Northern

Christmas lights might not be the only thing lighting up these dark December nights, as a solar storm is expected to bring bright northern lights to the Prairies this weekend.Aurora borealis is considered among the greatest natural wonders and scientists say it starts with the sun."The sun is sort of spewing off protons and electrons as a plasma in all directions, all the time, we call that the solar wind," said Bill Archer, mission manager at the Canadian Space Agency. "The magnetic field of the Earth actually forces the…

Philip Larkin famously located Britain’s sexual revolution in 1963, “Between the end of the Chatterley ban / And the Beatles’ first LP.” Until that cork‑popping moment, sex for the repressed people of these islands meant only “a wrangle for the ring”, and “a shame that started at sixteen”; whereas after it, “every life became / A brilliant breaking of the bank”. The fact that Larkin, then in his early 40s, felt this had come “rather late” for him personally didn’t stop him naming the year an Annus Mirabilis.The year 1963…

Growing up in rural Northern Ireland in the 1970s, Martin Doyle glimpsed few signs of the Troubles. There were no peace walls, he never walked in a victim’s funeral cortege and only once did he spot soldiers patrolling his village. Yet his life was saturated by the conflict. It was like an invisible pandemic, one that he knew was striking down his neighbours, but had not yet visited his home.When his parents went shopping, he was expected to sit in the parked car: in order to deter car bombers, no vehicles were permitted…

Lateral expansion study sites: Syysjärvi, Kaamanen, Salamajärvi, Patvinsuo and Siikaneva. The map also shows location of the main mire complex types in Finland: raised mires in the south and aapa mires further in the north. Map lines delineate study areas and do not necessarily depict accepted national boundaries. Credit: Global Change Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16988 According to a new study published in Global Change…

Credit: Shutterstock/Troy Wegman The level of microplastic pollution in New Zealand lakes is comparable with those in the US or Europe, despite much lower population densities, according to our global analysis of plastic pollution in freshwater lakes and reservoirs. Globally, our results show two types of lakes are particularly…

A solar storm this week means the Northern Lights are taking a trip south. The celestial display, also known as the Aurora Borealis, is expected to be visible in more than a dozen U.S. states on Thursday night, according to the Aurora forecast from the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute.What Is Planet Nine and Why Can’t We Find It?The Kp-index, a global measure of geomagnetic activity, goes from zero to nine. On July 13, it is expected to hit six. Anything above a four is considered a storm, and a six…

People often consider the northern lights some of the most beautiful sky phenomena you can spot. However, it’s sometimes hard to get somewhere that they’re visible. That could change later this week, though, as skywatchers could get a chance to see the northern lights this July in up to 17 different U.S. states. The lights are expected to appear in the sky on July 13, which is a Thursday. Most of these phenomena are caused by solar winds coming in from the sun and striking Earth’s magnetic field, and this time…

Journalists who covered Northern Ireland during the Troubles used to tell a story, possibly apocryphal, about gaggles of children that would trail after camera crews filming on the Falls Road. “Hey, mister,” they would shout out, “do you fancy a soundbite?”The anecdote was a wry admission that the conflict had reached media saturation and that local people had become all too media savvy. Some riots had a staged, theatrical quality. Coverage of the Troubles became a blur of burning cars, shootings and funerals. For…

(A) Location map of the Central Volcanic Zone (CVZ) of the Andes, including the Northern, Southern, and Austral Volcanic Zones (NVZ, SVZ, and AVZ, respectively), showing the Lastarria volcano as a red triangle. (B) General view of the northern side of Lastarria volcano, including the four fumarolic fields (F1–F4). (C) Drone photographs of the fumarolic field 1 (F1), showing the location of the 2019 sulfur flows (samples F1A and F2; coordinate 25.1552°S,…

Ice floes in the Arctic. Credit: Mike Dunn, NOAA Climate Program Office, NABOS 2006 Expedition In the face of the ongoing climate crisis, scientists from many fields are directing their expertise at understanding how different climate systems have changed and will continue to do so as climate change progresses. Robert Lund, professor and department chair of statistics at the UC Santa Cruz Baskin School of Engineering,…