This week, from Minnesota to Florida, the Aurora Borelias, or the northern lights have been observed.
Space weather forecasters at NOAA are expecting a strong magnetic field from the sun through 4 pm eastern on Wednesday, while also anticipating an extension of those alerts as a third flare approaches Earth and its strength and path can be confirmed. These current geomagnetic storms are categorized as G4, or severe, and the magnetic force has been 8x stronger than normal.
Why should farmers be aware?
Dr. Terry Griffin, precision ag economist at Kansas State University, says these severe events can interrupt high frequency radio waves, communications for the airline industry, and for agriculture–GPS, including RTK.
He says this week’s storm has interrupted field activities such as strip-till, fertilizer application, and more. While it’s presumed (because USDA hasn’t published harvest data due to the shut down), most of regular harvest activities are wrapped up, but some key research fields or test plots may not be.
“My concern as a data person is not being able to log yield data to make the maps we use for on-farm experimentation in particular,” he says. “We put in this effort through the growing season, and a day comes to harvest that field, well if GPS isn’t working, we can still harvest but we’re not able to log that data.”
As for why space weather and it’s effects on Earth activities has come into focus recently, Griffin says solar cycles are roughly 11 years, and we’re entering the 11th year of the current cycle.
“It could tame down next year,” he says.
Updates are available at SpaceWeather.gov and anyone can sign up for alerts to stay up-to-date on posted notices for space weather.
