Kp is a measure of geomagnetic activity
Try another Kp below:

• 🦊 Psst! KpFox here, watching the Aurora with you 🦊
• 🦊 Try changing the aurora activity level...
  Touch one of the numbers below, 0 to 9
• 🎤 Narrator: KpFox also has a degree in Space Physics, and is sharing what she knows with her youngest kit. Let's listen in
• 🦊 Kp Level 0 is a very quiet night of aurora
• 🦊 The main colour is green, and the motion is slow and muted
• 🦊 Kp Level 4 is Unsettled Conditions
• 🦊 Purples and even red may be visible above the green, and the aurora move more actively
• 🎤 Narrator: KpFox is always impressed at how humans need to label nature to understand it. The aurora know nothing about their Kp number!
• 🦊 Kp Level 5 is is considered a minor geomagnetic storm.
• 🦊 Below the green curtain, a magenta fringe might appear, moving rapidly
• 🦊 ...the curtains twist up along their length, forming bright rays and folds
• 🦊 Kp Level 6 and above are less common, and the aurora can appear further and further south and even overhead
• 🎤 Narrator: KpFox lives in Northern Canada, and can see them on most clear nights. Jealous!
• 🦊 DYK: You can see the aurora from an airliner. They would still be 70km above you, but at least you are above the clouds
• 🎤 Narrator: KpFox has attended international conferences, hence her experience with air travel. She packs light
• 🦊 The aurora aren't the same all night, the activity changes in cycles called "substorms", often several a night
• 🦊 We are looking at the most active part of a substorm, with the most colour and activity, it might last just minutes
• 🦊 Quiz: Does the International Space Station fly through the aurora?
• 🦊 Yes and No - most aurora is below, but the uppermost reaches can be over 350km up, where the ISS orbits
• 🎤 Narrator: KpFox applied to be an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency. Space suit tail-oring is in progress 🤣
• 🦊 Green aurora are most commonly seen. They are from excited oxygen atoms, and human eyes are most sensitive to green
• 🦊 Oxygen higher up can also emit deep reds, and nitrogen can emit magenta, blues, and reds
• 🦊 ...with a colour palette of red, green, and blue, almost any colour can show up because of mixing!
• 🦊 How high does this Kp scale go? how crazy can the aurora get?
• 🦊 Although it would be awesome if they went all the way to 11, the scale goes to Kp9, and Extreme Storm.
• 🦊 There has not been Kp9 conditions since 2003!
• 🎤 Narrator: KpFox's great-grandmother remembers the Kp9 aurora of 2003. "Those were the days," she'd say...
• 🦊 The sun is just now coming out of a period of minimum activity. This is called the Solar Cycle, and activity will peak in about 2024-2025. So will aurora!
• 🦊 Ok, that's it for for me, I have to get this little kit off to den. Visit any time to see current Kp levels and just relax with the aurora.
• 🎤 Narrator: Thanks, KpFox, and thanks for the Thermos of coffee.
• 🦊 Stay foxy 🖖 💙 💜 💚
• 🎤 😊