Historic geomagnetic storm that led to spectacular Northern Lights displays around the world starts to wane
A historic geomagnetic storm that blasted Earth and gave millions of people the opportunity to witness a dazzling display of the Northern Lights as far south as Florida and Texas in the southern U.S. has finally started to wane.
The sky around the world was filled with brilliant colors of green, pink, purple and red from the Northern Lights on Friday and Saturday after a massive sunspot the width of 17 Earths spewed solar flares, leading to the geomagnetic storm activity reaching Level 5 "extreme" conditions.
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As the weekend continued, conditions dropped to Level 3 and Level 4 but reenergized and returned to Level 5 conditions on Saturday, prompting NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) to issue a Geomagnetic Storm Watch and eventually a Geomagnetic Storm Warning.
That warning expired early Monday morning as the effects of the geomagnetic storm started to pass and Level 4 "severe" conditions were no longer expected.
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While the Northern Lights were no doubt breathtaking to see, the geomagnetic storm did cause some issues.
The SWPC reported that there were reports of power grid irregularities and degradations to high-frequency communications and GPS.
The storm has also been a nightmare for farmers who rely on GPS for their work.
John Deere customers were warned that its GPS network was "extremely compromised" due to the geomagnetic storm.
"Please be advised that there is significant solar flare and space weather activity currently affecting GPS and RTK networks," LandMark Implement said on X, formerly Twitter.
The company said the network was sending out corrections affected by the geomagnetic storm and "were causing drastic shifts in the field and even some heading changes that were drastic."
That means there could be issues when it comes time to harvest crops.
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"When you head back into these fields to side dress, spray, cultivate, harvest, etc. over the next several months, we expect that the rows won't be where the AutoPath lines think they are," the company said. "This will only affect the fields that are planted during times of reduced accuracy."
In addition, SpaceX’s Starlink service warned on its website Saturday morning that it had experienced "degraded service," though other details weren’t provided.
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SpaceX head Elon Musk said on X, formerly Twitter, that the Starlink satellites were "under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far."
And SWPC officials said those who manage vulnerable equipment were briefed on the heightened solar activity.
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SWPC Coordinator Shawn Sahl said Friday that operators they coordinate with, like satellite and power grid operators, were notified of the magnitude of the geomagnetic storm so that they could take mitigation efforts throughout the event.
This weekend's Level 5 geomagnetic storm was the first to hit Earth since October 2003. That storm knocked out power in Sweden and damaged electrical transformers in South Africa.
Original article source: Historic geomagnetic storm that led to spectacular Northern Lights displays around the world starts to wane
