DIGITAL LIFE

Extreme solar storm disrupts farmers' GPS

The beautiful auroras are not the only consequences of the strong solar storms that have been hitting Earth in recent days. According to 404 Media, farmers in the Midwest are experiencing GPS issues over the weekend at a critical time for corn planting.

The most intense solar storm in the last 20 years hit the world on Saturday (11), but since Friday the event has already been causing interruptions in GPS satellites, which is damaging the precision of the system that controls tractors in the harvest.

According to the report, the “Real-Time Kinematic” (RTK) system is used by satellites from John Deere and other brands. With the interruption, many machines are taking the wrong path in the harvest and becoming inoperative.

“All the tractors are sitting on the edges of the field right now, turned off because of the solar storm,” said Kevin Kenney, a farmer in Nebraska, in an interview with 404. “No GPS. We are right in the middle of planting corn. I bet commodity markets will soar on Monday,” he added.

The tractor brand confirmed that the problem was caused by the extreme solar storm. “Due to the way the RTK network works, base stations sent corrections that were affected by the geomagnetic storm and caused drastic changes in the field and even some drastic course changes,” the company said.

“When you go back to those fields to fertilize, spray, cultivate, harvest, etc. Over the next few months, hopefully the lines won't be where the AutoPath lines think they are. This will only affect fields planted during periods of reduced accuracy. It will likely be difficult, if not impossible, to make AutoPath work in these areas, as the inaccuracy is likely inconsistent,” he added, without giving an estimate of when the system will be completely restored.

Earth faced the most severe solar storm in the last 20 years between Friday (10) and Saturday, causing unusual northern and southern lights since then. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned that the storm could interfere with power and satellite communications systems.

This is the first “severe” or G4 geomagnetic storm warning issued by NOAA since January 2005. The scale goes up to G5, which is considered “extreme.”

The storm is caused by coronal mass ejections, which are eruptions of plasma and magnetic fields from the solar corona, the outermost layer of the Sun. This results in aurora borealis, an optical phenomenon that colors the horizon in an unusual way.

At the G4 level, more specifically, there is also a threat of widespread problems with voltage control and grid impacts that could affect some protection systems. Additionally, satellite and low-frequency navigation systems such as GPS may be disrupted, and spacecraft operations may also experience issues with charging and surface tracking.

mundophone