Foreign scientists have reported a record slowdown in the Earth's rotation, which theoretically could affect navigation, satellites, and GPS. But there's no need to panic. According to Sergey Bogachev, head of the solar astronomy laboratory at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, this will not significantly impact GPS: necessary adjustments can be made to such systems.
Earlier, it was reported that Austrian and Swiss scientists recorded the slowest Earth rotation speed in geological history. According to the published study, one of the factors is related to climate change: due to warming, ice caps are melting faster, and this affects the planet's rotation.
Scientists noted that changes in day length could affect the accuracy of spacecraft navigation in the Solar System, as well as GPS navigation. However, the solar astronomy laboratory of the IKI RAN clarified that there is no need to worry.
As for GPS, a person moves hundreds of meters in space due to the Earth's rotation in one second. This means that a millisecond error creates a spatial error of several tens of centimeters. But it must be understood that the Earth's slowdown is a slow process, and, in general, such corrections are not difficult to make - they are predictable.
In other words, the planet's rotation is indeed important for accurate navigation, but modern systems are designed for such adjustments. Therefore, the Earth's slowdown itself does not mean that GPS will start making massive errors or stop working.
