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Modern tractors rely on precise GPS coordinates to navigate fields. But with charged particles distorting radio signals from GPS satellites, some of them started acting erratically, stopping abruptly or weaving back and forth. "I would guess 80 percent or more of all farmers in the Midwest use at least basic GPS for something — whether it's auto-steer or yield mapping," John Deere service manager Ethan Smidt told SpaceWeather. "At least 50 percent of all farmers are VERY reliant on GPS and use it on every machine all year long." During particularly violent solar storms, charged particles fill the Earth's ionosphere,...

Severe space weather events, recorded in tree rings, could disrupt modern communications and pose serious risks to astronauts and satellites. A West Virginia University researcher is studying how reliable trees are in capturing radiocarbon from such events to help prepare for future disruptions. Tree rings reveal ancient solar storms, helping scientists predict and prepare for future events that could disrupt satellites and technology. A West Virginia University researcher suggests that severe space weather can leave traces in tree rings, offering valuable evidence that may help us prepare for future catastrophic events that could endanger communication satellites and astronauts. Amy Hessl,...

STEVE (short for "strong thermal velocity enhancement") is a long, thin line of hot gas that slices through the sky for hundreds of miles. The hot air inside STEVE can blaze at more than 5,500 degrees Fahrenheit (3,000 degrees Celsius) and move roughly 500 times faster than the air on each side of it, satellite observations have shown. Whereas the northern lights occur when charged solar particles bash into molecules in Earth's upper atmosphere, STEVE appears much lower in the sky, in a region called the subauroral zone. That likely means solar particles aren't directly responsible for STEVE, Live Science...

The Sun is continuing its rowdy behavior, with flares and coronal mass ejections almost every day since mid-January. That means the inevitable has happened: some of those eruptions have blasted in the general direction of Earth, which means we're in for some solar storms. The Space Weather Prediction Center of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the British Met Office have both issued advisories for mild and moderate geomagnetic storms over the next couple of days. That doesn't mean we have anything to worry about; in fact, we've already been hit by mild and moderate geomagnetic storms...

Solar storms, also known as coronal mass ejections, are known to damage electrical grids and cause blackouts; however, experts believe they could also negatively affect internet infrastructure, resulting in a global internet outage. Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi of the University of California, Irvine revealed this last week at the SIGCOMM 2021 data communication conference. In her research, she revealed that, while local and regional internet infrastructure would be at low risk of damage during extreme solar storms because they mostly use fibre optic cables that are not affected by geomagnetically induced currents. Even short cable runs that are vulnerable to these...

The solar cycle of the Sun's magnetic field lasts for around 11 years. We are currently at the beginning of Cycle 25, the 25th cycle since humans started recording them. The solar minimum is the part of the cycle that has the least amount of activity, while the solar maximum – which is due for July 2025 – is the most active, causing the Sun's magnetic poles to flip, sunspots, and solar eruptions of particles. The new study, reported in the journal Solar Physics, has found that solar storms will either occur before the maximum or after the maximum depending...

We’re approaching another minimum in the 11-year sunspot cycle, predicted for the years 2019 and 2020, and so the number of visible spots on the sun has been low. But there’s a nice, big, visible spot on the sun now, plus an Earth-facing coronal hole seen by spacecraft. Because this hole in the sun’s atmosphere faces Earth – and because it releases a high-speed solar wind – experts say there’s a 60% chance this weekend of minor G1-class geomagnetic storms, which could causes auroras. The coming full moon, of course, might interfere or might give you an opportunity for some...

In the late summer of 1859, an extreme geomagnetic storm bombarded the planet, igniting the ghostly, emerald lights of the aurora across skies as far south as Cuba. These powerful solar eruptions of magnetized plasma hitting the Earth caused telegraph wires to spark, disabled communications and set fire to several telegraph offices, according to NASA In the modern world, the threat of space weather is far greater as storms like the Carrington Event of 1859 pose a risk to interconnected power grids, airline operations, satellites and communications networks across the globe. "The overall goal is to ensure that the nation...

Severe space weather could be as devastating to the planet as serious tornadoes and other natural disasters, NASA chief Charles Bolden said in a public address Tuesday (June 4). Bolden spoke before scientists and industry members at the Space Weather Enterprise Forum, which was held at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Auditorium and Science Center in Silver Spring, Md.

This Week's Super Active Sun Could Disrupt Cell Phone, Radio, And GPS Communications Samantha-Rae Tuthill, AccuWeather.comMay 18, 2013, 2:40 PM Solar Flares NASA This week has seen the most active solar flares in this sun cycle, which began in 2008 and will last until 2019. Four high-strength flares occurred May 13 into May 14. "Basically, this is as busy as the Sun has been in a 24-36 hour period since 2004," said AccuWeather.com Astronomer Mark Paquette. Paquette used information researched by Daniel Vogler, co-director of the AccuWeather Astronomy Facebook page. Using data dating back to 1992, Paquette found only one...

This has already been a summer of record heat in the continental United States. But our sun is not content with just breaking records in the first week of July. It has also been an intense period of solar flares - massive, violent outbursts from the sun that can wreck havoc here on Earth. And it shows no signs of stopping. Even on the surface of the sun, things are heating up. Last week saw several huge solar flares, the biggest of which occurred on Friday, July 6. Labeled an X1.1 class solar flare - the strongest classification used by...

A massive explosion on the sun's surface has triggered the largest solar radiation storm since 2005, hurling charged particles at Earth. (NASA / May 4, 2012) A stream of highly charged particles from the sun is headed straight toward Earth, threatening to plunge cities around the world into darkness and bring the global economy screeching to a halt. This isn't the premise of the latest doomsday thriller. Massive solar storms have happened before — and another one is likely to occur soon, according to Mike Hapgood, a space weather scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, England. Much of...

Prompted by a recent increase in solar activity, more than a hundred researchers and government officials are converging on Helwan, Egypt, to discuss a matter of global importance: storms from the sun. The “First Workshop of the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI)” meets Nov. 6th through 10th and is convened by the United Nations, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). "Strong solar storms can knock out power, disable satellites, and scramble GPS," says meeting organizer and ISWI executive director Joe Davila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "This meeting will help us...

Guest post by mama4x who blogs at Farming Salt & Light. Set aside all the 2012 and Mayan calendar hysteria and consider this. According to NASA, 2012 will usher in a period of massive solar activity. It's possible these coming solar storms will produce the same effects as an EMP caused by a nuclear blast. I type this post on my laptop in an air-conditioned room. I hear the hum of the refrigerator and the low drone of the TV in the other room. As night falls, I'll turn on the lamp and later, I'll take a shower, water pulled...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere are unexpectedly shrinking and cooling due to lower ultraviolet radiation from the sun, US scientists said Thursday. The sun's energy output dropped to unusually low levels from 2007 to 2009, a significantly long spell with virtually no sunspots or solar storms, according to scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. During that period, the thermosphere, whose altitude ranges from about 55 to 300 miles (90 to 500 kilometers), shrank and contracted from the sharp drop in ultraviolet radiation, said the study published in the American Geophysical Union's...

NASA has just voiced its concern over the threat that our modern technological society is now facing from "solar storms." Now it's true of course, that our society has become quite dependent on new technology, such as satellite communications and GPS mapping, that is vulnerable to the effects of major solar storms, but NASA seems to be a bit too worried about how big the threat really is. Fortunately for us, legitimate climate scientists believe the next solar "maximum," which is due in four to five years, is not expected to be anything unusual. In any event, while major solar...

February 26, 2010 — 2:53 PM A massive solar storm could leave millions of people around the world without electricity, running water, or phone service, government officials say. That was their conclusion after participating in a tabletop exercise that looked at what might happen today if the Earth were struck by a solar storm as intense as the huge storms that occurred in 1921 and 1859. Solar storms happen when an eruption or explosion on the surface of the sun sends radiation or electrically charged particles toward Earth. Minor storms are common and can light up the Earth's Northern skies...

Enlarge ImageSnap! Magnetic twisting and tightening beneath the sun's surface can launch a giant solar flare.Credit: NOAA Scientists have detected a consistent pattern in the sun's magnetic behavior that precedes solar flares. If the pattern can be unraveled completely, it could give hours or even days of warning to telecommunications companies, electric power grids, and satellite operators to prepare for these dangerous storms. Solar flares threaten all of the artificial objects orbiting our planet, including GPS and telecommunications satellites, occupied spacecraft and the International Space Station. Every so often the sun emits a gigantic burst that includes highly energized...

Enlarge ImageCloud killer? Research suggests that solar storms interfere with cloud formation on Earth. Credit: ESA/NASA Most of Earth's clouds get their start in deep space. That's the surprising conclusion from a team of researchers who argue that interstellar cosmic rays collide with water molecules in our atmosphere to form overcast skies. As common as clouds are on Earth, the processes that produce them are not well understood. Scientists think particles of dust or pollen can serve as nuclei for water droplets, which in turn gather by the trillions into clouds. That would help explain how clouds form over...

NOAA released its prediction for sunspot cycle 24 this past Friday, May 8 - - normally a droll affair, attended by few and hardly worthy of politics. No more. Like eveything else coming out of Washington, D.C., this NOAA report has a "spin" attached, in the form of a sensationalized tale of solar-storm damage. Well, NOAA is a Federal government agency, and the Federal government these days operates on the basis of crisis!!!, be it real, imagined, or manufactured.