Aurora borealis, shown in Alaska in September, can be seen less frequently from Seattle
ANCHORAGE ? A Web site is taking some of the guesswork out of when to make a thermos of hot coffee and venture out into the night to take in the northern lights, even if you're far away from the aurora epicenter in Alaska.
The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has revamped its Web site for aurora borealis watchers. The improved site offers interactive world maps and three forecasts: daily, extended and long term.
"This is one [of the most], if not the most, visited Web sites we have," said Dirk Lummerzheim, a professor of the upper atmosphere at the institute, who helped revamp the Web site, www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast
It's not difficult to see the northern lights in Alaska's second-largest city: Fairbanks averages about 243 nights a year of auroral activity. Anchorage, 360 miles south, has about 30 good nights a year.
"The probability of seeing aurora in Fairbanks is ridiculously high," Lummerzheim said about the spectacular displays of green and red lights arcing, swirling and dancing overhead.
But the Web site also could be a valuable tool for those in the Lower 48, where sightings are far less frequent. New York and Chicago have about 10 nights of aurora activity a year, Seattle five to 10 nights, and New Orleans and San Francisco about one glimpse each year. Even Cuba has a display about once every 10 years.
The site was popular even before getting a new look in August, receiving about 20,000 hits during some months. Charles Deehr, the institute's professor emeritus of physics, expects the Web site to draw even more interest now because it is interactive, providing users with five maps to choose from: Alaska, North America, Europe, North Polar and South Polar. Once a user calls up a map, the Web site pulls it up again automatically the next time the user logs on.
Deehr, 70, has been preparing the forecasts for more than a decade. The one-hour and 28-day forecasts are done automatically. The three- to five-day forecast is more complicated.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/n ... cation=rss
