While it seems irrelevant, space weather and solar activity should be a topic of conversation since it can disrupt technology used in agriculture, says Rebecca Bishop, the principal scientist at the Aerospace Corporation.

Accurate Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) sources are important in several aspects of production agriculture today. This technology was the driver for the development of variable-rate application (VRA) of crop inputs and seed. The process started by collecting GPS reference soil samples that lead to the creation of VRA fertilizer application maps. Now, farmers and service providers have the ability to create VRA maps for almost every product applied during the growing season.