 2546. This satellite is part of a six-satellite constellation in a Molniya orbit, forming Russia’s early missile warning system. These highly elliptical orbits allow satellites to linger high over the Northern Hemisphere, providing extensive coverage.
Professor Humphreys theorizes that these observed interference events are likely intentional periodic tests of a powerful jamming capability, rather than accidental malfunctions or full-scale deployment. This is supported by the signal being immensely powerful but slightly offset from the exact GPS frequency—a tactic that would allow testing without causing full disruption, reserving that for a potential “hot conflict.” The raw data further revealed a second, similar interference burst targeting signals from the Chinese BeiDou navigation system. This military-grade capability, operating from space, represents a significant escalation in electronic warfare. The potential impact of its full deployment is enormous, affecting critical infrastructure from aviation and global shipping to financial systems, cellular networks, and ride-hailing services, causing widespread disruption and fear globally.
The findings underscore the extreme vulnerability of modern society’s pervasive reliance on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). As an “invisible utility,” GNSS underpins almost every aspect of contemporary technology and daily life. To mitigate this threat, experts advocate for the development of resilient Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) architectures. These systems would incorporate diverse phenomena like signals from terrestrial broadcasts, fiber optic cables for secure time synchronization via atomic clocks, and advanced quantum navigation systems that do not rely on external signals. Countries like South Korea, China, and the UK are already investing in building such resilient backups. Despite these ongoing efforts, most nations, including the United States, remain heavily dependent on the fragile satellite signals, making continued research and development in resilient PNT solutions critical.
Video Description & Links
Description
Something is disrupting GPS signals across Europe. Sponsored by Ground News. Go to https://ground.news/Ve for 40% off the unlimited Vantage plan.
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▀▀▀ 0:00 What is jamming Europe’s GPS? 4:43 How does GPS work? 10:46 How easy is it to jam GPS? 12:18 The Hunt To Find The Jammer 17:12 Who are the possible culprits? 20:06 The Investigation Goes Public 23:00 Narrowing In On The Jammer 25:15 Cosmos 2546 28:25 A Secret Messaging Service? 29:19 What happens if we lose GPS?
▀▀▀ Special thanks to the experts and collaborators who made this video possible:
Professor Todd Humphreys and Dr Zach Clements at the University of Texas at Austin, whose research this story is based on - thank you for sharing your data, your time, and the inside story of the hunt.
Ramsey Faragher, for the brilliant interview, feedback and stories that helped to shape this video.
Richard D. Easton, for helping us understand the history of GPS.
Dana Goward, President of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, for providing context on interference and alternative systems.
Richard Bowden and Luis Enrique Aguado from GMV for sharing their independent work tracing the source of the interference.
Ben Watts, for sharing his first-hand experience of GPS jamming and spoofing from the cockpit.
KeepTrack (https://keeptrack.space/) for generously giving us access to their satellite-tracking software, which we used to visualise the search through 15,000 satellites for the culprit. And to GPSWise (https://gpswise.aero/) for kindly providing their software which we used to visualise GPS jamming and spoofing.
Bartosz Ciechanowski, whose interactive GPS explainer (https://ciechanow.ski/gps/) was a great resource for research and the basis for one of our technical animations. Thank you for allowing us to build on your work.
▀▀▀ References:
Clements, Z. L., Kriezis, A., & Humphreys, T. E. (2026). Chasing Lightning: Detecting, Characterizing, and Identifying a Powerful Space-Based GNSS Interference - https://ve42.co/GNSSInterference
The rest here: https://ve42.co/GPSJammingRefs
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Tags
veritasium, science, physics, Veritasium, engineering, gps, gps jamming, jamming, satellite, europe, russia, russian gps jamming, aeroplane, airplane, airplane gps, gps satellites, experiment, navigation, gnss, jammer