With graduation season underway, we’re reflecting on the insights and experiences we would share with this year’s newly minted professionals. We’re finding ourselves inspired by the nine undergraduate and graduate students who attended the Eclipses to Aurora: Winter Field School at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. How did this experience cause them to reflect on… Read More »Poetic Wisdom From Winter Field School
Guest post by Vincent Ledvina, Laura Edson With thanks to Valerie Svaldi for additional input One of the terms you’ll often aurora chasers and scientists use is “substorm.” You might hear it referring to the best parts of an aurora chase, or as something to patiently wait for. But what does it mean, and where… Read More »What is an auroral substorm?
Guest post by Aurorasaurus Ambassador Dr. Becca Robinson It may not seem ideal to spend the winter months experiencing the bitter cold polar night, but for me, the light far outweighs the darkness. My name is Dr. Rebecca Robinson (you can call me Becca) and over the course of winter seasons 2021 and 2022, I… Read More »Searching for Light in the Arctic Night
On October 10-11, 2024, the aurora danced through skies across the globe. The storm was driven by a large, fast coronal mass ejection that had launched directly at the Earth about 38 hours before, and was heralded by a long-duration, very strong X1.8 class solar flare. During both the October and May 10-12 storms, the… Read More »Aurora World Tour—Again!
A question we often get is “does the aurora make sound?” Observers sometimes note a crackling, rustling, whooshing, or similar noise when they watch aurora, but there has not been a lot of conclusive scientific study and anecdotal reports can be met with skepticism in the scientific community. In this blog post, we dive into… Read More »Listening for the sound of aurora—in the historical record
We’re still glowing over May’s auroras, and are excited to welcome those around the world who have newly fallen in love with the Northern and Southern Lights! One of the questions we have been receiving is, “where can I learn more?” Bibliophiles, we’ve got your back. In 2022, we wrote a post about some aurora… Read More »Cozy Aurora Reads
We often talk about the altitudes of aurora colors, but it can feel difficult to get a sense for just how high up the Northern and Southern Lights shine. Sometimes they seem to glow at vast distances high up in the sky, and sometimes they feel close, almost within reach. While we discuss auroral altitudes… Read More »HelioCrafts: Aurora Altitudes Hat
With special thanks to Dr. Janet Kozyra for her generous contributions to this post. After a big storm sends aurora to lower latitudes—southward in the Northern Hemisphere, and northward in the Southern Hemisphere—questions abound. One of the most common is “I thought the aurora was green. Why does it look red?” Red auroras have been… Read More »Why do auroras at lower latitudes look red?
Guest post by Francesca Di Mare Plane travelers often hope for smooth flights without bumpy turbulence. Turbulence is a kind of chaotic motion in the flow of fluids that is constantly changing in characteristics like speed, energy, temperature, and more. It is full of different-sized swirls that mix things together and dissipate, or spread out,… Read More »Turbulence is everywhere – even in space!
By Vincent Ledvina and Laura Edson With many thanks to aurora photographer Marybeth Kiczenski for reviewing the post As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more popular, many are using it to create content, including about auroras. While it can be useful, in a social media world that values speed, clicks, and engagement it can be hard… Read More »Keeping it Real: How to Spot a Fake Aurora Photo