MY PASSION TO SEE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS CONTINUES!
DESTINATION ON FEBRUARY 14, 2018: The Aurora Borealis Lodge, 22 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska
Hosts: Mok and Akiko Kumagai who own and built Logan’s Chalet – two-bedroom log home with a Northern Lights viewing platform in the front yard.
GPS Coordinates: 65 Degrees 2’ 46.9536” N, 27’ 3.4848” W – 22 miles North of Fairbanks, Alaska
Elevation: ~ 1,000 feet
Sunrise/Sunset: 9:00 AM / 4:45 PM [6:00 PM GMT /7:45 AM GMT]; ~ 8 hours of Daylight
Moon Phase: New Moon. The Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude – lunar disk is not visible to the unaided eye – 0.1%. Bottom line, there is no moon.
Temperature last month on January 29, 2018: High: -21 Degrees F Low: -34 Degrees F
Forecast February 15, 2018: High: 20 Degrees F Low: 2 Degrees F: BALMY
Transportation: 4-Wheel drive vehicle is mandatory!
Packing: Sorrell Boots, insulated powder pants, down jacket, long underwear, Dale of Norway sweaters we bought in Norway, warm hat and ear covers, Balaclava Windproof Ski Mask, insulated ski gloves, HotHands hand and foot warmers, a flask of Yukon Jack [“is a taste born of hoary nights, when lonely men struggled to keep their fires lit and cabins warm…the Black sheep of Canadian Liquors”] for inner ‘heat.’
The Cast:
Barbara and Mel Tayler
Sue and John Lukrich
Roselie and Andre
This will be my third attempt to see the Northern Lights. The first two tries were a bust.
If you had been following my blog, you may recall that we traveled to the top of Norway, inside the Arctic Circle, in February 2016 for the specific purpose of seeing the Northern Lights. A prerequisite to seeing nature’s display is a clear sky. Unfortunately, Poseidon was feeling very feisty and served up a persistent cloud cover with occasional snow and sleet, therein dashing our enthusiasm against the cold rocks of the Norwegian Seashore. Not willing to abandon our goal, Sue, Roselie and I toasted (with tablespoons of Norwegian cod liver oil – Yecch!) our resolve not to give up and vowed to plan another excursion This week’s trip is it – two years in the making!
Sue conducted a lot of research to find the right time and place to maximize the probability of success and to secure lodging more than a year in advance. The Cleary Summit area, 22 miles north of Fairbanks is locally and internationally known as one of the best places to view and photograph the northern lights. There will be no moon during our stay….so we can appreciate the full power of the lights. Now, all we need is for Poseidon to cooperate.
Why am I so persistent about seeing the Northern Lights? To save you the time to go back to my blog in 2016, let me repeat what I wrote two years ago.
I’ve had an interest in space, astronomy, and celestial bodies from the time I was about ten years old. I tried building a very crude reflective telescope but never got it to work. I read every science fiction book I could find in the local library. We were talking about the 1950’s when I knew little about the Northern Lights, other than a few photographs. I had a View-Master with a wheel that included Northern Lights images. I was fascinated! My interest has not waned over the years.
So, what is the Aurora Borealis? The first ‘recorded’ sighting occurred in New England in 1719 and created alarm and fear that the end of the world was imminent. It was apparently not the first time they observed the lights. Pierre Gassendi, an astronomer, named the lights Aurora Borealis in 1621. While Europeans who witnessed the events during the Middle Ages believed they were a warning from God that bad things were to come. By the end of 18th century, interpretation of sightings moved to one of curiosity and delight.
In 1960, NASA discovered these lights were the result of collisions between electrically charged particles [electrons, protons] with gases such as nitrogen and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. These electrons and protons originated from the surface of our sun as a result of solar flares or massive explosions at the surface. One can observe these near-surface blasts through a telescope. The eruptions eject a mantle of electrons, ions, and protons into space. The emissions create a solar wind that ‘blows’ into space. A day or two after an event, particles approach Earth. The Earth’s magnetic field rejects most of the intruders. However, the magnetic field [shield] is weakest near the north and south magnetic poles. Hence the charged particles get funneled into these ‘drains’ and allow the particles to reach our atmosphere containing various gases – oxygen, nitrogen. Entering the atmosphere occurs at an altitude of 50-400 miles. As the particles collide with the gases, they release energy as they move to a lower energy level. This ‘released energy’ takes the form of visible light – the Northern Lights.
The 1960 discovery initiated research projects throughout the scientific community and continued to this day in humankind’s quest to understand the phenomena. One of the scientific centers for this research was at the University of Utah. The University had established an Upper Air Research Department, funded by the US Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory and the National Science Foundation, with a mission to study this near-space area. The staff included about 25 faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduate students.
I was fortunate to earn my way through the University of Utah engineering program by working as a member of this team. One of the areas of focus was the Aurora Borealis. We designed and built an instrument package to be carried into the Aurora Borealis on board an Aerobee sounding rocket. The purpose was to measure the total energy deposition in the ionosphere from these particle fluxes. To achieve this, we designed and built a scintillator instrument containing a crystal wafer as the detector. As each particle would hit the crystal wafer, the crystal would emit a flash or spark. A photomultiplier tube would amplify these ‘hits’ so they could be easily measured and recorded. Hence it was able to measure the intensity and volume of the bombardment onto the earth’s atmosphere. By sending the rockets to different heights, we could measure the intensity as a function of altitude and thereby understand the life cycle of solar winds and resultant color, size, and duration of the lights. The design and construction of this scintillator became the subject of my thesis.
That trip to launch this package was scheduled during finals week, so I chose to forgo the opportunity – miss #1. The Norway trip, miss #2.
So here we are, my third attempt. The old saying is “third time’s a charm.” I am hopeful and very excited.
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