By Chad Lewis
Channel manager for Latin America & Caribbean, Geospatial
Trimble
This year has been one to remember for those responsible for providing advanced guidance systems using GPS or GNSS. Many have found themselves at the mercy of ionospheric incidents, or solar storms that impact receiver signals.These impacts can literally shut down operations for hours at a time, as machines guided by GPS suffer signal degradation affecting accuracy.
Unfortunately, this phenomena is projected to continue until 2028, with 2025 being the peak of such activity. This phenomenon is often referred to as “solar flares,” “sun spots” or “scintillation.”
With solar flare activity and scintillation events on an active upswing during Solar Cycle 25, there’s too much at stake to allow these powerful bursts to impact critical positioning data. For the sake of this blog, we’ll use the term scintillation, as that’s how it’s referred to in South America, where our partner Geocom is located.
Scintillation events have been steadily increasing since 2022. The effects had previously been unsolved in Latin America — particularly in Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, where mining applications and machines driven by GNSS technology suffered during periods of high solar activity. It wasn’t uncommon for mining operations to scale back operations as they waited for solar activity to pass, which could take six hours or more, bringing production to a halt.
Longtime Trimble partner Geocom based in Santiago, Chile, and their research and
development team led by Gabriel Ibarra, has been at the forefront of the ongoing scintillation battle. His team is responsible for all internal product testing ensuring their customers receive a "turn key" solution that has been tested under real world mining conditions. Their feedback from the field was critical to Trimble's success in delivering a product that simply works.
For Geocom, the implementation of Trimble® IonoGuard™ technology has broken the proverbial “DaVinci Code,” providing their customers with mining solutions that work 24x7 — even during times of high scintillation.
The following brief Q&A with Geocom’s Gabriel Ibarra outlines how Trimble IonoGuard has performed for Geocom customers.
Q: What does Geocom offer to our customers in Chile?
A: Trimble's highly accurate, reliable and robust GNSS equipment achieves high availability for our customers, particularly in conjunction with the service and incident response capabilities that Geocom delivers. Great equipment requires a high-level service partnership in order for us to ensure optimum performance.
Q: Prior to the release of Trimble IonoGuard, what sort of problems were created by scintillation interference, and what kind of an effect or complication did it create for you and your customers?
A: Our engineering team has been dealing with the effects of scintillation cycles for many years.
One of our GNSS application engineers Esteban Lopez first experienced the effects of
scintillation back in 1999 when the first automation systems used by “rotopalas” (giant earth moving machines) had failed due to scintillation. During that period, Esteban spent nights with key mining personnel trying to mitigate the situation. “At that time, we didn’t have the open communication lines with manufacturers such as Trimble and their engineering resources like we do today. Despite attempts to combat the effects of scintillation back then, we saw no substantial improvements. As a result, dozens of receivers were affected and many hours of productivity were lost.
Q: Once Trimble IonoGuard was implemented, what problems or issues did it solve or prevent?
A: Once IonoGuard was implemented, the receivers started working again without fail — as if the scintillation had disappeared. For example, in the NASAP navigation system, developed by Geocom for drilling rigs, continuous operation was restored, with the required accuracy. Drilling rigs operate both day and night, so the previous stoppage had generated delays in the work plan. Trimble IonoGuard technology kept machines running continuously, but we still needed a few options programmed into the R750 GNSS receiver firmware to provide the solution our customer was looking for with 100% satisfaction. Once these final additions to the firmware were implemented by Trimble engineering, the rigs were operational with the ability to prepare the benches (tiers or steps found in mining) for blasting and loading, and the transport processes that followed were completed on schedule. The issue was solved!
Q: What quantifiable benefits have resulted from Trimble’s IonoGuard technology?
A: In the case of NASAP drilling systems, navigation was restored on the night shift, thereby restoring the production level of material to be drilled for mine production — while making it safer. It was common during times of scintillation to make manual markings for the drilling rigs but this results in a shortage of topography personnel required for other more important tasks they perform in the mine. At the same time, it exposes them to walking in high risk areas. Currently, mine production benches restrict the transit of personnel on foot due to the high risk of rockslides and falling debris from upper slopes.
In addition, by recovering positioning for precise drilling with safety in mind, Trimble IonoGuard facilitated an improvement in the homogeneity of the blasting. This has an impact on the recovery of the cost overrun in loading and crushing that generates irregular blasting. Transportation is the most important cost for the mining operation, so this improvement is key to business performance.
Check back for more reflections of Trimble IonoGuard as Solar Cycle 25 continues, and learn more here.
Ibarra didn’t hesitate calling attention to the value not only of Trimble IonoGuard, but also the responsiveness of Trimble engineers in maximizing its performance, sending this note to Trimble President and CEO, Rob Painter.
