Understanding Space Weather Customers in GPS‐Reliant Industries

Since the last solar maximum, society has become extremely reliant on the Global Positioning System (GPS), which is often referred to as the “fourth utility” behind elec tricity, water, and natural gas. As the economy depends more and more on positioning, navigation, and timing, society’s vulnerability to space weather continues to increase because space weather can be a significant cause of GPS errors. Critical applications such as railway control, highway traffic management, precision agriculture, emergency response, commercial aviation, and marine navigation all require GPS services. With such widespread and critical usage, industries are becoming more aware of how space weather can affect GPS signals, rapidly increasing the number of customers interested in real-time space weather products and services.