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  • Dan Held January 21, 2015 at 9:28am

    @mP1 yes, simply tap on the wind speed or temperature to toggle.

    @Felix, What app are you referring to?

  • Distributor
    Felix Meissner January 21, 2015 at 4:52am

    Nice APP - I would love to see such a feature being integrated in Mission Planner.

  • mP1 January 21, 2015 at 4:06am

    Does this include support for metric units ?

  • John Bond January 21, 2015 at 1:32am

    The Kp index is just a number, in the range of 0 to 9, which characterizes the magnitude of a geomagnetic storm.  A zero means things are very quiet and a 9 is an extreme storm - something you'd expect to happen roughly 4 times a (~11 year) solar cycle.

    When things get severe - a Kp of 8 or 9 - GPS positioning may become inaccurate with errors potentially reaching multiple 10s of meters. This isn't a guarantee problems will happen, just the higher the number the more likely they will.  An off the scale storm (Kp>9) could even cause GPS to fail, but other issues, like electrical grids going down would be of much greater concern.

    Not all areas of the earth are affected equally.  Higher geomagnetic latitudes, say 60 degrees plus, could have problems with a slightly lower Kp like a 7 compared to the mid latitudes where you really need an 8 or 9 to possibly see problems.

    In short, this is an overrated issue by some.  I wouldn't even blink at a Kp of 5 or 6.  Perhaps if you needed GPS you might want to check if the Kp was expected to go higher.  If so you might have issues.

    One minor disclaimer.  We are talking about L1 C/A code receivers.  The kind typically used in small UAVs which give meter level positioning accuracy.  Multiple frequency carrier phase receivers used for centimeter level positioning, especially older equipment, are a bit more susceptible.


    Very basic info:

    http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/impacts/space-weather-and-gps-systems
    http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

  • Dan Held January 20, 2015 at 10:26pm

    @John sorry but not sure if thats the direction we're going to be taking the color scheme :( But yes, we do want to reflect that information visually to the user :) 

    @wbal57 - the kp-index we pull from NOAA, it represents geomagnetic fluctuations.  If above 5 it can affect your GPS 

  • wbal57 January 20, 2015 at 8:17pm

    Can you explain the KP index ?

  • John L January 20, 2015 at 3:28pm

    What if the Flight Readiness button was dynamic, Ready to fly, Fly With Caution, Don't Fly, with colors, it might catch the eye of novices a bit more.

  • Dan Held January 20, 2015 at 3:10pm

    Awesome! Glad you like it! Hmm well unfortunately we've chosen Yellow/black as our color scheme.  But we do have an idea in the works that will allow the user to tap on the flight readiness indicator, which will drop down to show the severity of each indicator. 

  • John L January 20, 2015 at 3:01pm

    Love the update! K index addition is great, and stop watch is so much easier to use.

    Let me throw this idea out there, change the background color depending on conditions, green = fly, yellow = fly with caution (maybe elevated wind speeds, elevated K index), Red = don't fly (high wind, high K index, no fly zone)

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