Jackson

When most people think about the worst solar storm in recorded history, the Carrington Event of 1859 immediately comes to mind. It is the benchmark, the measuring stick against which every other geomagnetic storm is compared. But what if I told you that the Carrington Event was not even close to the strongest solar storm … Read more

Imagine a solar storm so powerful that it makes the famous 1859 Carrington Event look like a flicker. Now imagine that this storm struck Earth over 14,000 years ago, long before satellites or power grids existed. No human instrument recorded it. No telescope detected it. Yet scientists know exactly when it happened, how strong it … Read more

If you have been tracking space weather for any length of time, you have probably noticed something that seems contradictory. The Sun goes quiet during solar minimum, yet auroras still light up the sky, GPS signals still glitch, and radio operators still complain about degraded bands. Why space weather keeps happening even during solar minimum … Read more

Every few weeks, a patch of the Sun’s outer atmosphere opens up and fires a torrent of charged particles toward Earth at speeds exceeding 700 kilometers per second. These events, known as coronal hole high speed streams, are one of the most reliable drivers of space weather we experience. Understanding how coronal holes create fast … Read more

Here is a puzzle that has stumped astrophysicists for over 80 years. The visible surface of the Sun burns at about 5,500 degrees Celsius (9,940 degrees Fahrenheit). But if you move outward into the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, the temperature suddenly skyrockets to between 1 and 3 million degrees. Understanding how the Sun’s corona … Read more

Every 11 years, the Sun ramps up to a frenzy of activity called solar maximum. During this peak phase, people across the globe witness aurora displays that stretch far beyond their usual Arctic and Antarctic haunting grounds. But the same solar storms that paint the sky in green and magenta light also carry a darker … Read more

Every day, a small team of scientists at a federal facility in Boulder, Colorado, watches the Sun so the rest of us do not have to. They track invisible explosions on a star 93 million miles away and translate that chaos into alerts that protect power grids, satellites, GPS signals, and astronauts. Understanding how forecasters … Read more

A geomagnetic storm is rated on the G1 through G5 scale because NOAA needed a simple, universal system to communicate how severely a solar disturbance could affect Earth’s technology, power grids, and aurora visibility. The geomagnetic storm G1 G5 scale translates complex space weather measurements into five clear categories, running from G1 (Minor) at Kp … Read more

You drove hours away from city lights. You stood in freezing temperatures for three hours straight. The sky exploded in green and purple curtains dancing overhead. You pressed the shutter, reviewed the shot on your camera’s LCD screen, and it looked amazing. Then you got home, loaded the photos onto your computer, and every single … Read more

I still remember my first night chasing the Northern Lights. The sky was alive with green and purple ribbons dancing overhead, but every single photo I took came back soft and blurry. The culprit was not my lens, my settings, or my tripod. It was focus. Learning how to focus your camera on the aurora … Read more