Darren Orf
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This year featured some of the strongest solar storms on record, especially the G5 storm that rocked the planet back on May 10, 2024.
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Although society kept ticking (and satellites kept working), farms reliant on GPS technology experienced disruptions that turned their John Deere smart tractors into “demon possessed” machines, according to one farmer.
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NASA says the Sun has finally reached its solar maximum—a natural stage of our star’s 11-year cycle—so future disruptions in the next year could be possible.
On May 10, 2024, one of the most massive solar storms in decades (and the strongest aurora display in centuries) crashed into Earth, making the northern lights not so northern—for a few nights, at least. “We’ll be studying this event for years,” NASA’s Acting Director of the Space Weather Analysis Office, Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla, said after the event. “It will help us test the limits of our models and understanding of solar storms.”
Now, details are still emerging about how the solar storm impacted the everyday goings-on here on Earth. One strange side effect, as reported by Spaceweather.com, is how this intense geomagnetic storm impacted farms knee-deep in May planting season. Because of this busy time of year, many farmers worked into the night with GPS-guided tractors doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
But then, things got weird.
“Our tractors acted like they were demon possessed,” Elaine Ramstad, an aurora chaser who’s family works a farm in northern Minnesota, told Spaceweather.com. “All my cousins called me during the May 10 storm to tell me that ‘my auroras’ were driving them crazy while they were planting.”
Ethan Schmidt, a service manager for John Deere, also told Spaceweather.com that more than 80 percent of farms use some basic form of GPS—these “smart” tractors can plant in perfect rows, apply just the right amount of fertilizer, and then harvest those crops later on. However, on the night of May 10, things went haywire as the Sun’s rays impacted the Earth’s ionosphere.
On a good day, the ionosphere is a GPS obstacle because charged ions (hence the name) can interfere with GPS measurements. But during a once in a lifetime solar storm, that challenge can become insurmountable. Photos of crops planted on May 10 show crooked rows, as the tractor struggled to get a GPS lock.
Solar storms struck again in October, and one farmer reported that his John Deere’s Autosteer feature “jumped the line,” meaning it would make quick movements left or right. Eventually, the tractor would have to be reset.
“As the aurora activity began, my GPS was off by close to a foot. Twice while on Autosteer, the tractor danced a row to the left, to the right,” Randstad told Spaceweather.com, “and then the defoliator was off a row, so I had to loop around and start over. By nightfall, there was no controlling the Autosteer.”
And 2024 likely isn’t the end of these solar disturbances. In October, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the international Solar Cycle Prediction Panel announced that the Sun had officially reached its solar maximum—a natural stage of our star’s 11-year cycle, when solar activity is at its highest. Tracked since the 1600s, every solar maximum is different, but NASA estimates that we’ll remain in this maximum stage for at least a year.
Hopefully, by planting time next season, farmers will have plan B for when their machines become a bit Sun-addled.
