What is Spoofing?

Satellite constellations use RF signals to transmit information to GNSS receivers. These signals contain information on the satellite ephemeris, clock bias parameters, almanac, satellite health status and other information. Receivers use these signals to compute position (and timing) information in global coordinates of longitudinal and latitudinal location. Spoofers transmit signals with higher relative power (a dominating signal strength) than the GNSS/GPS signals that are typically received by receivers. These signals contain false positioning information which results in the receiver believing false data. This used to be a complicated and expensive process that only militaries could perform, but with technological advances and the growing pervasiveness of the internet, GPS spoofing transmitters can be found easily and inexpensively by members of the civilian population.