Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights set to return

The sun goes through an eleven year activity cycle, which last peaked during 2oo1, and according to NASA, is next due to peak in 2013.

The maximum does not occur on any particular day, but last for a period, during which there is increased sunspot activity, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections. These take about two days to reach the Earth, when the interact with the planet’s magnetic field, and can produce a much enhanced Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights, as the charged particles are concentrated at the Earth’s magnetic poles. These can cause electrical interference and affect communications. Even though I never saw any significant effects to GPS (Global Positioning System), which I was using extensively in the years around 2001, the media has got hold of it this time, and is already making dire predictions regarding the system’s failure in the coming years of solar maximum, and of SatNav, which currently depends on GPS for its operation. Given the numpties that already blindly follow their SatNav instructions without looking out of their vehicles, and drive off cliffs and along dirt tracks to people’s front doors, how will we know?

As has been noticed in numerous blog entries here, the Scottish Government has decreed that Scottish tourism shall rise by 50% by 2015, and it come as no surprise to learnthat the official Scottish Tourist Board – VisitScotland team have been briefed on the aurora, and will be using it as an attraction to draw tourists, and their wallets of course, to the country.

I have to say that I really do wish them luck, and hope they don’t have too many disappointed visitors.

At the time of the last maximum, I was lucky enough to be spending a lot of time running around the northeast of the country, and could usually be found driving around the wide open space up there at 2 or 3 am. I never saw so much as a eerie glow in the sky, let alone anything that resembled films I had seen of the aurora. I had thought my chances were good, as the sky view there is superb, especially when compared with the light-polluted skies that blight the view anywhere near places like Glasgow. All I ever got to see was the odd shooting star (meteor), and precious few of those.

Looking at NASA’s prediction for this cycle, the activity looks lower than last time, so the chances don’t look as good, but things could be completely different when it arrives, so I’ll still be keeping a watchful and hopeful eye out this time too, but not from such a good vantage point, as I won’t be so far north, but at least being an insomniac means I can watch for most of the night, but I think I’ll be setting up a low-light camera this time. It just might work.