Something is jamming GPS over Europe. Here's what we found

Something is disrupting GPS signals across Europe. Sponsored by Ground News. Go to https://ground.news/Ve for 40% off the unlimited Vantage plan. If you’re looking for a molecular modelling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV Sign up for the Veritasium newsletter for weekly science updates - https://ve42.co/Newsletter ▀▀▀ 0:00 What is jamming Europe’s GPS? 4:43 How does GPS work? 10:46 How easy is it to jam GPS? 12:18 The Hunt To Find The Jammer 17:12 Who are the possible culprits? 20:06 The Investigation Goes Public 23:00 Narrowing In On The Jammer 25:15 Cosmos 2546 28:25 A Secret Messaging Service? 29:19 What happens if we lose GPS? ▀▀▀ Special thanks to the experts and collaborators who made this video possible: Professor Todd Humphreys and Dr Zach Clements at the University of Texas at Austin, whose research this story is based on - thank you for sharing your data, your time, and the inside story of the hunt. Ramsey Faragher, Director of the Royal Institute of Navigation, for the brilliant interview, feedback and stories that helped to shape this video. Richard D. Easton, for helping us understand the history of GPS. Dana Goward, President of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, for providing context on interference and alternative systems. Richard Bowden and Luis Enrique Aguado from GMV for sharing their independent work tracing the source of the interference. Ben Watts, for sharing his first-hand experience of GPS jamming and spoofing from the cockpit. KeepTrack (https://keeptrack.space/) for generously giving us access to their satellite-tracking software, which we used to visualise the search through 15,000 satellites for the culprit. And to GPSWise (https://gpswise.aero/) for kindly providing their software which we used to visualise GPS jamming and spoofing. Bartosz Ciechanowski, whose interactive GPS explainer (https://ciechanow.ski/gps/) was a great resource for research and the basis for one of our technical animations. Thank you for allowing us to build on your work. ▀▀▀ References: Clements, Z. L., Kriezis, A., & Humphreys, T. E. (2026). Chasing Lightning: Detecting, Characterizing, and Identifying a Powerful Space-Based GNSS Interference - https://ve42.co/GNSSInterference The rest here: https://ve42.co/GPSJammingRefs ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our Patreon supporters: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alex Porter, Alexander Tamas, André Powell, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Blake Byers, Bruce, Bryan Ackermann, Chris Brewer, Data Don, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, David Tseng, EJ Alexandra, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, Hayden Christensen, Hong Thai Le, Ibby Hadeed, Jeromy Johnson, Jesse Brandsoy, Juan Benet, Kelcey Steele, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Mark Heising, Martin Paull, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Krugman, Moebiusol - Cristian, Orlando Bassotto, Parsee Health, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Robson, Sam Lutfi, Shalva Bukia, Sinan Taifour, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, Vahe Andonians, wolfee ▀▀▀ Writer, Producer & Director: Emilia Gyles Presenters: Derek Muller & Gregor Čavlović Editor: Peter Nelson Asst. Editor & Sound Designer: James Stuart Animators: Domonkos Józsa, Emma Wright, Alex Drakoulis & Andrew Neet Illustrators: Jakub Misiek & Maria Gusakovich Stop Motion: Sulli Yost Researchers: Aakash Singh Bagga, Sophia Rose & Callum Cuttle Thumbnail Designers: Abdallah Rabah, Ren Hurley, Ben Powell & Daniel Ellacott Production Team: Jess Bishop-Laggett, Matthew Cavanagh & Anna Milkovic Executive Producers: Casper Mebius, Derek Muller & Gregor Čavlović Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images and Storyblocks Music from Epidemic Sound