Hey all! For the final research project for my bachelor I am researching timeouts involving the Root DNS servers using RIPE atlas measurements. In my research I stumbled upon (in my opinion) a weird event that I can’t find any causes for. On the 23rd of December there was a spike (ranging from 10% - 60% depending on the server) in timeouts involving all root servers except F, G and H which don’t show any spike at all (see https://rootviz.sidnlabs.nl/public-dashboards/f81c02c68d7a4986ba1674fd7eb87b74?from=2025-12-23T00:00:00.000Z&to=2025-12-23T23:59:59.000Z&timezone=utc). My main question is if there were any problems with RIPE atlas itself around this time (causing an artifical spike)? and if not: Does anyone know what could have caused such a global spike in timeouts? Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Jesse Prins