Watch out for sun transit glitches, Northwestel advises

The bi-annual sun transit disruptions to satellite-dependent internet, long distance, cell phone, radio and television services in the eastern Arctic will end after March 7, Northwestel said in an advisory issued March 4.

The phenomenon occurs when the sun aligns directly behind a satellite for a few minutes each day, in early spring and early fall.

When that happens, the sun’s natural radio frequencies overwhelm the satellite signal, knocking out all communications for a few minutes.

Northwestel said this year’s sun transit disruptions are to occur between Feb. 22 and March 7.

Nunavut customers, depending on where they live, will notice the brief outages some time between 2:22 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. eastern time, every afternoon until March 7.

The phenomenon will occur again in early October.