C H A P T E R

N ° 26

The Agricultural Sector

A sector that often gets neglected when discussing space weather impact is the agricultural sector. However, this sector is, similarly to other sectors, getting increasingly more dependent on technology. More specifically, critical infrastructure is getting more dependent on advanced technologies relying on space infrastructure.

In today’s article, we will look closer at the relation between space weather and the agricultural sector. Moreover, we will explore the advanced technologies used within this sector and how these increase vulnerabilities to space weather impact. Additionally, we will explore the 2024 space weather event; the Gannon Storm, and how it affected the agricultural sector.

Today’s agricultural sector

Modern farmers and agricultural operations work very differently compared to only a few decades ago. This is due to advancements in technology such as sensors, devices, machines, and information technology. Modern-day agriculture routinely uses sophisticated technologies like robots, temperature and moisture sensors, aerial images, and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. These enable businesses to be more profitable, efficient, safer, and are more environmentally friendly.

The benefits from utilizing advanced technologies into, for example, farming, is that farmers can use the minimum quantities required to take care of their fields, targeting specific areas down to individual plants differently. The benefits are, thus, higher crop productivity, minimum water, fertilizer, and pesticide waste, reduced impact on natural ecosystem, less runoff of chemicals into rivers and groundwater, increased worker safety, among others.

Furthermore, robotic technologies enable more reliable monitoring and management of natural resources like air and water quality, and gives producers greater control over plant and animal production, processing, distribution, and storage. This creates greater efficiencies and lower prices, safer growing conditions and foods, and reduces environmental and ecological impact.

Examples of advanced technologies that has changed the agricultural sector is the following:

Precision agriculture: is an agricultural resource management strategy that collects, processes, and evaluates data, offering insights to help farmers optimize and increase soil quality and productivity. The management decisions rely on the precision of the agriculture data to improve farmland and farm produce across the following key areas: resource use efficiency, sustainability, profitability, productivity, and quality. This innovation uses big data to aid management decisions that would enable farmers to control crop yield variables like moisture level, soil condition, and microclimates in order to maximize the output.

Indoor Vertical Farming: grows farm produce through growing shelves mounted vertically and stacked above another in a closed and controlled environment. Currently, numerous start-ups are working on creating ways to have indoor vertical farming and are doing multiple combinations of approaches and technologies to grow different products. There is, however, certain similarities between them all such as a need for: 1) An adjustable LED illumination system to control plant growth and flowering rates; 2) A climate control system (temperature, humidity, air circulation) for optimal plant cultivation conditions; 3) Smart sensors/Internet of Things (IoT) to ensure good farm productivity without constant monitoring of the surrounding environment and plant condition; 4) Automation systems for plant cultivation management such as planting and harvesting systems controlled by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and potentially robots; 5) One or multiple energy sources to power illumination, climate control systems, and other equipment; and 6) Functionality and reliable software for optimization of employees’ work, manage specific farm aspects, and control a farming complex, data aggregation, interpretation, and visualization.

* Internet of Things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects—“things”—that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet. *

Livestock Farming Technology: provides farmers with data-driven insights, allowing them to streamline farm management, improve animal care, and boost productivity. These technologies enable: automated dairy installations that milk cows without the need of human intervention and uses sensors to monitor milk quality; automated cleaning systems that remove waste, enabling cleaner environments decreasing health risks; Armenta’s non-antibiotic which is a treatment using acoustic pulse technology (APT) for bovine mastitis (a cow disease); automated feeder systems providing animals with feeding mixtures tailored to their specific needs and amount; robotics using artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to increase animal welfare and farm productivity.

Laser Scarecrows: are used to keep birds from pillaging crops. In the past, traditional scarecrow was used. However, today, farmers and managers use high-tech devices with motion sensors. The light is not visible to the human-eye in sunlight but it can shoot approximately 183 meters (600 feet) across a field. This invention minimizes crop damage by approximately 70-90%.
Farm Automation: combines agricultural machinery, computer systems, electronics, chemical sensors, and data management to improve equipment operation and decision-making to reduce human input and error. This reduces labor time and provides higher yields. Farm automation uses automated harvesters, drones, autonomous tractors, seeding, and weeding.
Real-Time Kinematic (RTK Technology): uses radio signaling to transmit correct positioning information to tractors, allowing them to stay on track while moving. This increases soil health and productivity, consequently increasing output with less input.
Farm Management Software: is an integrated platform that provides real-time data and information assisting farmers with tracking daily activities. The software monitors and reports back to the farmers, enabling improved decision-making.
Water Management Technologies: are used to reduce water usage and improve crop quality. Systems such as the ‘micro drip irrigation system’ allow water to slowly drip to plant’s roots, creating the right environment for crop growth and minimizes water usage.

The innovations in agriculture technology continues to advance as internet-enabled devices become ever-present. However, these inventions do not come without risks. All of these depend on the well-functioning of space infrastructure in the form of satellites. However, this exact infrastructure is the most at risk of space weather impact.

Satellites

During space weather events, there is a chance for a rapid increase of the energy level of particles within the near-Earth space environment. This quick acceleration of particles to very high energy levels, increases the intensity level of the radiation that objects in the near-Earth space environment are exposed to. However, space weather does not only increase the energy level of electrically charged particles but, additionally, causes an income of magnetically charged particles. This combination of incoming electrically and magnetically charged particles and the increasement of energy levels of already existing particles in the environment, creates a highly complex and hazardous space radiation environment. Thus, during severe and extreme space weather events, the particles can reach energy levels and a level of complexity to such a degree, that current engineering-based mitigation measures are not always sufficient, consequently leading to impact on the functioning of satellites.

Furthermore, space weather does not only interfere with the interior and exterior of the satellites. It can, additionally, interfere with the transmission of the data from the satellite to the receivers on Earth. Satellites use a wide range of radio and microwave frequencies to send and receive data. These have to travel through the Earth’s atmosphere. However, during severe and extreme space weather events, parts of the atmosphere can turn into a very hazardous environment for radio and microwaves, and can cause complete blockage of transmissions.

Sectors such as the agricultural sector can experience these interferences through the decreased functionality of their implemented technologies and systems.

* To learn more about the relation between space weather and the satellite industry, please read: C H A P T E R N ° 7. *

The 2024 Gannon Storm

In May 2024, a space weather event later named Gannon Storm occurred. This event later showed to be a testimony to the fact that the agricultural sector is not immune to the effects of this natural hazard. The space weather event occurred at a time that is known to be the most crucial planting timeframe for American farmers. It was the time of year when planting and seeding was happening across the United States. The timing for the event is extremely important for farmers in order for their crops to be ready for later in the year. Thus, if the storm had happened in the beginning of the year, the American agricultural sector would not have experienced any significant issues.

During the 2024 event, the storm caused a Global Positioning System (GPS) outage that lasted a least four hours, and had lingering effects. Given that approximately 70% of the American farmers rely on the Global Positioning System (GPS) to guide them when planting and seeding, it was felt across the country and had significant effects.

With the use of tractors and the Global Positioning System (GPS) providing visual markers, a farmer can expect to overlap rows by approximately 10% with each pass. This means, that with a 40-foot cultivator that would give 36 feet of work. With certain types of positioning systems, such as Real Time Kinematic positioning (RTK) that helps correct common errors in the current systems within the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), farmers can minimize the overlapping to approximately 1 cm. Using modern agricultural equipment, thus, dramatically reduces the overlap of seeds and helps farm a lot more acres in less amount of time.

**Image Credit:** Christian Harris: *Aurora looking west in Utica, OH the night of the 10’th.*

Things that the space weather event, therefore, highlighted, were questions such as: ‘what would happen if the Global Positioning System (GPS) was taken away for half a day, or more?’ and, ‘how much would the farmers schedule be pushed back, and what would the consequences be of such a disruption?’.

The May 2024 space weather event was followed by weeks of rain, which exacerbated its impact, as the American farmers were already running late due to the solar storm. When comparing the situation to May during the previous year, 2023, farmers had planted approximately 60% of corn crops around the 12’th of May. This number significantly decreased to approximately 49% in 2024 by that same date. Similarly, the planting of 45% of soybean crops were finished by May 12, 2023, whereas only 35% were planted the year of the space weather event.

According to Professor Emerson Dale Nafziger at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, corn planted in mid-April produces the maximum yield possible. The harvest of corn planted in mid-May is approximately 95%, whereas it decreases to 85% by June. The May 2024 space weather event pushed the planting timeline, consequently causing a marginal acre to be pushed back to the end of the season (i.e., the least ideal planting window). According to Professor Terry Griffin from Kansas State University, the yield penalty could be approximately 20-80% of maximum harvest. The May 2024 space weather event, thus, highlighted the significant yield penalties possible to face farmers due to the agricultural sector’ dependency on space infrastructure.

The financial loss for the agricultural sector does, however, depend on multiple factors, such as; 1) when farmers were able to resume planting; 2) the type of equipment used. For example, farmers using mechanical row markers showed to have experienced no affects by the space weather event; 3) how inefficient or imprecise their machines became if they chose to plant through the Global Positioning System (GPS) disruption; and 4) how well they were able to make up ground after the delay.

Professor Terry Griffin describes the financial loss from the 2024 event to be insignificant to some farmers when looking at it per acre as it would be a loss of approximately 1-2%. However, the yield penalties for farmers delayed more significantly is argued to be more severe and significant at a national level. Professor Terry Griffin estimated that affected farms would lose approximately 1 USD per acre, which nationally would equate to a lost earning potential of 500 million USD. This is without considering cascading and downstream effects.

The total effects of the May 2024 space weather event on the American agricultural sector could not be estimated with certainty in 2024. During the space weather event, the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) dependent machines used by farmers did not collect accurate data due to the outage. Additionally, guess rows were skewed, which could have had an effect on the efficiency and data-collection capabilities of machines during spraying and harvesting activities. Data could, thus, be missing.

Furthermore, the data collected through space infrastructure services is not only important to farmers. Seed representatives, retailers, and universities are, likewise, dependent on the field data to support their own programmes and businesses. Without knowing what actually went into the field, the on-farm experiments are inadequate, consequently affecting the farmer’s ability to compare hybrids and varieties. This would have a significant ripple effect after 2024, as agricultural studies rely on multiple years of research and investigations. The real impact from the May 2024 space weather event will, thus, potential first be known in the upcoming years.

**Image Credit:** Tiffany Graham: *A tractor on the O'Connor Family Farm in Blooming Prairie under the northern lights.*

The agricultural sector is, similar to other critical sectors and industries, not immune to space weather impact. With the continuing development and implementation of advanced technologies increasing the dependency on satellites, the risks and vulnerabilities associated with space weather impact on the agricultural sector increases. To ensure minimum effects it, therefore, demands a focus and increased awareness within this sector of the relation between space weather and the agricultural sector. Space weather should, thus, be considered in the research and development, and implementation process of new advanced technologies in the agricultural sector in order to minimize potential effects from space weather.

Source

ESA (2024): “The May 2024 solar storm: your questions answered”. https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_weather/The_May_2024_solar_storm_your_questions_answered.

NASA; Young, Lacey (2024): ”Continuing Strong Solar Flares: May 15-16, 2024”. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14593/.

NASA; Johnson-Groh, Mara (2024): ”How NASA Tracked in the Most Intense Solar Storm in Decades”. https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/how-nasa-tracked-the-most-intense-solar-storm-in-decades/.

Werner, Debra (2004): “What the biggest solar storm in decades revealed about space system resilience”. https://spacenews.com/what-the-biggest-solar-storm-in-decades-revealed-about-space-system-resilience/.

Tood, Iain (2024): “That sunspot that caused the 10 May aurora display? It’s back, firing off strong solar flares and is not alone”. https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/solar-flare-ar-3697-geomagnetic-storm.

Science That Matters; The Physics arXib Blog (2024): “Satellite Collision Prediction Lost During Recent Solar Storm”.https://www.discovermagazine.com/technology/satellite-collision-prediction-lost-during-recent-solar-storm.

LiveScience; Baker, Harry (2024): “Recent auroras may have been the strongest in 500 years, NASA says”. https://www.livescience.com/space/the-sun/well-be-studying-this-event-for-years-recent-auroras-may-have-been-the-strongest-in-500-years-nasa-says.

Terry Griffin et al. (2025): ”Impact of the Gannon Storm on Corn Production Across the Midwestern USA”. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14976490

SmartTek (2024): ”Vertical Farming Technology: Everything You Need to Know”. https://smarttek.solutions/blog/vertical-farming/