Airbus planes grounded: expert explains space interference

Thousands of Airbus planes were temporarily grounded due to a warning that solar radiation could interfere with onboard flight control computers.
 

Professor Mathew Owens, Professor of Space Physics at the University of Reading, explains the impact space interference may have had on the A320 Airbus planes.  

"Particles from space, mostly from the Sun, can occasionally strike an airplane’s electronics. Because aircraft fly where the atmosphere is thinner, more of these high-energy particles are able to reach them. When one passes through a microchip, it can flip a tiny “bit,” the smallest unit of digital information in the microchip, stored as a 0 or a 1. This creates a glitch known as a single-event upset, which can make an electronic system behave in unexpected ways.

"However, we still do not know whether this had anything to do with the situation Airbus is looking into, or what sequence of events they are investigating. As more information emerges, we will get a clearer picture of what actually happened."

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