{"id":71271,"date":"2025-02-06T10:12:30","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T10:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/why-auroras-are-suddenly-everywhere-all-at-once\/"},"modified":"2025-02-06T10:12:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T10:12:30","slug":"why-auroras-are-suddenly-everywhere-all-at-once","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=71271","title":{"rendered":"Why Auroras Are Suddenly Everywhere All at Once"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"\">\n<figure class=\"article-image lead-article-image\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com\/psaOOsXU6gn7GPZD_xmc68sFX78=\/1000x750\/filters:no_upscale():focal(700x527:701x528)\/https:\/\/tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/filer_public\/b9\/66\/b966cb9e-8fe2-4d1c-bd7a-ba59740291ae\/smithmag-podcast-s03-ep02-auroras-article.jpg\" alt=\"Person taking a photo of auroras\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<p>              <span class=\"credit\">Illustration by Emily Lankiewicz \/ Images via public domain<\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>For <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/evidence-of-earliest-candidate-aurora-found-in-ancient-chinese-texts-180979979\/\">millennia<\/a>, auroras have both enchanted and haunted human beings. Ancient lore is filled with myths attempting to explain what caused the celestial phenomenon. More recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/inside-the-quest-to-find-evidence-of-auroras-in-ancient-texts-180983844\/\">historic documentation of auroras<\/a> may even help us predict damaging solar storms in the future.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>As we head into a year expected to bring the best northern lights in two decades, we consider the science behind auroras and why they are suddenly so plentiful\u2014even in places that hardly qualify as northern.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In this episode, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/author\/jo-marchant\/\"><em>Jo Marchant<\/em><\/a><em>, author of <\/em>The Human Cosmos<em>, and <\/em>Smithsonian<em> science editor <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/author\/carlyn-kranking\/\"><em>Carlyn Kranking <\/em><\/a><em>revel in auroras through the ages and explain how to view these dazzling displays yourself.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>A transcript is below. To subscribe to \u201cThere\u2019s More to That,\u201d and to listen to past episodes on <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/why-we-love-eclipses-180984067\/\"><em>our love of eclipses<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/how-nasa-captured-asteroid-dust-to-find-the-origins-of-life-180983274\/\"><em>the use of asteroid dust to find the origins of life<\/em><\/a><em> and <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/are-wild-animals-really-just-like-us-180982939\/\"><em>why orcas may not be doing what we think<\/em><\/a><em>, find us on <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/theres-more-to-that\/id1694965155?ign-itscg=30200&amp;ign-itsct=podcast_box_player\"><em>Apple Podcasts<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/4NYRCRxkYJTLjW71sqYOFv?si=08fa62c3e59d450f&amp;nd=1\"><em>Spotify<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/\"><em>iHeartRadio<\/em><\/a><em> or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>\n    <iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"monetization\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" width=\"100%\" style=\"min-width: 300px\" src=\"https:\/\/play.prx.org\/e?ge=prx_3987_0b9b3478-c90f-45db-92e2-e8b1d3f17468&amp;uf=https%3A%2F%2Fpublicfeeds.net%2Ff%2F3987%2Ffeed-rss.xml\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n  <\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong>Ari Daniel: <\/strong>Think back to last year, and I bet you fall into one of two categories: either someone who saw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/missed-the-auroras-in-may-heres-how-to-see-them-next-time-180984480\/\">impressive auroras<\/a> lighting up the night sky, or somebody relegated to looking at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/travel\/these-15-photos-capture-the-beauty-of-the-northern-lights-180983291\/\">photos of them<\/a> on social media. British writer Jo Marchant is the latter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jo Marchant: <\/strong>I was actually in the U.S. and got an amazing view of the recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/two-comets-could-be-visible-to-the-naked-eye-this-fall-heres-how-to-get-the-best-view-180985174\/\">comet<\/a>, which was fantastic, but all my friends were posting on social media about how amazing the aurora was back home. I would love to see it, but I haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Jo is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/author\/jo-marchant\/\">frequent contributor<\/a> to <em>Smithsonian<\/em> magazine and the author of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4gqk5JT\"><em>The Human Cosmos<\/em><\/a>, a book about how civilizations throughout history have been shaped by observations of the stars and planets in one way or another.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> We don\u2019t hear quite as much about those stories of the auroras, but there is a rich mythology about them, and you see really interesting differences as well between different cultures who have been located in different places around the planet and therefore got different views of the auroras.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> The earliest record we have of the same aurora being seen in different places dates back to September 1770.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> That was during Captain Cook\u2019s first voyage down through the Pacific to Australia, and he and his colleagues saw the aurora australis on that night. That\u2019s recorded in the journals of Sir Joseph Banks and Sydney Parkinson, who were on board. But the exact same night, we have records from Chinese astronomers who were looking to the northern sky, and they noted down that they had seen the northern lights. So I just think that that\u2019s really lovely to think of those two things happening on the very same night. And today we can look back and see both of those sets of records.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> This year is forecasted to be a major one for auroras, the best conditions in nearly two decades. The reason why has to do with the sun and how it interacts with the Earth\u2019s atmosphere. We may know way more about auroras now than our ancestors did, but our response is likely pretty much the same.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> We don\u2019t just want to see a scientific phenomenon. We want to look at the sky and be in awe and imagine ourselves as we might have looked up and seen that centuries before. So they still hold that fascination for us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> From <em>Smithsonian<\/em> magazine and PRX Productions, this is \u201cThere\u2019s More to That,\u201d the show that takes the bore out of borealis and puts the awe in aurora. I\u2019m Ari Daniel. In this episode, we learn about auroras. What are they? Why do they happen? How can I see one? Someone please tell me! Plus, what ancient people thought about auroras and why researchers still rely on their records today.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<figure class=\"article-video\">\n<p>\n  <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What Is an Aurora?\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4NIBY84oOHs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong>Daniel: <\/strong>Have you ever seen an aurora, Carlyn?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Carlyn Kranking:<\/strong> I wish that I\u2019d have seen an aurora.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Carlyn Kranking is a digital science editor at <em>Smithsonian<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> It\u2019s a lifetime bucket list item for sure. And since this next couple of years are supposed to be so good for seeing the auroras, I feel like this is my chance. All the auroras are tied to activity on the sun, so the sun is very active. It\u2019s our nearest star. It\u2019s constantly launching material out into space.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> These launchings of solar material are called solar storms. They\u2019re explosive rearrangements of magnetic fields that result in large releases of stored magnetic energy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> They will originate in sunspots, which are regions on the sun\u2019s surface where the sun\u2019s own magnetic fields are really concentrated. And as a result of all these magnetic fields getting tangled up there, those spots on the sun are cooler than the areas around them. And so they appear darker on the surface of the sun.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> When a solar storm releases light and radiation, we call it a solar flare. But there\u2019s also another kind of solar storm called a coronal mass ejection. This is where plasma and magnetic fields spew outward off the surface of the sun. It\u2019s these ejections that most likely cause auroras.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> And the large solar storm in May was caused by at least seven coronal mass ejections kind of coming together. So that\u2019s what really helps to supercharge the auroras.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> After a coronal mass ejection, those magnetic fields from the sun travel all the way to Earth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> When those charged particles hit Earth\u2019s magnetic field, they get pulled toward the poles, like a magnet, basically. And at the poles, these charged particles bring energy to the gases that are in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, mostly nitrogen and oxygen. And when these gas particles take on that extra energy, scientists will say they \u201cget excited\u201d\u2014that\u2019s actually the term. And they\u2019ll have to get rid of that extra energy. And they will do that by glowing and giving off that energy as light.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> The different aurora colors we see in the sky depend on which gas is excited and the altitude of the interaction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> So when you\u2019re seeing red, that\u2019s going to be oxygen at a high altitude. If you\u2019re getting oxygen at a lower altitude, then that\u2019s going to be green. And nitrogen might be red or blue or potentially even pink. And then sometimes you might see other colors if they\u2019re kind of blending together.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Auroras are usually spotted in the most northern or southern parts of Earth, near the poles, because of the Earth\u2019s magnetism.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Really the only time that you\u2019re going to be seeing the auroras from other places like the United States or places farther south would be during a large solar storm. That\u2019s when there\u2019s just like so much energy coming in that it can\u2019t be completely confined to the poles, and it\u2019s going to supercharge a lot more of the Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> In very rare cases, an aurora might even produce sounds here on Earth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> And it kind of sounds like a crackling noise or a snapping noise. Experts called it the \u201cwhite whale\u201d of all aurora chasers, is to be able to hear that sound.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Auroras may seem elusive, but Carlyn says they do happen with some amount of predictability, which brings us to why this year is a big one for auroras.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Scientists can predict that this year is supposed to be a great year because the sun goes through an 11-year cycle of activity called the solar maximum. And that is pretty easy to predict because it does fall pretty regularly on schedule. So the last solar maximum was in 2014\u2014so that was about 11 years ago. So we are following the pattern. We are in the solar maximum right now, and we are probably going to continue to be in the solar maximum throughout 2025 and potentially even later than that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> That said, we may not know when this ramped -p solar activity actually reaches its peak.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Based on the way that previous solar maximums have been, some of the highest activity from the sun actually happens on the later end of the maximum. So potentially later in 2025 or 2026, there might be even more activity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Besides making these displays of riveting lights up in the sky, does the solar activity affect life here on Earth?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Geomagnetic storms can have a bit of an impact on human technology. They can sometimes impact satellites, for instance, or anything that might use satellite services such as GPS. There\u2019s concern over what they might do to power grids or communication systems. Those are all real concerns for sure, and scientists are working to predict auroras so that people can react. For example, during October when we had a somewhat large geomagnetic storm, NOAA contacted power grid operators to give them a heads-up so that they could potentially prepare for the influx of solar energy. So I feel like scientists are working on good ways to be able to keep those impacts to a minimum.<\/p>\n<p>In 1859, there was a huge geomagnetic storm called the Carrington Event, and it\u2019s the biggest geomagnetic storm on record. The northern lights went as far south as Cuba and Hawaii.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Wow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Yeah. That was a huge thing that modern technology has never had to experience, because we haven\u2019t had a storm of that size since then. Storms like that are really rare.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> Yeah. So the Carrington Event, that was an incredibly powerful solar storm, and that enabled the British astronomer Richard Carrington to link the lights that he saw with solar activity. That was a really key moment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Jo Marchant again.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant: <\/strong>The day before, he had seen two blinding beads of white light appear briefly just above a sunspot on the sun. So he\u2019d seen essentially the earliest recorded solar flare, and then the next day the aurora, and he made that link between the two. We know that the same aurora was seen at the time in Japan. There\u2019s one account\u2014a diary entry that was written that said the sky seemed to be burning, so this was something that was viewed over hundreds of miles. The sky was glowing red, and many assumed it was the light of distant fires.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Aurora frequency and color have stirred a desire to explain this phenomenon, long before we had a scientific explanation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> We\u2019ve heard of these stories of omens of death and fires and hostility, but for the people of Sweden, the fishermen saw the dancing lights as a good omen. They saw it as the reflections of giant schools of herring that were swimming nearby. So just that promise of these amazing schools of fish that they were about to catch. And in Iceland, the lights of the aurora were thought to relieve the pain of childbirth, although the woman was not allowed to actually look directly at the lights or her child might be born cross-eyed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Jo explained that people with frequent views of auroras tended to draw more positive conclusions about them than those who may have been startled by the sight of them. That\u2019s not only because these people were used to seeing auroras, but also because they were more regularly observed by those who lived near the North Pole, where auroras were that magical, glowing green as opposed to a fiery red.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> We have stories both from the Northern Hemisphere, so seeing the northern lights, but then also the Southern Hemisphere, seeing the southern lights, the aurora australis. And in the north, you have quite a lot of places within the Arctic Circle where you\u2019ve got communities of people who\u2019ve essentially grown up with that routine almost view of the aurora. So places like northern Scandinavia, Siberia, the northern parts of North America, they\u2019re looking straight up through the atmosphere at the northern lights. Because of the chemistry and the gases in the atmosphere, they will tend to see it as green-colored, and you see those characteristics coming through in the kinds of stories that they tell. So in Finland, there\u2019s a lovely word, <em>revontulet<\/em>, which means \u201cfox fires.\u201d People there saw the aurora as foxes made of fire essentially sprinting across the snow so fast that sparks are flying up from their tails and igniting the sky.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Oh, that\u2019s a beautiful image.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> Yeah, so a kind of positive, quite magical images: Estonia, stories of spirit beings from higher realms. Eastern Canada and Southeast Alaska, stories of dancing souls. In some places, the Lakota Sioux, for example, saw them as spirits of generations yet to be born, and then you also have Viking stories. So they\u2019re entwining it into their mythology and stories about Valhalla and warriors. They thought that the god Odin had sent the Valkyries, these female warriors riding horses through the sky, to retrieve the souls of fallen warriors and take them to Valhalla, and that the aurora was the light reflected off the Valkyries\u2019 battle armor. So again, a positive story, but you see all the different interpretations that are coming through, but often to do with spirits, with the afterlife, with this celestial heavenly realm.<\/p>\n<p>But then in the Southern Hemisphere, you see quite different kinds of stories. There, you don\u2019t have that same inhabited land really close to the pole. People in Australia or the Maoris in New Zealand, or at the southern tip of South America, these locations where people were watching the aurora in the distance more on the horizon than straight ahead, they\u2019re not seeing it as often. And because of the differences in gases in different layers of the atmosphere, they tend to see more of a red color, and you see that feeding through into different kinds of stories. So now you see quite ominous stories relating to fires, evil spirits, blood, death. The Gunai in eastern Victoria in Australia saw the aurora as bushfires in the spirit world relating to the sky god being angry, telling of impending doom. Other groups saw them as fires generated by evil sky spirits. So there\u2019s a really rich mythology there, even though we don\u2019t hear quite as much about it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel: <\/strong>I\u2019m wondering, are there more records of the red light in the sky because of just who was doing the record-keeping compared to the green?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> Yes, I think that that would be true. In terms of the mythological stories, I would say that there is more from the green, because you had those traditional communities who were more likely to be living in the Arctic zone, but they\u2019re more oral traditions. If you\u2019re looking for the more scientific record-keeping and noting down descriptions of specific events, that seems to occur much more when you\u2019re farther away from the poles\u2014possibly because that\u2019s where you\u2019ve got astronomers who are looking at the sky every night. But also because you\u2019re farther away from the poles, this isn\u2019t an everyday thing. So it\u2019s not just something that\u2019s just part of life. These were really dramatic, inexplicable, but occasional events. So you can imagine that you\u2019re much more likely to make a note of a particular example or a particular time that that\u2019s happening if it\u2019s just this really just incredible thing that you might only see a couple of times in a lifetime. Whereas if it\u2019s something that\u2019s happening all the time, you\u2019ll have stories about it, but you\u2019re not necessarily going to note down every single time that it happens.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> It\u2019s clear that the auroras were making a strong impression on people over the centuries. Did ancient peoples understand much about the science of auroras and what really caused them? I mean, of course not early on, but is there any evidence of an evolution of how people thought about auroras over time?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> Well, what we do see is a distinction between the general mythology where we have these overall stories about the meaning. And then in certain cultures, what you get is very precise observations of the sky. So they\u2019re making records, not just telling stories about auroras, but making records of particular events. And then you start to see those events being dated and described in more precise terms. And that is of interest to scientists and historians today, because then you can actually start to say, \u201cOh, there was a particular aurora event in this place at that time, and this is what it looked like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And scientists are quite interested in doing that, because then if you can start to put together a record of when and where auroras were happening, particularly when they\u2019re happening farther away from the poles\u2014so cultures who wouldn\u2019t normally have been seeing them\u2014that\u2019s telling you that that would\u2019ve been a time of particularly strong solar activity. It gives you information about the solar cycle through history.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Now, auroras leave no lasting physical imprint here on Earth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> We have ice cores, tree rings, sediments. You can look for clues to past weather or climate change, but there isn\u2019t a physical record, usually, of solar storms. So we have to rely on people\u2019s observations. And so you have scholars looking at ancient Chinese records, Japanese records, Babylonian records, all of these cultures who were particularly interested in what was going on in the sky.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> And when you say ancient, how many years ago?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> Well, there\u2019s been a kind of race back in time of trying to identify what is the earliest record that we can find of a dated aurora observation. So we\u2019ve got a few different contenders. For example, a really lovely one from the Babylonians from the sixth century B.C.E. The Babylonians were really interested in what was happening in the sky because they saw celestial events as omens, warnings from the gods, essentially telling them about usually bad things that were going to happen on earth. Lunar eclipse often meant the death of a king, for example. They\u2019re very interested in when the planets change direction, and then you could conduct rituals to stop the bad thing from happening. So they had astronomers who were watching the sky every night over centuries trying to make sense of what was happening, trying to predict what was going to be happening next.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Kind of like astrology.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> Well, it\u2019s kind of an interesting mixture of the two. They wouldn\u2019t have differentiated between astrology and astronomy in those days. So, yeah, they had the more magical idea of: These are omens, these can tell us about the future. But through wanting to observe those omens, they developed a very mathematical, almost scientific approach of observing the sky, writing down what they saw every night, coming up with mathematical models, really, that allowed them to predict what the sun, moon and planets were going to be doing. Obviously, auroras are a lot less predictable than that, so they didn\u2019t have mathematical equations to tell them when the next auroras were happening, but they did note them down when they saw them.<\/p>\n<p>And one diary in particular, there\u2019s a tablet from the night of the 12th to the 13th of March, 567 B.C.E, where the astronomer who was\u2014or astrologer, whichever you like to call it\u2014he was probably in the Tower of Babylon, sort of noting down what he saw. And he talked about an unusual red glow in the sky. The diary entry says, \u201cNight of the 29th, red glow flared up in the west.\u201d And the term that was used for this red glow was <em>akukutu<\/em>. And researchers who\u2019ve looked at that concluded that that\u2019s a really good candidate for an observation of the aurora. But they also have some other really lovely terms as well. So \u201cunusual rainbows\u201d is one that I really liked, that I thought was a really nice description. And that term, akukutu, isn\u2019t known elsewhere in astronomical diaries, but they did keep these books of omens. And there is an omen that\u2019s written down which says, \u201cIf in Sivan,\u201d which was a month name, \u201can akukutu blazes, there will be hostility in the land.\u201d So that\u2019s suggesting that this would\u2019ve been seen as a bad omen.<\/p>\n<p>But then there was another study looking at Chinese records\u2014what\u2019s called the Chinese Bamboo Annals. They chronicle the history of China, and these annals were actually written down in the fourth century B.C.E., and that talks about a five-colored light in the northern sky. And that account says that this occurred at the end of the reign of King Zhao of the Zhou dynasty, and the researchers conclude that that was in the tenth century B.C.E. So that isn\u2019t a record that was written at that time in the tenth century B.C.E., but the researchers think that it\u2019s referring to a particular event that happens then.<\/p>\n<p>So that\u2019s about as far back as we can push those records. But as researchers look at more historical records, specifically looking for accounts of auroras, hopefully we\u2019ll find more. And that can give you, as I said, a sense of when periods of high solar activity were occurring, could also potentially give information about the movements of the magnetic poles. Because the magnetic poles do shift at different times in history, and so you\u2019re more likely to see auroras in particular places depending on where the magnetic poles are.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> It\u2019s fascinating, because what you\u2019re saying is that even though these ancient peoples didn\u2019t know what the aurora was or what caused the aurora, their documentation of the auroras gives us now an ability to look back and reconstruct some of these geomagnetic and solar processes over the years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> Yeah, exactly. Like I said, we need those human records, particularly the Babylonians and the Chinese were very meticulous, very interested in what was going on in the sky. And scientists can use their records, their identifying eclipses, for example, supernovas, all these different astronomical events we can see in the records. And that is true for the auroras as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> This year promises to be a really good year for viewing auroras. And I\u2019m wondering whether you have any plans to try to finally see one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marchant:<\/strong> I don\u2019t have any particular plans for a trip, but I definitely don\u2019t want to let another year go by without seeing them. So I am definitely going to be watching any forecasts that are coming up, making sure I\u2019ve got plans. Maybe travel to somewhere, like\u2014Abisko National Park in Sweden is somewhere that I\u2019ve read is extremely good for watching auroras. Because often if you\u2019re in the Arctic Circle, you can end up with cloudy skies. But that is a location where you\u2019re far enough north, but it\u2019s got this microclimate with quite clear sky. So that is meant to be very good. So if I was able, in my dreams, to plan a trip to really see the dancing green all across the entire sky, then I think that is where I would go.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel: <\/strong>Jo isn\u2019t the only one thinking of traveling to try to see an aurora. Carlyn Kranking interviewed people who identify as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/missed-the-auroras-in-may-heres-how-to-see-them-next-time-180984480\/\">aurora chasers<\/a>. They gave her some tips we can all use this year as we experienced the solar maximum.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Aurora chasers will do basically whatever it takes to be seeing the auroras as often as possible. Sometimes it\u2019s for a hobby, sometimes it\u2019s for their profession, because they might lead tours. But the aurora chasers who I talked to all are absolutely entranced by the auroras. One person who I talked to had seen auroras more than 300 times in his life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Wow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Yeah, it\u2019s a complete lifestyle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Given how passionate some of the people you spoke with, Carlyn, are about auroras, it really feels like the kind of thing that maybe if folks who are listening have the chance and the opportunity to see an aurora, they should try to avail themselves of it. So I\u2019m wondering, what would you suggest people do to put themselves in a position where they could see an aurora?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Yeah, absolutely. So I feel like one would be to plan a vacation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> An aurora vacation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Yes, an aurora vacation. If you want to do that, and you want to plan a trip up to somewhere in the Arctic Circle to see auroras, I did get a few tips from some of the aurora chasers. And one of them is to dress warmly, because you\u2019re going to be there in very cold weather, and you\u2019re going to be there for a while. You also should book a trip for several days just in case the weather doesn\u2019t work out, or to be there, try to see the auroras, come home and then get news that there\u2019s a massive solar storm or something like that. So you do want to give yourself time.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, they also suggested potentially booking a tour or going with a local guide who might be able to give some more information. Or if you do your research in advance, then you might be able to find out some of the best places to go. They also talked about potentially going around the equinoxes, because the alignment of Earth is just a little bit better at that time. But, I mean, you would be able to see them in the winter at any time, as long as there\u2019s enough solar activity to be doing it. And if you are here in the U.S. or in the Northern Hemisphere, you want to try and have a good view of the northern sky, because the auroras will be coming from the North Pole area. And then if you\u2019re in the Southern Hemisphere, you\u2019d want to have a good view of the southern sky.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> So what does that mean, getting up on top of a hill?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> It could be, or just a place where it\u2019s pretty open, like a good field.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> A beach.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Yeah or a beach, that would be great. Yeah. Because if you\u2019re looking out over the water, there\u2019s probably not a lot of light pollution coming from out there, too. One of the biggest things I heard from the aurora chasers was to manage your expectations. Because we are all seeing those pictures on social media that people have taken. And your phone can actually see the aurora\u2019s lights, especially the red lights, much better than the human eye can. So sometimes when you\u2019re seeing those pictures that people have posted, that\u2019s not exactly what they have seen with their eye. And sometimes, if it is one of those large geomagnetic storms like that, it brings the auroras far south\u2014you might not see the auroras at all, but if you take a picture with your phone, then they might show up there. So your phone can also be a really good tool for helping to find the auroras or helping to see them where maybe you wouldn\u2019t see it with your eye.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Yeah. How do you take a picture of an aurora?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> If you can put on night mode or do a long exposure, that might also help so that your phone can try and take in more of the light. When these big solar storms have happened, I think people really bonded over sharing their photos. And even if you couldn\u2019t see it with the eye, that doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s not there. And it\u2019s neat that your phone can reveal that to you. Just be checking the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swpc.noaa.gov\/communities\/aurora-dashboard-experimental\">NOAA Aurora Dashboard<\/a> to see what areas the auroras are supposedly going to show up at.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> That\u2019s what I was going to ask\u2014if there\u2019s a particular website or place to tune in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Yeah. NOAA has, its Space Weather Prediction Center has a dashboard online where it\u2019ll show a 30-minute aurora forecast, and then maybe a slightly longer one, too. And then there are some other resources. I talked to someone who works with a NASA program called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aurorasaurus.org\/\">Aurorasaurus<\/a>, and it\u2019s a citizen science program for people to submit sightings of auroras. And if you sign up for that, you could also sign up for alerts to tell you when auroras are being spotted in your area. And you could also just check social media, see what the aurora chasers are saying, see what people around you are saying. And always go and take a look outside for yourself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Carlyn, I\u2019m wondering, you want this year to be your year to see an aurora, how are you setting up to make sure that that becomes a reality for you?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> I am working on planning a trip to Iceland.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Oh, great.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Yeah. I would like to be able to go there and hopefully see an aurora in a more guaranteed type of situation. But if I hear about another large solar storm coming, I can hop in the car, and since I\u2019m in Virginia, I could drive out to Shenandoah or somewhere with less light pollution. Yeah, I\u2019m just going to have to keep on top of the news and commit to driving somewhere to be able to make that happen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Well, I wish you luck. I hope that this is the year that you get to see them finally as a real, true aurora experience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Yeah. Thank you. That\u2019d be great.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> Thank you so much for sharing your expertise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kranking:<\/strong> Anytime.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong>Daniel:<\/strong> You can read more about the aurora chasers and other celestial sightings from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/you-could-see-dazzling-auroras-tonight-as-strong-solar-storm-hits-heres-what-to-know-180985251\/\">Carlyn Kranking<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/history\/decoding-antikythera-mechanism-first-computer-180953979\/\">Jo Marchant<\/a> online at <a href=\"http:\/\/smithsonianmag.com\">SmithsonianMag.com<\/a>. We\u2019ll put some links in our show notes, including to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swpc.noaa.gov\/communities\/aurora-dashboard-experimental\">NOAA tracker<\/a>. You\u2019ll also find a link to <a href=\"https:\/\/subscribe.smithsonianmag.com\/?idx=582&amp;t=1737478086\">subscribe to future issues at <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/subscribe.smithsonianmag.com\/?idx=582&amp;t=1737478086\"><em>Smithsonian<\/em><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/subscribe.smithsonianmag.com\/?idx=582&amp;t=1737478086\"> magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s More to That\u201d is a production of <em>Smithsonian<\/em> magazine and PRX Productions. Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the iHeartRadio app and wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n<p>From the magazine, our team is me, Debra Rosenberg and Brian Wolly. From PRX, our team is Jessica Miller, Genevieve Sponsler, Adriana Rozas Rivera, Sandra Lopez-Monsalve and Edwin Ochoa. The executive producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzales.<\/p>\n<p>Our episode artwork is by Emily Lankiewicz. Fact-checking by Stephanie Abramson. Our music is from APM Music. I\u2019m Ari Daniel. Thanks for listening.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m just so excited to see an aurora this year.<\/p>\n<div class=\"in-article-newsletter science\">\n<div class=\"leade\">\n<p>Get the latest <strong>Science<\/strong> stories in your inbox.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<section class=\"tag-list\">\n<nav class=\"nav-tags\">Filed Under:<\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/tag\/ancient-civilizations\/\">Ancient Civilizations<\/a>, <\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/tag\/astronomy\/\">Astronomy<\/a>, <\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/tag\/mobile-phones\/\">Mobile Phones<\/a>, <\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/tag\/skywatching-guide\/\">Sky Watching Guide<\/a>, <\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/tag\/solar-system\/\">Solar System<\/a>, <\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/tag\/sun\/\">Sun<\/a>, <\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/tag\/theres-more-to-that\/\">There&#8217;s More to That<\/a><\/p>\n<\/nav>\n<\/section><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Illustration by Emily Lankiewicz \/ Images via public domain For millennia, auroras have both enchanted and haunted human beings. Ancient lore is filled with myths attempting to explain what caused the celestial phenomenon. More recent historic documentation of auroras may even help us predict damaging solar storms in the future. As we head into a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12024],"tags":[37337,15887],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-71271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerospace","tag-auroras","tag-suddenly"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Auroras Are Suddenly Everywhere All at Once - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=71271\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Auroras Are Suddenly Everywhere All at Once - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Illustration by Emily Lankiewicz \/ Images via public domain For millennia, auroras have both enchanted and haunted human beings. 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Ancient lore is filled with myths attempting to explain what caused the celestial phenomenon. More recent historic documentation of auroras may even help us predict damaging solar storms in the future. 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