Jump to content

Solar cycle march-october & northern lights


Carlosboreal

Recommended Posts

 

 

Hi everyone, my name is Carlos and I live in Málaga (south Spain), I found this interesting forum and after read it for a while, I would like to take some of advice from expert people like some of you :)

I was in Tromso and Lofoten last year in march, the main aim was to "hunt" the NL, and I did, 4 days on a week.

I would like to go again, but after reading a little bit about solar cycles and its correlation with NL, i have some questions:

I know that solar cycle (24) is backing from a peak 2013-2015, what means that probably there would be less and less sunspots therefore less NL, am I right?

I could go to Tromso in march or in october for 8 days, I prefer in october for personal and work issues, BUT, if the sunspots are going down, how can it be affected in 7 months (between march-october)? what I mean is, in this 7 months period, the average number of nights with aurora may go down remarkably? or just slightly? what is your experience or knowledge on this situations? do you think going on march (next month) would be much better than wait untill october?

I know NL are not maths, but I´m pretty sure that I can get a good answer.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aurora will still lighten up the arctic skies even during solar minimum or low solar activity. Solar minimum is a period where very few sunspots appear on our star. Few sunspots means fewer solar flares which could launch coronal mass ejections towards our planet. The normal solar wind will not disappear and coronal holes will still be present from time to time. While it’s true that there are less geomagnetic storms during the years around solar minimum, aurora will still occur at high latitudes. Because there aren’t as many strong solar storms during solar minimum as during solar maximum, it will not happen very often that the auroral oval expands to lower latitudes but aurora will always appear from time to time at locations close to the auroral oval, like northern Scandinavia and Alaska.

Long story short, at such a high latitudes the aurora will also appear when there is very little solar activity. Arctic latitudes don't need coronal mass ejections or coronal holes for aurora to show up. It really shouldn't matter if you go now or in October.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Hi Marcel, thank´s a lot for the quick answer, following your statement, It doesn´t really matters if I go next month or in october, fine, but the intensity of NL could be different? The sunspots and solar flares are only related with how far toward south the aurora will go?

BTW, do you know any statistic of average NL nights in some specific location like tromso during the last years? I don´t mean a KP statistic like in this web page are, I mean a real confirmation of that NL appeared for example on 24-dic-2012.

It´s possible a good NL display in Tromso or higher latitudes with KP 1 or KP 2?

 

Thanks for helping :)

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Engelsman Finland

Yes. Check the webcams. Shame you can't get here now. 2 m class and a c 8 with a cme. I hope there if less cloud for the next 4 or 5 days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 uren geleden, Carlosboreal zei:

 

Hi Marcel, thank´s a lot for the quick answer, following your statement, It doesn´t really matters if I go next month or in october, fine, but the intensity of NL could be different? The sunspots and solar flares are only related with how far toward south the aurora will go?

BTW, do you know any statistic of average NL nights in some specific location like tromso during the last years? I don´t mean a KP statistic like in this web page are, I mean a real confirmation of that NL appeared for example on 24-dic-2012.

It´s possible a good NL display in Tromso or higher latitudes with KP 1 or KP 2?

 

Thanks for helping :)

 

 

The intensity could be different but that depends on the status of the solar wind. Not if there are more or less sunspots on the Sun.

I do not know about Tromso but Kiruna in Sweden has something like that http://www.irf.se/Observatory/?link[All-sky%20camera]=Aurora_sp_statistics

Even at Kp1 and Kp2, the aurora can look very satisfying from latitudes like Tromso.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you also agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.