NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Susceptibility of GPS to CME, Rationale for CN?
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2018 Oct 1, 13:08 -0400
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2018 Oct 1, 13:08 -0400
Hello Francis
You asked: Does CME actually affect an unprotected quartz watch?
In my amateurist view, a CME (and indeed all solar events) create a excess of free electrons, which then "crawl" all over any conductive surface. If the surface has holes in it, then the electrons can and will crawl through them. These are the same concerns as for electro-magnetic shielding considerations.
Since an unprotected quartz watch will have obvious entry points for that energy, I would say that your watch then can be affected. The field strength of that energy will then determine if the watch is fried, momentarily glitched, or has no affect whatsoever.
In the obvious case of a lightning strike, the free electrons crawl all over your vessel. Since the field strength is high and the frequency of that energy broadband, the energy can leap into many a space. When your electronics is subjected to this, the transistors can be overloaded and burn out, rendering it useless. Unless you properly protect it, as you have done!
Brad
