The issue is that modern tractors are highly dependent on GPS, which is provided by sensitive satellites in our planet's orbit. One extreme solar storm in May, they say, threw off equipment when planting season was already in full swing.
During particularly violent solar storms, charged particles fill the Earth's ionosphere, the part of the Earth's upper atmosphere that creates a protective barrier between us and electrically charged particles from the Sun.
I would guess 80 percent or more of all farmers in the Midwest use at least basic GPS for something - whether it's auto-steer or yield mapping.
All my cousins called me during the May 10th storm to tell me that 'my auroras' were driving them crazy while they were planting.
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