Damage report after huge solar storms batter Earth

Our raging, glorious sun hurled a number of almighty flares in our direction over the weekend, resulting in solar storms battering the atmosphere of our precious planet. That led to a stunning light show in the heavens as the aurora borealis was visible far further south than is normal. But it also had those responsible for key infrastructure worried as a severe geomagnetic storm poses risks to electric power grids, communications equipment and satellites, among other areas.

Generally speaking it appears the huge solar storms have had no significant impact beyond delighting watchers of the colorful show in the heavens. But there have been some instances including farming GPS systems being broken during an important part of the season.

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Potential for damage from solar storms

High-voltage transmission lines used in power grids can be knocked out by geomagnetic storms, as happened in Sweden in 2003. But that’s not happened this time around. The U.S. Department of Energy confirmed that the storms had had no impact on infrastructure that affected customers.

Satellites are at risk of disruption from solar storms. Although above the earth’s atmosphere, they are usually protected by the earth’s magnetic field, but during a solar storm that protection can be greatly diminished. SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet system, which has over 4,000 satellites, said its service had been degraded by the solar storm. CEO Elon Musk said the satellites were “under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far.”

Farming GPS knocked out by solar storms

So to that aforementioned incident where the aurora borealis disrupted critical GPS and precision farming systems in tractors and agricultural equipment. Clearly this has come during a crucial period of the planting season, leading many farmers to halt their operations. Farmers were warned that compromised accuracy in systems could affect planting and potentially cause issues during harvest.

The outage underscores the vulnerability of modern tractors to satellite disruptions, impacting systems like Real-Time Kinematic used for precise agricultural tasks, with farmers in Kansas and Nebraska particularly affected. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also confirmed the severity of the geomagnetic storm, as it jeopardised planting schedules, crucial for maximising yields, particularly for organic farms reliant on precision farming. It just shows how susceptible our modern food supplies to GPS and other technical issues, something an interesting paper from 20 years ago looked into.

Radio blackouts from geomagnetic storms

While there were no major infrastructure impacts, the solar storms caused high-frequency radio blackouts in some affected regions around the world, such as Australia, Japan and China.

Constant monitoring of the solar conditions

These solar storms caused by solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are typical of the increased solar activity as the sun approaches what is known as solar maximum, a period of peak solar activity in the sun’s approximately 11-year cycle.

Monitoring and forecasting agencies such as NOAA and the European ESA actively track these developments, providing timely updates and warnings to help mitigate potential impacts on technological systems and infrastructure.