What led you to have an interest in space weather?

[Christopher S.]

My question is relatively simple: What moment did you become curious about space, and thus space weather? Please share your anecdotes for the beginning of your interest in astronomy, space weather, so on and so forth.

For myself, it began when I was 15 years old. I had heard about black holes, Supernovae, and other interesting phenomena before, but I found myself in the Wikipedia rabbit hole reading about these things and being confounded. I hadn't started to study any of these things until a couple of years ago(I was 21), when I learned about the IMF, solar flares, and coronal holes(from this website, in fact). I then started listening/watching Startalk Radio with Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice, which allowed me to learn things here and there. I have since then repeatedly read articles and educational content in general about space weather, along with other astronomical observations and events. I cross-study seismology and meteorology, using real-time measurements as a basis for my own exploration into the science around Earth and Space. I find space weather fascinating, as it still holds secrets - some that are yet to even be recognized as unknown. Through this website and other media, I've faced many subjective viewpoints and learned a great deal of objective facts that I hadn't previously thought were of importance, and also discovered resources that would help me in my cross-studies, so I am very thankful that there are communities that share my curiosity and passion!

That is why I'd like to know a little bit about the visitors of this website, as well as its creators and webmasters. Please let us know!

[Andysan]

I am curious about the possibility that an increasing number of sun spots might release sufficient UVC energy to have a measurable effect on our covid-19 pandemic. Wouldn't it be great?

[Jim Sinclair]

Hi Christopher S.,

You report an interesting history. Practical experience learning is rare these days so congratulations!

In my case it was a spin-off from dealing with H F radio. In WW11 my father was in the Australian Air-force, he was stationed on a bomber airfield, his job was each morning to go to each plane and re-tune the transmitter and receiver to the day frequency then in the evening go to each plane again and re-tune all to the night frequency.

When I was 10 years old I found one of his instruction books in a back shed, it looked interesting. I was in a one teacher primary school in a rural area and a year later the school committee decided to give a book prize to every child (about 25 of us I think). Mine was called, "Foundations of wireless" and it was given, "For being a good trier". It took me most of my high school years to understand it enough to try out practical construction projects.

In my later teens I sat for the Amateur Operator's Certificate and passed the exam then it took me about six months to get some equipment working on a relevant amateur band.  Home construction was the standard in those days. When I was 23 I got a job with what was then the Australian PMGs Department working on construction and later operation of the Radio Australia Relay Station at Cox Peninsula. I worked for that organization for 21 years started as a technician's assistant and worked up to a senior technician and finally acting as a senior technical officer. For most of that time  I had something to do with H F radio of one sort or another.

As a sideline I had an interest in astronomy. I have been learning about radio for 67 years and still learning and the effect of the sun on the ionosphere has been part of the learning all that time. Things have changed a bit in that time.

Hope this helps,

Jim.

[dynastyll]

Mine is boring, but I'll tell you mine. I was interested in other stuff in space like the planets, nearby stars, and galaxies when I was a kid. But one day I heard aurora was possible where I lived and of course after that I wanted to learn about what causes aurora, how sunspots form, how coronal holes form, why solar wind causes aurora around the poles. And then of course I quickly found this website which offers a plethora of archived information and how elevated the solar wind has to be to cause certain levels of disturbance(like a decent sized coronal hole can bring ~600 km/s solar wind which can bring the geomagnetic field anywhere from Kp3-G3 depending on the IMF and the direction.) Because of this, I can read the solar wind levels and can judge quite well when an aurora is visible in my area(Kp4 is enough so around 400-500 km/s and -10 Bz will be plenty for active aurora.) I always want to learn more and have interests in astronomy and meteorology.

[Marcel de Bont]

That is a great question and I enjoyed reading everyone's comments thus far! I went on vacation to Scandinavia in 2011 and saw the northern lights. A Dutch photographer staying on the same camping ground as I did introduced me to the Dutch version of SpaceWeatherLive but of course I did not understand anything shown on the website at the time. I became fascinated with the northern lights as I saw them during multiple evenings and back home I started to study like crazy on everything space weather related. I got into contact with our webmaster Sander not too long after that vacation and had regular contact with him. A few years ago I got the nod and joined the SpaceWeatherLive team. I am sure Sander will respond to this topic when he got time and tell his fascinating story.

16 uren geleden, Andysan zei:

I am curious about the possibility that an increasing number of sun spots might release sufficient UVC energy to have a measurable effect on our covid-19 pandemic. Wouldn't it be great?

Welcome on this forum! I wont go into the content of your post but it has nothing to do with the topic at hand, please post elsewhere if you really want to discuss this. You are however welcome to chime in as to why you became interested in space weather!

[Drax Spacex]

I've had an interest in astronomy since I was a child and first saw the rings of Saturn through my small refractor telescope.  As for space weather, that interest is recent, coincident with an interest in amateur radio.  As a licensed amateur radio operator, I look at KP index, sunspot number, and other space weather metrics and observable atmospheric phenomenon to see if I can to correlate them to empirical observations of band conditions,  background noise levels, signal fading, and propagation characteristics that enhance or degrade radio communications between myself and other hams across the US and across the world.

[Maxime Fiset]

I always liked astronomy, but what brought me here is that as a survivalist, my worst-case scenario is a massive class X CME that would wipe out power grids.

Now I feel much less anxiety about this, the more I learn about the sun, the less anxious I am. Thanks to this website ❤️ 

[goldminor]

I started out getting interested in the climate change story in the second half of 2008. Following that path led me to take interest in the correlations between the sun and and long/short cyclic climate patterns in the historical record. In recent years I have finally zeroed in on what I see as the primary driver of climate, which has to do with which hemisphere of the sun holds the most sunspots. Another angle of interest for me was the potential correlation between the phases of the moon and larger/stronger quakes, along with planetary alignments also having some effect on earthquakes as well. The sun may also play a role in some quakes.

[Gabrielle873]

I've been interested in astronomy since I was a kid. My dad and I would go out and look at the stars. In HS, one of our science teachers had open -telescope nights, and would teach us the constellations.  I, too, worry about CMEs ending civilization (EMPs as well). Today, I had trouble accessing the Internet on my mobile devices, and wondered if solar activity had anything to do with it. That's how I found this page. 

[Red.Worf]

I became interested in space, astronomy, science etc in 1957 when my dad took me for a walk one night and showed me Sputnik 2 going across the sky.

I found this website/forum when I started to get interested in photographing sunspots, trust me to do this at the low point in the cycle!

Edited July 23, 2020 by Red.Worf

[Christopher S.]

Reading through these comments is a good pick-me-up! I encourage new visitors to drop a comment about how they became interested or found this website. I have noticed over the last year or so a big "surge" of activity, and the community here is alive as ever(even if there is contention about some subjects, lol).

I know some people have primary interests that are related to space weather, i.e. radio research, biology, and terrestrial weather to name a few. Drop in and share.

[Mckinnon]

Severe anxiety about the sun....but since comeing to this site and hearing everyones opinion my anxiety is much much less severe. Again thank you everyone for being so welcomeing.

[halojatapäivää]

For me, It's been the aurora activity. I live in central/southern Finland where it's possible to see the auroras at kp4. Prior to this year, I had seen them only a handful of times (when there's been a major solar storm and they've been visible the whole night). In January, I discovered that the Finnish Meteorological Institution has a space weather forecast and magnetometers around the country. I dove deeper into the subject and educated myself about the basics of space weather and aurora forecasts. I've been following this site for a few months and I'm excited to see the SC25 unfold.

Thanks to the aurora forecasts, I've been able to see them five times this year. Every single time they've been noticeably visible for only 2-30 minutes so no wonder I hadn't seen them that often previously. I've also noticed that the auroras are visible low in the horizon more than once a week when they are chilling above northern Finland. These are only visible in photos taken with a long shutter speed.

Edited September 8, 2020 by halojatapäivää

[Maxime Fiset]

By the way, a warm welcome to all of our new (and newer) members  

[Christopher S.]

23 hours ago, halojatapäivää said:

For me, It's been the aurora activity. I live in central/southern Finland where it's possible to see the auroras at kp4. Prior to this year, I had seen them only a handful of times (when there's been a major solar storm and they've been visible the whole night). In January, I discovered that the Finnish Meteorological Institution has a space weather forecast and magnetometers around the country. I dove deeper into the subject and educated myself about the basics of space weather and aurora forecasts. I've been following this site for a few months and I'm excited to see the SC25 unfold.

Thanks to the aurora forecasts, I've been able to see them five times this year. Every single time they've been noticeably visible for only 2-30 minutes so no wonder I hadn't seen them that often previously. I've also noticed that the auroras are visible low in the horizon more than once a week when they are chilling above northern Finland. These are only visible in photos taken with a long shutter speed.

Truly hearkening to the original objective of this website, haha. The community seems to sometimes betray that purpose, at times, but it is all the better that we can mingle and mix with our common interest of space weather.