Changing the Perspective: Looking at the Aurora from Space

In this inaugural blog post by Dr. Maria-Theresia Walach, a Senior Research Associate in Lancaster’s Space and Planetary Physics group, we learn about how scientists study the aurora from space – including the recently revived IMAGE spacecraft. When we go aurora hunting, we need to be in the right place, at the right time and…

Why Kp is a poor indicator for auroral alerts

A question we often get asked at AuroraWatch UK is why don’t our alerts always match up with the estimated current Kp value. In the following post, which first appeared on his blog, Dr. Steve Marple discusses why Kp can be a poor indicator for auroral alerts. What is Kp? Kp is a an index…