EXTERNAL — A constellation of about 40 geolocation satellites belonging to Spire Global is gathering data that the U.S. Space Force will use to detect GPS interference. The interference has become an issue that has received worldwide attention because it is claimed to be Russia’s use of electronic warfare tactics ahead of the attack on Ukraine.
“All of our space company partners, everyone playing an important role for humanity in this battle for freedom and democracy,” said Spire CEO Peter Platzer.
Spire provides GPS telemetry data that helps detect disturbances in projects run by US Space Systems Command. The space force is looking for ways to automate manual data analysis techniques and generate more timely intelligence for military operations.
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The Space Enterprise Consortium Command in September 2021 awarded Slingshot Aerospace a $2 million contract to prototype an analytical tool that absorbs data from low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. The Slingshot cloud platform analyzes data from Spire and other LEO constellations to detect and locate radio frequency (RF) and GPS interference, particularly those that pose a potentially serious threat to US satellite operations.
Director of Federal Sales at Spire, Conor Brown, said the project helps the military understand how to leverage commercial data.
The Cubesats Spire satellite uses a remote sensing technique called GPS radio occultation (RO) which measures the properties of Earth’s atmosphere from space. Radio signals transmitted by GPS satellites in moderate Earth Orbit (altitude about 12,500 miles), are bent as they pass through Earth’s atmosphere and received by satellites in low Earth orbit. GPS RO data is widely used for weather forecasting and climate monitoring.
The 40 Spire satellites continuously collect GPS telemetry. Brown said direct analysis of the raw data could show signs of malicious activity, congestion or interference in GPS frequency bands. However, in order to obtain more detailed information, the satellite must perform special gatherings.
“That’s when the government will tell us which parts they want additional insight, and we commission our satellites to collect data on the region,” he said.
“That’s where we really do signal detection extraction and analysis to detect spoofers.”
Demonstration of the Slingshot prototype…
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