Weather Part IV – Space Weather The final aspect of the weather that has a direct impact on our ability to see into the night sky, is space weather. The primary source for our exoatmospheric weather is our very own Sun, and how it interacts with our planetary system. The most obvious and visible space weather phenomenon would be the Aurora Borealis also known as the Northern Lights. This dancing, crackling, light show is caused by charged particles from the sun interacting with our atmosphere. As we aren’t totally sure what, exactly, this interaction is, we can’t accurately predict them yet, though we are getting better at predicting the likelihood of their presence. The aurora, beautiful as it is, will quickly reduce your ability to see anything beyond the atmosphere due to the light pollution. Another type of space weather, are meteor showers. Although some meteors are caused by passing through the tails of comets, or by near passage of asteroids, most are cyclic events, happening at the same time of year, every year. With approximately 60 annual meteor showers, each lasting multiple days, we are technically more likely to see meteors than not. It’s just a case of looking in the right direction at the right time. Although the timing of meteor showers is predictable, the intensity is not. Finally, we have solar flares. Though these won’t affect most observing, they carry two effects which can affect your ability to find what you’re looking for in the night sky; electro-magnetic pulses and magnetic storms. Although the intensity varies for the EMPs from solar storms, they can be strong enough to affect radio and cell phone communication, and could be strong enough to disrupt the GPS signals getting to your high-end telescope mount. The magnetic storms, on the other hand, can easily play havoc with compasses, which is an important thing to bear in mind if you’re a back-country astronomer. Aurora Borealis in Scotland – https://youtube/watch?v=fVsONlc3OUY Meteor shower time lapse - https://youtube/watch?v=S_jdfyp8pL0
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 18:48:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015