A Solar Storm Knocked GPS Off by 33 Feet Across the US and Scientists Had Never Seen This Kind of Disruption

GPS has become so dependable that we barely think about it. We ask where we are, and a satellite system thousands of miles away answers within seconds with an accuracy under ten feet (three meters). Most of the time, the system is so reliable that there is little reason to think that something could knock it off course. But on November 11, 2025, something did. During a severe geomagnetic storm, GPS positions across parts of the continental United States drifted by more than 10 meters (33 feet). The disturbance lasted for hours and stretched across a huge swath of the country. GPS did not fail outright, but it became inaccurate enough to threaten systems that depend on ultra-precise positioning. A new study explains how it all happened—and, more importantly, changes where scientists think this kind of trouble can occur. The researchers found that the auroral oval pushed unusually far south and created a broad band of disturbed, unevenly charged air across mid-latitudes, a region usually considered comparatively quiet. Strong signal fading had been observed at mid-latitudes before, but only in isolated cases. This storm showed that the same kind of disruption can spread across a much larger area. The next question is whether scientists can use that knowledge to predict where and when a solar storm will knock GPS accuracy off course.

GPS satellites determine position by sending precisely timed radio signals to receivers on Earth. Those signals must cross the ionosphere, a region filled with electrically charged particles. Disturbances that make GPS signals flicker—a phenomenon called scintillation—occur most often near the poles and the equator. Mid-latitudes, like much of the United States, tend to be relatively calm.

Endawoke Yizengaw and The Aerospace Corporation Team Map Coast-to-Coast Disruptions

In November 2025, Earth was buffeted by several massive eruptions of solar material that slammed into the magnetosphere. Much of the world watched in awe as a solar superstorm lit up Earth’s skies with dazzling auroras to rare low latitudes. The sword, however, was double-edged. The same storm also wrought havoc on the technology we rely on here on the ground. And now, scientists led by space physicist Endawoke Yizengaw of The Aerospace Corporation in the US have discovered that the disruption was stranger – and more widespread – than anyone realized. In a new analysis of data collected during the storm, the researchers found widespread, coast-to-coast disturbances in the atmosphere across the continental US – a phenomenon that has never been seen before on this scale.

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Endawoke Yizengaw and his colleagues used observations from aurora cameras and a network of ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System receivers across North America. They pieced together how the storm moved through the atmosphere while Earth was buffeted by several massive eruptions of solar material that slammed into the magnetosphere. The researchers said the disruption reached a scale never seen before across the continental US. That is the unusual part of this event: ionospheric scintillation is generally considered relatively calm at mid-latitudes, yet this storm produced widespread coast-to-coast disturbances far beyond that expectation.

Writing in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers from the US have documented the damage done by a solar superstorm that erupted from the Sun on November 11, 2025. It hit the maximum level on the scale used to measure these storms, causing an unprecedented level of disruption in Earth’s upper atmosphere (the ionosphere). The storm’s effects were also unusually widespread, the researchers report, stretching coast to coast across the US for hours. It threw GPS positioning systems off by as much as 10 meters (33 feet) in some areas, and interrupted satellite communications.

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Ionospheric Scintillation and the Expanding Auroral Oval

Solar flares can also unleash bursts of X-rays and ultraviolet radiation, and a coronal mass ejection can generate electrical currents that disrupt power grids and alter Earth’s atmosphere. Solar flares, which unleash powerful bursts of X-rays and ultraviolet radiation, can slam into Earth’s upper atmosphere, temporarily disrupting high-frequency radio communications. Solar storms are a bigger problem. A coronal mass ejection belches out a cloud of high-speed charged electrons and protons across the Solar System. That path matters because density fluctuations in the upper atmosphere can distort and diffract radio signals, and amplitude scintillation can make signal strength fluctuate rapidly before it reaches the ground.

As the November 2025 storm intensified, the auroral oval expanded toward the equator. A solar superstorm also lit up Earth’s skies with dazzling auroras to rare low latitudes, while the same event changed conditions in the atmosphere that GPS signals must cross on their way to receivers.

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Vulnerability in Precision Agriculture and Autonomous Navigation

That may not seem like much, but the effects of this would have been profound – throwing GPS off by more than 10 meters (33 feet) in some places. That’s significant enough to disrupt precision agriculture and autonomous vehicles, the researchers say. The paper also places the GPS impact in practical terms. Errors of more than 10 meters can matter for systems that depend on steady positioning, and the researchers said the storm’s GPS errors were significant enough to disrupt precision agriculture and autonomous vehicles.

Given that GPS errors of just 1-2 meters (3.3-6.6 feet) can cause catastrophic issues for precision agriculture and autonomous vehicles, the researchers state, this is serious interference. However, the study doesn’t go into any specific detail of incidents with self-driving cars or farming machinery.

The researchers are mainly concerned with the scientific aspects of the storm, but do point out that if the event had happened during the main farming season months, the damage could have been much worse. A May 2024 solar storm was estimated to have cost the US agriculture industry around $500 million (£386 million / AU$695 million). For people, the risk of direct health harms is minimal – though if you’re in an airplane and up close to the ionosphere, you might expect to experience bursts of radiation that are equivalent to several X-ray scans.