Astronomers optimistic more light shows could hit Victoria after ‘jaw dropping’ Aurora Australis
Stargazers are likely to be in luck with astronomers cautiously optimistic that more spectacular aurora events will light up Victorian night skies in the coming weeks.
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Astronomers are optimistic Victorians could witness more auroras in the coming weeks following the weekend’s “jaw dropping display”.
The geomagnetic storm that hit the planet on Saturday and created the spectacular Aurora Australis event was the most intense since October 2003.
The event registered a global reading of “G5” (the most severe) on the G-Scale, which measures the significance of these storms.
In Australia the storm came in at a “G3” on Saturday, before dropping to a “G1” on Sunday.
Astronomers remain cautiously optimistic that Victorians could be treated to more auroras in the near future, but caution the events are “very unpredictable”.
Monash University Physics and Astronomy professor Michael Brown predicted “there will be some good aurora to be seen” in the coming weeks and months.
“It might not be as good as Saturday but it could be,” he said.
“Over the next few weeks and months there’ll be some more opportunities. The sun spot group that launched these auroras is disappearing from our side of the sun but will be back in a little under a month and could start kicking things off again, but it is unpredictable so caution is required.”
Professor Brown watched Saturday’s aurora with thousands of others at Cape Schanck along the Mornington Peninsula, describing it as “one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen my career”.
“People were expecting something good but this was jaw droppingly good, it exceeded all expectations,” he said.
“On Saturday there was this big group of sun spots that formed on the sun and started launching solar flares and coronal mass ejections. A blast of solar wind that came from that hit us on the weekend and knocked things out of the park.”
Ken James who runs the Snake Valley Observatory, about 30km west of Ballarat, said the event was a “once in a lifetime thing”.
“People travel all the way to the Arctic circle to see one and we’ve got one here in our backyard,” he said.
“What was really strange about this one, because it was so powerful, was that it was all visible to the naked eye and in colour which is extremely rare.”
For those hoping to get a good glimpse of the next one, professor Brown recommended anywhere with “really dark skies with clear views towards the south”.
Astronomers measure geomagnetic activity using the “K-Index”, with activity on the larger end of the scale increasing the chances of seeing an aurora.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, a K-Index of 5 could see auroras visible on Victorian coastlines.
The latest K-Index reading from the Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre came in at 2 in the Australian region at midday on Monday.
On Saturday the K-Index peaked at 8 in Australia, with 9 being the highest on the scale.
The Bureau’s aurora alert remains active on its website, stating that “aurora may be observed during local night time hours in good observing conditions at high latitudes”.
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