LandMark Customers,
The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center has predicted that we will have a G3 level Geomagnetic Storm Impact today, April 16, 2025. This is what they consider to be a Strong storm. In their definition of a strong storm, there could be intermittent satellite navigation issues. We don’t expect this to be as impactful as the storm was in May 2024 during planting season, but wanted to bring this to your attention and recommend keeping an eye on your guess rows / pass to pass accuracy. Generally, in the cab, you may see no issues, but may see degradation of accuracy if you get out and measure pass-to-pass.
What can you do to help the situation? With both GPS (SF1, SF2, SF3, SF-RTK) and RTK (Radio/Base Station) based corrections, the best course of action would be to stop and wait for the conditions to get better. Obviously, this isn’t an ideal solution, but monitor your pass-to-pass accuracy and run until you feel uncomfortable with the degradation of accuracy.
With RTK we have a solution that we can utilize called Flexible RTK. This essentially allows you as the operator to lock into RTK-X mode and run for a longer period without corrections from the RTK Base station. This will still provide a higher level of accuracy and still use a correction from the RTK base station. Ideally, this would be turned on prior to getting a “bad” correction from the base station due to Scintillation. However, if we have an extreme storm like we did in May of 2024 at the G4/G5 level, our accuracy can still be compromised. Flexible RTK also has a Scintillation indicator to show the current status of the geomagnetic storm impact.
LandMark will do our best to keep you informed of impending geomagnetic storm impacts in the future via our text alerts. If you have further questions, please reach out to us on our AMS Helpline at 855-435-7267.
Turning on Flexible RTK on a RTK Receiver
- Process is consistent across all StarFire Receivers (3000, 6000, 7000, 7500)
- Step 1 is turning on the functionality of Flexible RTK within Diagnostic Address 76. Watch our how-to videos here:
Setting up Flexible RTK on GS2/3 - 2600/2630 displays with a StarFire Receiver
Setting up Flexible RTK on Gen4 or G5 displays with a StarFire Receiver
Some receivers may have already completed this. Only needs to be completed once.
- May need to cycle power to get the Flexible RTK functionality
- See our videos for your specific display to enable this functionality.
- Flexible RTK can then be found in the following location on your StarFire Receiver:
- Diagnostics (Book with the Wrench button)
- Readings Tab
- Open the drop-down box and select Flexible RTK
- Select Mode – Time Window
- Manual Override
- Select RTK-X Start to turn it on
- Select RTK Start to turn it off
- Must manually turn off when the geomagnetic storm dissipates.
- Automatic Mode
- Can select a time for Flexible RTK to turn on / off automatically
- Set a turn-on / off time – pay attention to the Flex RTK Clock on that page when setting the times
- This will turn-on / off every day at that time as long as the receiver is set in the Time Window Mode.