Aurora Australis

[Saturnine]

Hi All

Following on from Thursdays' X1 Solar Eruption and CME release , https://spaceweather.com/, there is a good possibility of G3, Kp 6 auroral activity late tonight and early tomorrow morning if you are in Southern NZ, Tasmania and coastal Vic. The strongest activity wont be until after dawn tomorrow, from the predictions unfortunately.
I guess most of the aurora enthusiasts would know this already, may you have clear skies.

[Stonius]

Thanks for the reminder!

[Saturnine]

Seems that the earth only received a glancing blow from the CME that only produced a weak auroral display at high latitudes. So much for the forecast but that is the way it goes sometimes with CMEs' .

[Saturnine]

Hi

Did anyone down south in NZ,Vic, Tas. have clear enough skies to see last nights auroral display. Reports from the northern hemisphere say that the aurora was visible from as far south as California and New Mexico in the USA and from Wales in the UK.
Was not happy that the whole east coast was / is clouded out and raining but, as the next solar cycle increases in activity hopefully there will be more chances to witness an auroral display from a bit further south than NSW.

[Saturnine]

Tasmania and Victoria seem to have been lucky and had a good view of a bright auroral display last night.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-05/aurora-australis-puts-on-light-show-over-tasmania/100596472

[RAJAH235]

Hi Jeff et al...
There are some nice images from New Zealand as well.

> https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/454972/aurora-australis-dazzles-over-south-island-skies

Enjoy.

[bluesilver]

Hi, a tad late with this, but is there by any chance a site that i can go to that tells me what the likely chance of an Aurora occurring?
I do remember someone mentioning it once before, but since then i have not been able to find that site again.

I am sure there must be something out there that you can go by to get a rough idea and i was hoping some Aroura enthusiast might be able to help me out here.

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks.

[tonybarry]

Hi Peter,

As you are in Tassie, you have a pretty good site for auroras.

The thing to watch is the Kp index (the state of the magnetic field of the earth).

It is a bit retrospective, but you get it here:-

https://www.spaceweather.com

This site is your best spot to find out about aurora activity ... (scroll down the page till you see the Northern Hemisphere aurora prediction map from NOAA Ovation) - it's on the left sidebar.

There are two things on that little map and its figure description. One is the map. Click on the link for the New Zealand map. It will give a prediction for upcoming aurora in the next few hours.

The other is the "more data" link, also in the figure description. That will take you to a dashboard of satellite data. That will show you a record of the Kp index.

Regards,
Tony Barry
WSAAG, Penrith Sydney.

[bluesilver]

Thanks for the link, very much appreciated.
I will keep an eye on that page.
There must be a few sites that get used, the one that i seen before was a bit different from this one, but works just the same.
I would imagine that the enthusiasts would check this every night or have something set up to notify them when there is a good chance of an Aroura appearing that night.
Very much appreciated.

[Saturnine]

Peter

There are also these sites, they all get their data from the same sources though. If you check the sites regularly and sort of combine all the info from them you get a pretty good idea of what is likely. Spaceweather.com is my first site site to check daily and as Tony said, click on the little auroral map and get the NZ version, gives a very good indication of what is happening with the auroral oval in our neck of the woods.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/space-weather-enthusiasts
http://www.aurora-service.net/aurora-forecast/

[peter_4059]

You can also register for alert emails like this:

SUBJ: SWS AURORA WATCH
ISSUED AT 0340 UT ON 05 Nov 2021 by Space Weather Services
FROM THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE FORECAST CENTRE

***CORRECTION***
Solar wind conditions remain elevated but steady after the recent
coronal mass ejection impacts. A change in solar wind conditions may
result in geomagnetic activity and visible auroras during local
nighttime hours in Tasmania on 05 November. Aurora alerts will follow
if significant geomagnetic activity actually occurs.


Australian Space Forecast Centre
Space Weather Services
Bureau of Meteorology

P: +61 2 9213 8010
E: asfc@bom.gov.au

[bluesilver]

Thanks for the replies and links.
It is all very much appreciated.
I will keep an eye on those sites in the off change that there is some activity from now on.
Appreciated.

[N1]

We saw it. (https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=195046)

[a1k3m1]

Got me thinking, What are astro cameras like on shooting auroras? .. Id imagine they would be better than your standard DSLR surely?

[djsmyth88]

There's also a great Facebook group that is very active - the mod posts aurora forecasts every morning. Check out Aurora Australis Tasmania. It also incorporates NZ and other states, despite the name.