A geomagnetic storm that rattled Earth's atmosphere last November was strong enough to throw GPS positioning off by more than 30 feet in parts of the United States, according to a study published this week that offers one of the most detailed looks yet at how a single storm can ripple through everyday satellite navigation.
The storm, triggered by an intense solar flare, hit Earth on Nov. 11, 2025, producing a geomagnetic disturbance that peaked for roughly six hours. Researchers led by Endawoke Yizengaw of The Aerospace Corporation combined aurora-camera observations with ground-based GPS receiver networks across the United States and Canada to map where and how badly signals drifted, publishing their findings in Geophysical Research Letters.
In the hardest-hit regions, horizontal positioning errors topped 10 meters — more than 30 feet — in a band stretching from the West Coast to Florida. That is far beyond the one- or two-meter margin that precision systems like self-driving cars and GPS-guided farm equipment are built to tolerate; researchers said the disturbance was strong enough to have diverted autonomous vehicles relying on satellite positioning.
"The results underscore the importance of accurate understanding of various space weather phenomena to enhance our predictive capabilities."
Study authors, Geophysical Research Letters
Because the November storm arrived outside the U.S. growing season, farmers were largely spared the losses seen after a similar storm in May 2024, which cost Midwest agriculture more than $500 million by throwing GPS-guided planting equipment off course during planting season. Scientists studying the newer storm noted it produced an unusually wide band of signal scintillation across mid-latitude states, a pattern researchers said had not been documented at that scale before.
The findings add to a growing body of research pushing for better real-time space weather forecasting, as industries from aviation to agriculture to autonomous driving lean more heavily on satellite positioning that solar activity can disrupt with little warning. The sun remains in an active phase of its roughly 11-year cycle, and researchers say similar storms, and similar GPS disruptions, are likely in the years ahead.
