So how should I interpret this? The map lacks geopolitical boundaries, so it's hard to interpret.
There looks like a big hole of no data over Ukraine, where I'd most expect GPS jamming, but I suppose there are no civilian flights either. Maybe they could setup an GPS observation station on the ground at a surveyed point to get data there.
There's a big red blob over Turkey, is that maybe the southern edge of the reach of Russian jammers in the Black sea?
There's also a big red blob over the eastern Mediterranean. Is that Israel? I'm not so sure though, because it's not centered on Israel and parts of Israel proper are green on the map. I also assume they're heavy users of GPS, so wouldn't want to jam it.
There's a red blob in Southeast Asia, and that looks like Myanmar, where there's a civil war right now.
There's a little red blob over what looks like Kashmir.
The hole over Ukraine is definitely the lack of civilian flights.
Another notable spot is Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave. It looks relatively normal on some days, like today, but on others like yesterday it's covered by solid red stretching far into Poland, Sweden and even Germany.
> Another notable spot is Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave. It looks relatively normal on some days, like today, but on others like yesterday it's solid red.
Oh yeah, I totally forgot that was a thing, and that explains that spur of red in the Baltic. I'd (probably incorrectly) assumed it was some kind of spillover from jamming in Ukraine.
I didn't realize you could look at it over multiple days. One interesting thing about that blob is the outline of red seems to always be there, in the same shape, but the middle is often green. Maybe that's some artifact of their agreement algorithm? More overflights around the edges than through?
It also looks like there's some jamming in Estonia? Or maybe that's just the edge of jamming around St Petersburg?
Russians do plenty of jamming that expands beyond their borders in the Baltic, either on purpose or just as a spillover as they don't care. Before Finland joined NATO they used to also violate our airspace on frequent basis, but since then that has stopped.
> Before Finland joined NATO they used to also violate our airspace on frequent basis, but since then that has stopped.
Probably temporarily. They violate the Estonian airspace on a regular basis with military planes, with their responders turned off. The NATO planes stationed in Estonia then take off and go see them off.
They violated NATO airspace a lot with their "Bear" nuclear-capable bombers until very recently. Not sure if it's still happening. It was so frequent that it didn't make the news every time.
The idea that russians are doing these things 'by accident' ain't even funny, just dangerously naive and nobody from intelligence community thinks so. They know damn well what they do and its well planned and even heroic in some childish fashion in their f*cked up mindset.
They are at war with west (more Europe than US though) for solid 2 decades straight, just that they started to use military only in last decade, but were subverting public opinions in usual command & conquer strategy for much longer (riling western and former soviet populations against EU and Nato, supporting ultra-right groups, spreading false rumors ie on covid in us vs them psi-ops).
Whatever politicians on their side say is meaningless or diversion and definitely just wasted time, just look at actions alone.
I was curious too. Did some sleuthing, it looks more like Punjab. I think that’s to block drone infiltration from Pakistan [1]. It does change going back to 14th March there is no jamming in the region, US and Europe blobs also reduced, so I think this stuff is event driven, wonder what goes on, fascinating stuff.
Their data comes from commercial flights. If there are no flights, there's no data. There aren't many commercial flights over Ukraine or Belarus right now, so that whole area's empty.
It tracks private flights too. I'm only tangentially familiar (though I have an ADS-B receiver reporting to FR24), but my understanding is that it's not required for private flight now, but more and more aircraft are being retrofitted.
The Eastern Mediterranean might be the (significant, underreported, under-remembered) Russian military presence in Syria. They have airbases, a naval base, they rotate and train their officers there, they constantly ship military equipment back and forth from the Black Sea ports via the Bosphorus to Syria, they train the Syrian army, they build human shield observation posts overlooking Israel.
What's unfathomable to me is how Israel (or Netanyahu?) keeps treating them as a frenemy.
I think there are probably many parties contributing to the interference in the Eastern Mediterrarnean. Russia and Israel are two of the big ones right now (and both have admitted doing it).
I see 2 red cells on the US/Mexico border right about Texas/Coahuila region. Navigating that dessert region without GPS or with GPS for that matter can be deadly.
Organized crime in Mexico would probably do it to prevent other people from using migration routes they control and reduce police efficacy. Of course, slightly rogue Mexican police or even US vigilantes also have an incentive.
Yea, oddly, if you go back to like august, there's still a bunch of red over the Mediterranean, parts of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, etc. so it's not totally clear what that is. I've heard anecdotally that gps has gotten unusable in Israel in recent weeks but it's not clear why that's changed based on the mapping information we're seeing here.
That’s because Beirut is 60 miles from northern Israel and Tinder’s max is 100 miles IIRC. These are small countries we’re talking about here.
Phones don’t use GPS these days if they can help it - WiFi triangulation is significantly faster and uses much less battery - so GPS jamming wouldn’t have anything to do with Tinder matches.
There looks like a big hole of no data over Ukraine, where I'd most expect GPS jamming, but I suppose there are no civilian flights either. Maybe they could setup an GPS observation station on the ground at a surveyed point to get data there.
There's a big red blob over Turkey, is that maybe the southern edge of the reach of Russian jammers in the Black sea?
There's also a big red blob over the eastern Mediterranean. Is that Israel? I'm not so sure though, because it's not centered on Israel and parts of Israel proper are green on the map. I also assume they're heavy users of GPS, so wouldn't want to jam it.
There's a red blob in Southeast Asia, and that looks like Myanmar, where there's a civil war right now.
There's a little red blob over what looks like Kashmir.