Totally makes sense - if we don't understand what's going on, our minds immediately go to a worst case scenario. I hope you have a safe and enjoyable flight - at this point you're putting your trust in the hands of air travel regulators, and they have a pretty solid track record of safety.
There can be interruptions to radio communications and GPS, but there's multiple ways that airplanes track where they were and where they're headed. In addition to GPS, airliners have Inertial Reference Units which the aircraft can use to figure out where they are.
The big impact to humans from storms like these are the miles-long antennas (also known as power lines) that can pick up a charge from the energized particles streaming from the sun and cause damage to transformers and other equipment.
So, your flight will be fine, but worst case scenario maybe you will land at a place that won't have power.
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Why are you worried? Not saying you're wrong to be worried, but I'm interested to know what the actual concern is.
My concern comes from my own naïveté. I don’t know enough about flying to know how concerned I should be.
Hearing there’s a storm that affects navigation is an eyebrow-raiser, especially when sitting at an airport gate like I am.
Totally makes sense - if we don't understand what's going on, our minds immediately go to a worst case scenario. I hope you have a safe and enjoyable flight - at this point you're putting your trust in the hands of air travel regulators, and they have a pretty solid track record of safety.
There can be interruptions to radio communications and GPS, but there's multiple ways that airplanes track where they were and where they're headed. In addition to GPS, airliners have Inertial Reference Units which the aircraft can use to figure out where they are.
The big impact to humans from storms like these are the miles-long antennas (also known as power lines) that can pick up a charge from the energized particles streaming from the sun and cause damage to transformers and other equipment.
So, your flight will be fine, but worst case scenario maybe you will land at a place that won't have power.
In addition to the points others have made, flights that pass near the poles are often rerouted to lower latitudes.