Interview on KPCC about the flare and aurorae

I was interviewed by Patt Morrison on NPR’s KPCC radio in Los Angeles today about the solar storm. It’s online for your listening pleasure, or you can grab the MP3 directly.

We talked about the event itself, how it was not nearly as strong as it was thought it would be (though still producing some aurorae and a bit of ground current in Sweden), what impacts it might have had, and what we can learn from things like this to protect ourselves in the future.

I really enjoyed this interview; Patt is knowledgeable and easy to talk to, and I hope I can be on the show in the future to talk about more astronomical events!

January 24th, 2012 7:59 PM Tags: KPCC, Patt Morrison, solar flare
by Phil Plait in Astronomy | 3 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

3 Responses to “Interview on KPCC about the flare and aurorae”

1. Chris Says:
January 24th, 2012 at 8:46 pm

I knew the aurora wouldn’t be that strong. The weather was clear here. Ack, foiled again!
2. kuhnigget Says:
January 24th, 2012 at 10:07 pm

Patt the Hatt!

She was one of my teachers in journalism school….waaaaay back when.
3. Blargh Says:
January 25th, 2012 at 3:14 am

I don’t have audio here so I can’t hear if it’s addressed, but the reported ground surge reading on SpaceWeather you linked to yesterday is from Norway, not Sweden…

About Bad Astronomy

Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.

The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.

Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com




		Bad Astronomy was chosen as one of Time.com's Best Blogs of 2009.

Death from the Skies!

Order a copy of Death from the Skies! from Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.

"If things worked the way I wanted them to, any reporter about to do another 'sensational' story on deadly meteors would consult this volume, and bang! common sense would find its way into the news. How strange would that world be?"
-- Adam Savage, Mythbusters

"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising