What happened

As you know, space weather can affect our technologies (radio, power grids, satellites). One of the unpleasant effects of solar flares is the interference it causes to GPS and communications systems. This time, farmers felt this situation the most this weekend.

Increased solar activity in the last few days caused malfunctions in the GPS navigation systems that control some modern tractors John Deere and other brands. Technology has allowed farmers to more efficiently plant crops in super-dense, straight lines, but they have been advised to temporarily halt this due to possible inaccuracies during harvest that could cause damage.

John Deere tractors are connected to real-time kinematics (RTK) systems, which allow you to plant crops very accurately with an error of no more than one centimeter. Some John Deere dealership owners say that if farmers continue to plant without the customary precision, “the rows won’t be where the AutoPath system sees them” when it comes time to care for and harvest crops.

The worst part is that this happened right now, during the planting season of corn, one of the most important crops in the United States.

All the tractors are standing at the edge of the field, having been shut down due to the solar storm.
– said a farmer from Nebraska, Kevin Kenny.

While he and many other farms have had to suspend planting, others are continuing and hoping for the best.

What is known about recent magnetic storms

The geomagnetic storm we experienced last weekend was the strongest in the last 20 years and reached the G5 limit on Friday and Saturday morning. It later decreased slightly to G4/G3 levels, but is expected to intensify again later as several more X-class explosions occur simultaneously on the Sun, with intense coronal mass ejections (CMEs) reaching Earth in the coming days.