Space Storms and Ag Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. Geomagnetic storms happening in space might be impacting the work you do on the farm.
The Service Coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center, Shawn Dahl says one storm in May of 2024 caused roughly $500,000,000 in losses for the corn industry alone …
DAHL … “It became apparent to me pretty quickly that the storm was much so impacting the farming in early May trying to plant seeds, such as my brother-in-law in North Dakota. I got contacted on the night the storms began saying, hey, what is going on? My GPS in my tractor is not working. I had to shut it off. And I got some more details and come to find out what was supposed to be accurate within less than an inch was off by over 12-feet.”
Dahl says they’re working to be able to predict these storms and get the warning broadcasted to help minimize losses caused by them …
DAHL … “I want the broadcast meteorologists to be able to get on the air and say, hey look, it’s planting season, it’s harvest season, your GPS equipment may not work properly because the National Weather Service is expecting a geomagnetic storm at the 4 to 5 level and this could impact your precision GPS equipment on your systems. That alone would be remarkable, right, because that would save fuel, that would save stress, that would save trying to troubleshoot and work a problem when maybe there wasn’t really a problem because it was something to do with space weather.”
Again, that’s Shawn Dahl of the Space Weather Prediction Center.
