Experiment on reproducing the continuous blackout of the GPS system

The plasma induced in the reentry can degrade the electromagnetic system, even producing the blackout when it is serious. Then the attenuation of the GPS signal by the plasma is calculated and the power threshold of the received signal is analyzed. An experiment on the continuous ‘acquisition-blackout-reacquisition’ process of GPS system is successfully reproduced by plasma in an ordinary lab. The plasma is excited by a low-pressure glow discharge and it is a long-lasting, large-scale, non-magnetic plasma. The plasma density can be easily controlled by RF power, achieving an arbitrary variation of plasma density. Comparing the critical attention with the standard power threshold of the receiver, results indicate that both the values are almost the same and that their differences are less than 0.5dB. The blackout occurs as the attenuation is greater than the threshold. The experiment is valuable for the research on other navigation systems' blackout and the design of reentry receivers.