THE VETERANS DAY STORM IS OVER: After two full days of widespread auroras, the Veterans Day geomagnetic storm is over. The storm began on Nov. 11th when a pair of closely-spaced CMEs hit Earth, then continued on Nov. 12th with the arrival of a third CME. Peak levels registered severe (G4) with many hours of strong (G3) as well. Did you miss the show? Next time get a wake-up call from Spaceweather.com.
ANOTHER MAJOR SOLAR FLARE: Sunspot 4274 erupted again today (Nov. 14 @ 0830 UTC), producing an X4-class solar flare. Extreme ultraviolet radiation from the flare caused a shortwave radio blackout over the Indian Ocean. More importantly, the explosion hurled a CME into space:
Most of this fast-moving CME will miss Earth. However, a NASA model suggests that it could deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field late on Nov. 16th. If so, the impact could spark minor to moderate (G1/G2) geomagnetic storms. That would be nothing like the severe storms of Nov. 11/12, but still a potentially nice display of auroras for high-latitude sky watchers. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
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DID THE SOLAR STORM CONFUSE THIS LAWN MOWER? In May 2024, many farmers were dumbfounded when their GPS-guided tractors suddenly went off course. "Our tractors acted like they were demon possessed," reported one observer. The problem was caused by a severe geomagnetic storm.
It might have just happened again--to a lawn mower:
"I have a Lymow One Robotic Lawn Mower," says Carl LeFebvre of Dunedin, Florida. "It uses GPS/RTK to stay on track and is usually accurate down to a centimeter or two. On Nov. 11, 2025, the mower kept wandering off into the garden beds and chewing on flowers instead of its normal diet of turf grass. It didn’t occur to me that it might have been related to the solar storms, until I read the article on Spaceweather.com."
Solar activity poses a growing problem for GPS-guided machines. During big solar storms, the ionosphere fills with bubbles, waves, and turbulence, which distort radio signals from GPS satellites. Severely garbled signals can stop harvestors in their tracks or send lawn mowers into the flower bed.
Readers, if your GPS-guided equipment went off course on Nov. 11-12, let us know.
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LEONARD NIMOY'S MR. SPOCK COFFEE CUP: It's the logical way to wake up in the morning: Coffee in a Mr. Spock Cup. It has pointy ears, holds 20 oz. of brew, and comes from the edge of space. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew the cup to the stratosphere on Aug. 25th onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $99.95. The students are selling Spock cups to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with greeting card showing the heavy-duty ceramic cup in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again. Fascinating!
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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