On May 11, a gorgeous aurora surprised stargazers across the southern United States. That same weekend, a tractor guided by GPS missed its mark.
On May 11, a gorgeous aurora surprised stargazers across the southern United States. That same weekend, a tractor guided by GPS missed its mark.
What do the visibility of the northern lights have in common with compromised farming equipment in the Midwest?
A uniquely powerful geomagnetic storm, according to two newly published papers co-authored by Virginia Tech's Scott England.
“The northern lights are caused by energetic, charged particles hitting our upper atmosphere, which are impacted by numerous factors in space, including the sun,” said England, associate professor in the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering. “During solar geomagnetic storms, there’s a lot more of these energetic charged particles in the space around Earth, so we see a brightening of the northern lights and the region over which you can see them spreads out to include places like the lower 48 states that usually don’t see this display.”
Read More: Virginia Tech
Photo Credit: via Pixabay
