[Music] hello my name is Ben Lovegrove and in this video I'm gonna try to answer the question what is the KP index and I'll discuss what risks if any it might pose to operators of UAV some say that a high K P index reading is a risks to UAV flying while others say the risks are negligible and therefore it can be safely ignored so if you're a drone pilot and you would like to gain an appreciation of what this measurement means for your planned flights then this video is for you what follows is my understanding of the KP index so if you notice any errors or omissions feel free to correct me by posting a comment below if you flown drones during a high KP index reading and noticed even the slightest difference in GPS accuracy then please post a comment to drones use GPS to calculate their position above the earth it's what makes them so easy to fly and it's the GPS tracking that enables many of the features that make UAV both useful to commercial operators and fun to fly for amateurs for example within the DJI phantom range its GPS programming that powers the failsafe home lock and ground station features that's all well and good but what are the risks of losing satellite connection one of the external forces that can reduce the satellite signal strength and cause a string of mishaps that might lead to the dreaded flyaway is a geomagnetic storm and it's this aspect of space weather that is measured using the KP index the KP index is a measurement of disturbances within the Earth's magnetic field it represents these disturbances on a scale of 0 to 9 a reading of 1 to 4 confirms calm conditions whereas 5 to 9 denotes a magnetic storm of increasing degrees of intensity the readings are displayed in three-hour intervals usually as a graph in green yellow and red the measurements of disturbances are collected by magnetometers at various locations around the globe and recorded into their respective K index the global KP index is a curation of all this data based on the average from each recording stations K index the disturbances in the field are caused by solar flares so increased solar activity poses a risk to any GPS equipment when the index is in the green area zero to three on the scale there's a good chance of strong satellite lock when it goes over three and stronger then there is a risk of disruption to satellite connectivity anything above five indicates a magnetic storm of increasing strength so the theory goes that if your drone has locked on to 12 satellites but a solar storm causes disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field you may lose the connection to one or more the accuracy of the GPS may be affected too but again some say this is too small a risk to worry about judging by the comments on forums it seems many believe it's not worth any concern however latitude of the drone flight and the type of drone itself may be significant some drone pilots report that the closer you get to the north or south pole then the lower the safety threshold on the index another reported that it never has any effect on the satellite lock when flying his DJI maverick but his phantom was susceptible so it seems from anecdotal evidence that the risks are very low but it's not an outright myth if you have experienced any variation in satellite lock during a high KP index reading then please describe it below stating the drone you flew and in which country finally if you want to see the aurora borealis or northern lights or aurora australis or Southern Lights then a high KP index reading is desirable thanks for watching if you found anything of interest in this video then please subscribe to my channel by clicking the red subscribe button and don't forget to click the bell that way you'll be notified directly of any new videos while you're there please click the thumbs up button to give it a like and post a comment to tell me what you liked or disliked about this video finally please share this video with friends and colleagues and in social media so that others may view it and comment by subscribing commenting liking and sharing these videos I'll know what I'm doing right and will continue to make videos that people want to watch