Solar Tsunamis Project Launches… Literally

Timed to coincide with the Equinox, Viva Expeditions two aurora-hunting flights departed from Christchurch on both Saturday and Sunday. The flights followed paths that were carefully crafted by Otago Museum’s Director – and resident aurora-chaser – Dr Ian Griffin. They took passengers east and south into the auroral oval, the area around the geomagnetic South Pole that is a hotspot for the glowing greenish purple lights. Accompanying Dr Griffin will be two Otago Museum staff, as well as expert astronomers and astrophysicists, who were on hand to answer questions about how aurorae happen and why they matter to us here on earth.

Because beyond being ethereally beautiful, they represent a major phenomenon that is the focus of a new, cutting-edge research project being run out of the University of Otago investigating the impact of solar weather on Earth. Solar Tsunamis is a five-year endeavour to understand, and prepare for, the potential range of impacts of solar activity on our daily lives. Although these include spectacular aurora displays, they can also induce geomagnetic currents that have the potential to wipe out our electrical grid and communication systems.

In this way, solar activity is not unlike geological activity: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And yet while NZ has spent decades studying the Alpine Fault and setting up tsunami early warning systems for our coastlines – which we saw activated to great effect in early March – the impact of high solar activity in New Zealand remains unstudied and relatively unknown.

And that’s what Professor Craig Rodger, from the University of Otago, is hoping to achieve. In partnership with GNS Science, Transpower, First Gas, the universities of Canterbury and Victoria, as well as with international partners from across the globe, Solar Tsunamis is investigating a global threat at a much more fine-grained level. The extent of the hazards that solar storms can cause, and how to respond to them, can vary greatly not only between countries but between islands and within regions.

And as the research progresses, Otago Museum’s Science Engagement team will travel the country to facilitate communities’ and iwi engagement with the research and the results. Toni Hoeta, Otago Museum’s Science Engagement Coordinator Māori, who is working on the Solar Tsunami project said, “Here in Aotearoa, we grew up with wonderful stories about the world around us, from Māui slowing Tamanuiterā (atua of the sun) to the various strengths of the children of Ranginui and Papatūānuku. We want to excite Rangatahi to engage with the physical sciences by demonstrating how these oral histories we all know and love connect our past to our future. I think the work we do is summed up by the whakataukī, “Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua”, ‘I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on the past.’”

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