Stuff for March 24, 2024
Keeping a watchful eye for aurora, spring weather, and some new wildflower things
The next couple of nights might be good times to watch the sky. On March 23, a strong X1.1 flare from 2 sunspots released an associated coronal mass ejection (CME) directed toward Earth. As of 1437 UTC (6:37 am Alaska time), this CME has already sparked a G4-class geomagnetic storm.
Last night in Fairbanks, the aurora was visible through the clouds most of the night, but it was faint to the eye and didn’t compete well with the bright moon. On the tail of this CME is the fast solar wind from a coronal hole. Fast solar wind but relatively slow compared to the CME, which jumped to approximately 800 km/s (or a meager 1.8 million MPH) at the arrival of the CME.
With the forecasted Kp-Index of 5-6 over the next couple of nights, it should be possible to see the aurora at high to mid-latitudes (Alaska, most of Canada, the northernmost United States, Northern Europe, and Asia, as well as low latitudes like New Zealand).
If you want to keep tabs on where the aurora is being spotted in real-time, I highly recommend joining the Aurora Borealis Notifications Group on Facebook or the associated Aurora Notify page. If you are data-driven, the NOAA SWPC page has all the current data associated with the Sun and geomagnetic interactions, but I really like the way spaceweather.com breaks things down and presents data and analysis in nearly real-time.
And for my shameless self-promotion, you can learn more on my What Causes the Aurora page or learn how to take pretty pictures from my Camera Settings for Aurora Photography post.
Now for things totally unrelated.
New Wildflower Posts
This week, there are three new wildflower articles, the latest of which has started a new update (with more updates going on in the background that will be live soon).
Arctic alpine fleabane (Erigeron humilis)
A solitary flower in the sunflower family, Erigeron humilis grows in Arctic and alpine tundra. It’s found throughout high latitudes in the northern hemisphere and many of the Rocky Mountain states in the US.
Common cowparsnip (Heracleum maximum)
Heracleum maximum is a tall plant that can grow to 3 meters (10 feet). Its inflorescences are large umbels supporting white, egg-shaped flowers. It has so many traditional uses that I just link to the Native American Ethnobotany Database rather than try to list them all. I try to avoid it because it makes me itch like crazy whenever I brush past it. The stems and leaves contain furanocoumarins that can cause rashes for certain people, especially when exposure is combined with exposure to sunlight (phytophotodermatitis).
Nodding arnica (Arnica lessingii)
The flowering heads of Arnica lessingii are solitary, with yellow ray and disk flowers, and almost always nodding (leading to its common name). This one has a fairly localized distribution, native to Alaska, western Canada, and the Kamchatka Region of Siberia.
The guide for this flower has a new update. I’ve included individual descriptions on the photos for key identifying features of the plant. Going forward, all new posts will have this feature. It will take me some time to update the old posts as well. I’m constantly looking for better ways to make the guide more useful, and this one kind of came as a no-brainer. It should also help me more accurately identify many flowers.
In the background, I’m also working on categorizing all posts by Genus, Family, and Order, which will allow for searching for wildflowers by taxonomic rank in addition to color. This is a necessary end as I work on writing my print field guide, as the flowers will be organized by family. I expect these changes will go live on my website by the end of April, just in time for wildflower season!
Spring is Springing
It was over 50° F in Fairbanks, Alaska, yesterday, and it’s forecasted to get there again today. The last three days have been roughly 15° F above average for this time of year, and the snow has begun melting.
As much as I’d love to go out and explore in this fine weather, I’ve come down with a cold that is keeping me down. I thought it was allergies at first, as I usually have issues when break-up season begins, but yesterday hit me pretty hard. I did manage to muster up some energy to go stamp down the trails in the front yard with snowshoes and make some small pads where I can set up some cameras for potential aurora viewing tonight. I think that I’m feeling a bit better today than yesterday, but it’s hard to tell as I’m just starting my second cup of coffee now.
Anyway, thanks for reading! Keep your fingers crossed for clear skies and a nice aurora tonight. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep myself awake and will have some nice new photos tomorrow!
