Aurora Skepticalis

Mark Honeychurch - 13 May 2024

This weekend those of us who weren’t screwed over by cloudy evenings were treated to a rare view of the Aurora Australis. As skeptics, though, you won’t be surprised to hear that there’s no lack of scaremongering when it comes to the aurora. Take, for instance, this iPhone app that promises that you can “Protect your Life” from solar storms:

For just $9.99 a month, Solar Alert promises to be “a protection service offered through an auto-renewable subscription” that is “intended to save your life from the expected major solar storm”. It offers protection against a list of scary scenarios, including “malfunctions in the operation of telecommunications”, “devastating overloads in electrical grids”, “extreme blockage situations” in lifts and traffic, and even “possible earthquakes caused by intense solar activity”. The US Geological Survey has something to say about that last claim:

It has never been demonstrated that there is a causal relationship between space weather and earthquakes. Indeed, over the course of the Sun’s 11-year variable cycle, the occurrence of flares and magnetic storms waxes and wanes, but earthquakes occur without any such 11-year variability. Since earthquakes are driven by processes in the Earth’s interior, they would occur even if solar flares and magnetic storms were to somehow cease occurring.

The app promises to supply you with up to a three day warning of solar storms, using “data supplied by NOAA and NASA”. From what I can tell, these warnings are nothing you won’t already receive from your chosen news outlet or social media feed in our modern connected world.

Closer to home, one of my Facebook “friends”, a member of the Eastern Lightning church, is using the fear of the “storm” to suggest that we all need God’s protection:

Dan Ryan has been keeping an eye on some local Facebook groups, and spotted this daft warning posted by a clueless, somewhat paranoid concerned citizen:

Despite these warnings, many people managed to get out and take some decent pictures of the aurora this weekend, including Craig Shearer, who has written up about his attempts to take pictures of the occurrence, and some interesting information about the science behind the pretty lights in the sky. Bronwyn has both written a movie review for us (and I had to watch the movie before proofreading her article, so that I didn’t read any spoilers), and started delving into a fascinating character who’s indelibly linked to the NZ Skeptics, Colin Amery. Finally, I’ve had a look at some of the nonsense around the organised attempt to “save” Marsden Point Refinery.