Specialists in individual and group travel to the Arctic regions for over thirty years.
1.800.661.3830
greatcanadiantravel.com
Predicting the Unpredictable?
When the Northern Lights decide to make an appearance, their fickle temperament and unreliability becomes easy to forgive. The seductively hypnotic displays effortlessly displace the frustration of waiting through a cold winter night, fingers crossed and head tilted to the sky scanning for those first tantalizing whisps. Although they are undeniably magical,
Jason Raynor is disarming their unpredictable nature by employing the science behind the lights to forecast their appearances. In a nutshell, solar winds carry charged particles from the sun into earth’s upper atmosphere where they collide with gases, releasing their energy in an eruption of undulating light. By compiling solar wind and particle data from various sources, Raynor produces a three day aurora forecast that predicts when the Northern Lights will appear over Canada’s North and at what level of intensity. The development could be fortuitous for tour companies eager to deliver a spectacle to Northern Lights tour customers. The good fortune of aurora hunters may be compounded in the year to come as the sun reaches a high point in its 11 year weather cycle; with it a peak in the lights’ frequency and intensity is predicted. Raynor’s forecast is updated every 15 minutes and posted free of charge at
www.auroraforecast.com.
18
arcticjournal.ca
March/April 2012
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