Here is a brief note from Joan Berger to introduce you to Dr. Brown and some of the work he does.
Dr. Neal Brown is the world's leading authority on the aurora borealis. An aurora borealis is a beautiful display of moving colored lights in the northern night sky. It is sometimes called the Northern Lights. If you want to see pictures of this magnificent display click aurora boralis
Auroras in the southern part of the world are called the Southern Lights or aurora australis. The two are both called aurora polaris.
Auroras occur about 60 miles above the earth and may extend for hundreds of miles upward. They are most often green or yellow-green, yellow, and red. Sometimes shades of blue, gray, and violoet also are seen. The shapes and movements vary widely.
Auroras are believed to be related to sunspots, storms on the sun that send off electrical particles. About 60 miles above the earth, the atmosphere becomes very thin. There is almost a vacuum there. When these particles reach teh thin atmosphere, they cause the rarefied gases to glow. The varied colors are probably created by the interaction of the elctrified particles from the sun with different kinds of gases.
Here is Dr. Brown's introduction.
I live and work at 64.49' North and 147.52' West in Fairbanks,
Alaska where we can see the aurora borealis over 240 nights each year. From
late April through late July we can not see the aurora or stars in the sky
because we live in the land of the mid-night sun. The Arctic Circle, where
the sun stays above the horizon at least one day each year, is about 180
statue miles north of Fairbanks and while the sun goes below the northern
horizon as seen from Fairbanks, it is more like evening twilight than night
on summer solstice. Fairbanks hosts a tradition baseball game that is
played at midnight each June 21st.
I am a scientist at the Geophysical Institute, a research unit, of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and my name is Neal Brown. My official title now that I am retired after 27 years of teaching, research and administration of the only rocket range in the world owned and operated by a University, Poker Flat Research Range, is Senior Consultant. I was the Director of Poker Flat Research Range for 18 years, whose mission is to support studies of the aurora borealis.
Now I do what I call science education outreach. I know most people whether they are students, teachers or adults are interested in the space exploration programs of the United States of America and other countries. I use math and science examples from what I have learned working with space exploration missions to help show others how relevant math and science can be in their own daily lives. I developed and have run four sessions of a one-week long camp called Alaska Space Ventures here in Alaska that has served over four hundred middle school age students from Russia, Canada, Alaska and the "lower 48" which is how we in Alaska refer to everyone living in the contiguous states of the United States of America.
Most of all I love to tell people of any age, from kindergarten to senior citizen about the science of the aurora. I have lectured throughout Alaska and the rest of the United States and have appeared on several television programs such as Public Broadcasting's NEWTON'S APPLE, programs on the Discovery Channel and CNN news.
My wife Fran had two boys and I had two boys and a girl when we got married in 1980. All of our children have now graduated from colleges at least once. Two are back in colleges doing graduate work, one in Physical Oceanography and one in Geology. One is on the faculty of the University of Oregon in their Teaching Effectiveness Program, one is a lawyer in New York City and one is a software design engineer working for Microsoft. Our daughter is the geologist and has spent two months in the Antarctic dry valleys each of the last two years. My wife is a technical editor for the State of Alaska Division of Geology and Geophysical Surveys. Four of our children were born in Alaska. All have lived here more than anywhere else, till they graduated from college.
Fran Tannian (and sometimes Neal Brown-WN7NZ)
907-479-2773
1569 La Rue Lane
Fairbanks, Alaska
99709
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