In November 2025, Earth was shaken by several massive eruptions of solar material that slammed into the magnetosphere. For many, the result was surprising. Much of the world watched in amazement as a solar superstorm lit up Earth’s skies with dazzling auroras down to rare low latitudes. However, the sword was double-edged. The same storm also wreaked havoc on the technology we depend on here on Earth. And now, scientists led by space physicist Endawoke Yizengaw of The Aerospace Corporation in the US have discovered that the disturbance was stranger (and more widespread) than anyone thought. In a new analysis of data collected during the storm, researchers found widespread coast-to-coast disturbances in the atmosphere across the continental US, a phenomenon never before seen on this scale. It may not seem like much, but the effects of this would have been profound: drifting the GPS by more than 10 meters (33 feet) in some places. This is significant enough to disrupt precision agriculture and autonomous vehicles, researchers say. Composite image of six class X flares that erupted in November 2025, three of which accompanied the coronal mass ejections that triggered the solar superstorm. (NASA/SDO/Scott Wiessinger) “The results underscore the importance of an accurate understanding of diverse space weather events to improve our predictive capabilities through coordinated observations and physics-based modeling and ultimately reduce disruptions to RF applications during space weather events,” they write in a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters. The impact of solar flares on human technology is already well known. Solar flares, which unleash powerful bursts of X-rays and ultraviolet radiation, can impact Earth’s upper atmosphere, temporarily disrupting high-frequency radio communications. Solar storms are a major problem. A coronal mass ejection spews a cloud of high-speed charged electrons and protons across the Solar System; When it hits Earth’s magnetosphere, it can generate electrical currents that disrupt electrical grids, change the shape of our atmosphere, and interact with atmospheric particles to generate the auroral glow. The effect that Yizengaw and his colleagues investigated occurs in a similar way. During a geomagnetic storm, energetic particles can rain down into the ionosphere, a region through which GPS signals have to travel. This mixing and agitation can create density fluctuations in the upper atmosphere. Think of an old window pane, where the glass is unevenly distributed. The light traveling through that glass can distort and magnify the image it transmits, so you see a skewed representation of the outside world. Similarly, radio signals traveling through the lumpy ionosphere can become distorted and diffracted, causing their strength to fluctuate rapidly when they reach a ground-based receiver. This effect is known as amplitude scintillation. Ionospheric scintillation is not unusual, particularly towards the poles and around the equator. However, the mid-latitudes are generally considered relatively calm and safe when it comes to this particular space weather hazard. The November 2025 superstorm was named PSYCH. As the storm intensified, the auroral oval expanded toward the equator, bringing with it the atmospheric wiles usually associated with higher latitudes. A NASA mosaic of the auroral oval for 24 hours on November 12, 2025. (NASA) Yizengaw and his colleagues reconstructed what happened using observations from multiple instruments across North America, including aurora cameras and a network of ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers. They saw a huge band of enhanced electron density stretching from east to west across the ionosphere. Along its edge, the electron density changed sharply, creating perfect conditions for the formation of smaller-scale irregularities. And those irregularities were everywhere. Strong amplitude scintillation appeared over a vast swath of the continental US, approximately between 80 and 120 degrees west longitude. Other measurements showed that the disturbance spread even further, producing a swath of higher electron density that extended almost from the west coast to the east coast. The November 2025 superstorm altered Earth’s ionosphere. throughout North America. (Yizengaw et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 2026) The timing also coincided. The researchers saw that as the aurora brightened, the electron density and irregularities intensified. At the same time, satellite signals began to flicker and GPS accuracy deteriorated. Amplitude scintillation has been detected before at mid-latitudes, but only in limited observations, mainly at single locations. The researchers say strong amplitude scintillation spanning such a wide range of longitudes has never been seen before. In some regions, the resulting horizontal positioning errors exceeded 10 meters. Even an error of just one or two meters can mean serious problems for technologies that rely on precision positioning, including autonomous vehicles and agricultural machinery. In fact, the May 2024 solar storm is estimated to have cost the U.S. agricultural industry $500 million due to disruptions to precision navigation. The 2024 storm occurred during the agricultural season; not the one in 2025. However, together, the two events indicate how vulnerable certain industries can be to the whims of the Sun at the peak of its 11-year activity cycle. Related: The most violent solar storm ever detected hit Earth in 12350 BC. C. But if scientists can better understand and predict how extreme solar activity affects the ionosphere, we can be better prepared to mitigate the disruption when the next big storm hits. “If the onset of the November superstorm had occurred during agriculture, therefore, understanding storm irregularities at high and mid-latitudes – and characterizing their impact on radio frequency applications – requires knowledge of the physical processes that control and describe the dynamics of auroral features, such as energy flux, expansion velocity, and precipitation scale sizes present in the auroral arc, all of which contribute to generating density irregularities that can cause scintillation.” published in Geophysical Research Letters This article was fact-checked by Fiona MacDonald and edited by Fiona MacDonald While we take pride in our process, we’re human. If you spot an error, please let us know.
