Researchers trace years of European GNSS interference to Russian Molniya satellites

A new paper analyzes wide-area GNSS interference events that have hit Europe, Greenland, and Canada since 2019, and pins them on a space-based source rather than the terrestrial jammers that account for most recent disruption. Using seven years of data from terrestrial GNSS reference stations, the authors built a received-power detection framework and characterized the spatial, temporal, and spectral signatures of the transient events.

Combining received-power measurements with time-difference-of-arrival analysis, they identify the emitter as a constellation of Russian early warning satellites operating in highly elliptical Molniya orbits. The finding matters because space-based interferers can affect huge geographic areas at once, marking a qualitative shift from the localized, ground-based jamming and spoofing that has dominated GNSS threat reporting.

The work gives operators and regulators a reproducible method for attributing wide-area outages and adds concrete evidence that critical positioning infrastructure faces orbital, not just terrestrial, sources of disruption.