Category: Media Events

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Solar Tsunamis ravage earth

An extremely large “G5” geomagnetic storm occurred on Saturday 11 May 2024, leading to widespread aurora seen all over the country and all over the globe.

Extreme space weather can strike at any time, and New Zealand has to be ready. Professor Craig Rodger leads an international team of scientists working on making New Zealand’s energy infrastructure able to withstand large space weather events like Saturday’s geomagnetic storm. The Solar Tsunamis Endeavour Programme led out of the University of Otago Physics Department helped Transpower design their space weather response plan which was enacted for the first time during this event.

Craig appeared in a series of interviews by Radio New Zealand on Saturday 11 May 2024 about the solar storm. Coverage of the space weather event appeared in multiple media outlets:

Aurora seen across New Zealand on Saturday 11 May 2024 led to interviews which screen on TV1 news on Sunday 12 May 2024, as well as a different interview on TV3 news, and Stuff’s Newsable podcast programme. Saturday’s storm wasn’t the end of the story, with more aurora activity predicted for Sunday night appearing in

On Monday Craig followed up with predictions of more southern lights

You can also watch Craig and former PhD student Dr Daniel McManus explain how physics helped keep the lights on over at TikToc.

A superb effort presenting science that matters to the public. Well done Craig!

For recent data in the Ōtepoti Dunedin area, and a “nowcast” predicting your chances of observing aurora, check out the Solar Tsunamis Aurora Australis Alert. The G5 event can be seen in the data from Sunday:

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Media Events News Seminars

Waves in a Plasma Ocean: Wave-Particle Interactions Throughout the Solar System

Associate Professor Allison Jaynes

University of Iowa

All planetary and smaller bodies in our solar system are embedded in a sea of plasma, like boulders in a terrestrial ocean. Their surfaces or magnetic fields run into this ocean of space plasma, generated primarily by our Sun, and create a whole range of fascinating effects as a result.

The American Physical Society’s Katherine E. Weimer Award winner talks about the plasma ocean of our solar system, from aurora and “killer electrons” to the furthest reaches of space exploration.

This talk will be accessible to all backgrounds, knowledge of Physics not required.

WEDNESDAY 17 April, 5:00PM, Archway 3, University of Otago

 

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Potential drivers of the recent large Antarctic ozone holes

Despite public perception, the Antarctic ozone hole has been remarkably massive and long-lived over the past years, and University of Otago researchers believe there are factors beyond CFCs that are contributing. In their ground breaking work just published in Nature Communications, University of Otago Physicists Hannah Kessenich, Annika Seppälä, and Craig Rodger analysed ozone levels from 2004 to 2022, and found there is much less ozone in the centre of the Antarctic ozone hole compared to 19 years ago. While overall Antarctic ozone is recovering due to the Montreal Protocol that banned the harmful ozone depleting CFCs, the slow ozone recovery is focused on the outer parts of the ozone hole.

The Otago team used 20 years of satellite data from the Microwave Limb Sounder instrument on the NASA Aura satellite (https://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov) to identify what drivers the continued ozone depletion in the ozone hole core, and their study highlights the pressing need for comprehensive and ongoing monitoring of the ozone hole due to the critical role the ozone layer plays in protecting life on earth.

Continue reading “Potential drivers of the recent large Antarctic ozone holes”
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Media Events Seminars

2023 Dan Walls Medal Public Lecture: Maths powers black holes, the Universe and everything

Prof. David Wiltshire

University of Canterbury

Sixty years ago New Zealander Roy Kerr helped revolutionize physics, achieving what had eluded scientists for 47 years. He discovered the solution to Einstein’s equations defining space around a rotating star or black hole. He combined advanced mathematics with one key simplifying insight: All bodies collapsing under their own gravity inevitably rotate faster.

The Kerr solution became the basis for revolutions first in fundamental physics in the 1960s, in astronomy in the 1970–80s, and in cosmology in the 1990s and beyond. The discoveries of gravitational waves from colliding black holes, first in 2015, and then from colliding neutron stars in 2017, mean that decades of further scientific revolutions are just beginning.

Continue reading “2023 Dan Walls Medal Public Lecture: Maths powers black holes, the Universe and everything”
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Media Events

Hydrogen trucking with Energy graduate Yoyo Wu

Otago BAppSc(Energy) graduate Yoyo Wu working on hydrogen trucking at HW Richardson talks about their first hydrogen conversion!

This link provides the full interview.

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Media Events

Why is Antarctic sea ice vanishing?

 

(Left to right) Lars Smedsrud (University of Bergen, Norway), Inga Smith (University of Otago) and Britney Schmidt (Cornell University, USA) inspect frazil ice that has formed on Icefin, 3 November 2021.

Sea Ice has been diminishing at an alarming rate, but what is the science? Associate Professor Inga Smith and NIWA’s Dr Natalie Robinson discuss sea ice Physics on Radio NZ, The Detail NZ podcast: “Why is Antarctic sea ice vanishing?”.

 

 

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Beverly Clock on Seven Sharp

Myles Thayer and Craig Rodger went on Seven Sharp to expound on the famous Beverly clock.

The Beverly clock was featured on Seven Sharp – The clock that doesn’t stop! 

The Beverly clock on the 3rd floor of the Physics Department is powered by atmospheric pressure changes and has run continuously despite not being manually wound since its construction by Arthur Beverly in 1864. As one of the longest running experiments in the world, it predates even the founding of the University of Otago in 1869.