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A spectacular night for auroras
On Friday the 11th of October 2024, several of the magnetometers in the Solar Tsunamis MANA network recorded a very strong geomagnetic disturbance in the wake of a large Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) emitted from the Sun a few days before. The plots below show the strength of the horizontal magnetic field during the storm…
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The showcase visits Raetihi Marae
It has been a very busy year for the Solar Tsunamis showcase and the Tūhura Otago Museum team. After being installed in the Papakura Museum in South Auckland, the exhibition and planetarium film then travelled to Raetihi, the hometown of former Solar Tsunamis outreach coordinator Toni Hoeta. Wiebke Heise from GNS Science and Kristin Pratscher from…
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Solar Tsunamis meeting with Firstgas – 2024
On 19-20 of August, the Solar Tsunamis team had their annual meeting with Firstgas in New Plymouth. Malcolm Ingham and Tim Divett from Victoria University of Wellington have been working closely with Firstgas to model the response of gas pipeline network electrical systems to Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GICs) caused by space weather, and they shared…
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Solar Tsunamis on the big… round… screen!
As part of their work on Solar Tsunamis outreach and engagement, the team at Tūhura Otago Museum has been working with artists at Ariki Creative and animation director Oana Jones (University of Canterbury) to develop a planetarium show. It had its first screenings at MOTAT in Auckland last month, and will be heading to Papakura…
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Solar Tsunamis roadshow and talks at MOTAT
The Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland started hosting the Solar Tsunamis roadshow from Saturday 15 June 2024. They also had a “Weather Day” on Sunday 16 June 2024, and Dr Johnny Malone-Leigh and Craig Rodger travelled to MOTAT to give public talks on aurora and space weather. They met up with Marijn Kouwenhoven…
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Recent field work
Swampy Summit Trip – 21st March 2024 James and Johnny went up to Swampy Summit to diagnose and fix issues with the magnetometer, VLF antenna and riometer. The magnetometer was picking up vibrations from wind, which they suspected was due to a flax plant growing out of the side of the chamber. Since the magnetometer…
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A big weekend for the Solar Tsunamis team!
This blog is reproduced from the Otago Physics Department. Check the link for the latest updates. Above: An earlier photo of an aurora in Dunedin, courtesy of Ian Griffin An extremely large “G5” geomagnetic storm occurred on Saturday 11 May 2024, leading to widespread aurora seen all over the country and all over the globe.…
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Mikhail’s trip to the UK and Germany
In March-April 2024 Mikhail travelled to the UK and Germany. He visited Solar Tsunamis team member, the British Geological Survey (BGS), the Geomagnetic Observatory in Niemegk (NGK) and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and delivered talks about his work on the Solar Tsunamis project at each place. Last but not least, he met up with some old friends. On…
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Welcome Dr Johnny Malone-Leigh
Dr Johnny Malone-Leigh has joined the Solar Tsunamis project, taking up the role of deployment lead on the MANA project (Magnetometer Array for New Zealand Aotearoa) . Johnny’s role will be focused on the managing the magnetometer network, which monitors magnetic field variations across New Zealand during space weather events and geomagnetic storms. This can…
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European Space Weather Week 2023
In mid-November Craig and Daniel Mac Manus left Dunedin to travel to Europe. The main focus of the trip was the 19th European Space Weather Week (ESWW2023) which occurred in Toulouse, France. Craig and Daniel both presented posters – Craig’s on the Solar Tsunamis research project, and Daniel on GIC mitigation. Solar Tsunamis research team members Mark Clilverd, Andrew Lapthorn, Tim…
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Expedition 15 to Antarctica
On 1 November, 2023 James Brundell and Daniel Mac Manus took off from Christchurch heading for Scott Base, Antarctica. James and Daniel make up Otago Space Physics Expedition 15, which was hoped to involve only a short trip to Scott Base. The main goal was to examine noise levels on our VLF electric field antenna near Scott Base, but also to collect…
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National Grid UK Technical Talk
On the 8th of November, Mark Clilverd from the British Antarctic Survey delivered an online seminar to National Grid, an energy company operating in the UK and US, titled “Managing the impact of solar flares in the UK – preparing for an extreme event“. There was much interest in this technical talk, and it was…
