There was supposed to be extraordinary solar flare activity this weekend. I’d guess that might be more likely. Now, the Malaysian airliner is another matter. I tend toward the theory that the plane was taken somewhere to be used later.
Solar flare interference has been noticeable for the last few days. I believe Friday should have been the last of this batch.
In the early 70s I was in AF comms and worked extensively with HF, VHF, UHF and EHF communications and radar equipment.
In that time, we experienced a SID (sudden ionospheric disturbance) that knocked out about all of our comms. It (ionospheric disturbance) cause by solar sunspot/flare activity where large volumes of the earth’s ionosphere is ionized by the radiation. It effectively is a big sponge for long haul communications, especially those that depended on the normal environment of the ionosphere to work properly. That mean that the lower frequencies were affected first and longest.
For a direct line of sight radar system, and at frequencies above L or S band, I’d say maybe some attenuation, but not complete loss. For higher band radars, C and X band, likely a much less effect.
My big question is what was lost? The actual skin returns, or did the transponder system go out?