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November 2021: Youtube channel GNSS-R Musings published a video looking more in depth at her RFI observations in Lybia during 2019. While looking into the reason why her observations did not line up with SMAP observations, she found our paper “First results from three years of GNSS Interference Monitoring from Low Earth Orbit” which she […]

October 2021: RNL alumnus Dr. Lakshay Narula (PhD, 2020) won the Bradford W. Parkinson Award, recognizing an outstanding graduate student in the field of Position, Navigation, Timing (PNT) and/or Applications.  Lakshay Narula’s Ph.D. dissertation is a substantial and foundational contribution to the PNT community. It makes four primary contributions, one of which has already been favorably recognized by the

October 2021: Dr. Mark Psiaki won the 2021 Institute of Navigation (ION) Kepler Award, the highest award in the navigation community.  The Kepler Award is awarded annually to honor an individual for sustained and significant contributions to the development of satellite navigation during their lifetime (can be thought as the navigation “hall of fame”).  Dr. Psiaki set a standard

October 2021: Dr. Todd Humphreys presented on Resilient and Robust PNT at the Joint Navigation Conference, saying we need “backups on backups on backups.”  Within this talk, he discussed GNSS vulnerabilities and threats as well as defense mechanisms.  He included real-world examples such as: spoofing an iPhone, UAV, and super-yacht, “crop circles” in China, and pin-pointing sources of

September 2021: Authors of new PNT textbook: Position, Navigation, and Timing Technologies in the 21st Century: Integrated Satellite Navigation, Sensor Systems, and Civil Applications, met in-person at the ION GNSS+ conference.  The textbook covers the latest developments in PNT technologies, including integrated satellite navigation, sensor systems, and civil applications and features RNL director Todd Humphrey, RNL

September 2021: The FAA authorized the MITRE Corporation to perform a series of tests that used commercial smartphones inside of aircraft as a method to detect GPS spoofing.  These tests involved a feature of wireless cellular networks called Timing Advance that is available through standard 4G and 5G wireless networks operated by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.  A range estimate can be deduced from the

August 2021:  Dr. Todd Humphreys was featured in NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday.  The segment focused on AIS spoofing in the Black Sea, specifically the contested waters of Russian-occupied Crimea.  U.S. and European naval vessels tend to be the primary victims, however, there are Russian vessels spoofed in the same manner.  Dr. Humphreys suggests that Russia could

July 2021:  Over 100 warships from at least 14 European countries, Russia, and the United States appear to have had their AIS location spoofed since August 2020.  Amongst these unlucky warships, some of the spoofed tracks show the warships approaching contested areas, such as, foreign naval bases or intruding into disputed waters.  These activities could escalate

July 2021:  Todd Humphreys has been elected Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) “for improving understanding of GNSS vulnerabilities and pioneering the use of alternate techniques to achieve resilience.” Established in 1947 in London, the institute aims to advance the art, science and practice of navigation while promoting knowledge of the subject and

June 2021:  There was tension in the Black Sea near Crimea, Ukraine as Russian authorities claimed to have fired warning shots at the UK Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender; however, the UK Ministry of Defence denies the event ever happening.  Automatic Identification System (AIS) tracking logs showed that the HMS Defender traversed the Black Sea and sailed within a