Researchers to gauge eclipse impact on GPS technology

Researchers at Clemson University today plan to find out how the solar eclipse might interfere with GPS capabilities.  GPS, or the Global Positioning System, is a United States-owned technology that uses 24 outer space satellites to send signals for positioning and navigation information here on earth.  Americans use it primarily to get from point A to point B, but few know that GPS controls banking systems, power grids and event stock markets.  Researchers will use a GPS antenna on top of Kinard Hall to monitor the ionosphere, the layer of Earth’s atmosphere that is charged by solar and cosmic radiation.