"Please be advised that there is significant solar flare and space weather activity, it read. The company, a maker of tractors and ball caps, isn't the first entity you'd turn to for advice about the sun. But the star's storms were messing with the GPS systems on John Deere's precision agricultural equipment, which uses geographic guidance to help farmers precisely plant, spray and harvest crops."
"We tend to think of the sun in terms of its regular daily activities (rising, setting). But solar activity causes eruptions from the sun's surface that release energy and charged particles into space. Those eruptions have a profound effect on terrestrial life. Solar storms produce space weather that can irradiate astronauts and people in planes, disrupt satellites' electronics and drag their orbits down and even affect the electrical grid and cell phone coverage."
On May 10, 2024, a John Deere dealer sent a press release warning of significant solar flare and space weather activity that affected GPS on precision agricultural equipment. Solar eruptions release energy and charged particles that travel into space and can irradiate astronauts, disrupt satellites, alter satellite orbits, and affect electrical grids and cell-phone coverage. Farmers rely on geographic guidance to plant, spray and harvest crops precisely, so GPS disruptions can misalign operations. Heliophysicists attempt to model solar behavior to forecast activity. A relatively new terminator model of solar cycles could improve forecasting, though understanding remains imperfect.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]