THE NEXT GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A southern hole in the sun's atmosphere is spewing solar wind toward Earth. Minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible when the gaseous material arrives on Feb. 8th. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras on that date. Aurora Alerts: SMS text, email.
SOUTH POLE AURORA VIDEO: Imagine living and working in darkness, 24 hours a day for 6 months out of every year. Robert Schwarz does just that. He's a professional telescope operator for the Keck Telescope Array at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. And his hobby is astrophotography. For the past 14 winters, he has been taking pictures of the south polar night, witnessing scenes unlike anyplace else on Earth. His work is highlighted in a newly-released video entitled "South Pole | Night In Antarctica."
A longtime contributor to Spaceweather.com, Robert Schwarz is a pioneer in cold-weather astrophotography. At the South Pole, temperatures routinely drop below -70o C. Modern DSLR cameras are not made for such temperatures. LCD displays freeze instantly, mirror mechanisms get stuck, batteries fail, and time-lapse sequences often end after only 30 or 40 frames. To mitigate these problems, Robert has developed heated camera housings and motorized trackers with insulation, allowing his optics to follow the pirouette of the stars overhead even in deep Antarctic cold.
Cinematographers Christoph Malin and Martin Heck created the video using a year's worth of Schwarz's unique footage. They're looking forward to more. Right now, Robert is traveling to the South Pole for a record-setting 15th "overwinter," and of course he's taking his cameras. Stay tuned!
VALENTINE'S GIFTS FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: Valentine's Day is only 9 days away. Nothing says "I love you" like a gift from the edge of space. Everything in the Earth to Sky Store is 10% off from now until Feb. 14th:
Everything in the store has been flown to the stratosphere onboard cosmic ray balloons, which the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launch approximately once a week to monitor atmospheric radiation. All sales support our cosmic ray ballooning program and help launch young scientists into research careers through hands-on STEM education.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
PURPLE AURORA SURPRISE: On Feb. 4th, Earth was exiting a stream of solar wind. Geomagnetic activity was subsiding, and strong auroras were not expected. Tour guide Marianne Bergli of Kvaløya, Norway, decided to go outside anyway. And this happened:
"Over and over again, purple and green coronas burst out of the starlit sky," says Bergli. "It was amazing." (Note: A "corona" is a type of aurora that seems to rain down from directly overhead.)
What caused the outburst? A series of cracks opened in Earth's magnetic field. They were small cracks, caused by BsubZ values no less than -5 nT, but that was enough. Gaseous material from the waning stream of solar wind poured in to ignite the surprising display. "It is ironic to see such fantastic auroras during Solar Minimum, but there they were!" says Bergli.
Readers, would you like to know when cracks are opening in Earth's magnetic field? Sign up for Space Weather Alerts. The PRO Plan includes instant text notifications for 4 classes of magnetic crack (negative BsubZ).
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery