Aurora Storm

Back in 2010, Loch Ness Productions participated in an expedition to Iceland to see and photograph the aurora borealis. That experience made us really appreciate the effort and expertise it takes to do successful time-lapse imaging of the aurorae. We got a precious few hundred frames during our trip; the weather and the upper atmosphere weren’t particularly cooperative on that trip. Bottom line — it’s an incredible amount of work to get usable footage, let alone great images!

With that experience in mind, we were very interested to receive a request from the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks to distribute their first fulldome show production, Aurora Storm.

It’s now in our BONUS! Specials and Shorts section. The show has no license fee. We’re charging only a nominal price for the preparation, storage, and formatting of the show files.

We asked Dr. Robert Herrick, the show’s producer, about his team’s work.

LNP: What was the genesis of Aurora Storm?

RH: Aurora Storm was funded by a NASA Science Mission Directorate grant for educational outreach. The grant primarily funded us to present astronomy and space science with a digital portable planetarium, bringing it to Alaska’s rural towns and villages, some of which are the most remote communities in North America.

We started including short clips of time-lapse auroral footage in our presentations, and the highly positive reception led to the development of this movie.

LNP: What is the main message you want to get across in the show?

RH: We are primarily just trying to present a fairly amazing experience, seeing the aurora, that we know most people will not have the opportunity to do first-hand.

LNP: What reactions has the show gotten from your local audiences?

RH: Even though our local audiences have all seen the aurora in person, they still are enthralled by the show. Some of the footage is of spectacular auroral displays that even we do not see very often. Also, viewing the aurora live usually involves standing outside on a really cold night, so seeing it in a climate-controlled environment is a treat.

LNP: What would you tell educators who might be interested in getting this show for their domes?

RH: The science of the aurora is presented in a way that enables all age levels to learn something of value, and the movie should complement high school physics and chemistry classes particularly well. The opening cultural discussion covers some unique aspects of North American history that are not often covered in general history classes.

LNP: Tell us a little about your production team.

RH: The show was primarily the product of staff and students at the Geophysical Institute and the Museum of the North, both located on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Most of the time-lapse aurora imaging, and scientific expertise, was supplied by Poul Jensen, then a graduate student in Space Physics. Scripting and editing were done by Roger Topp and colleagues at the museum; they have ample experience creating rectangular-format movies, but this was their first foray into the planetarium format. The museum already had displays and a full-length rectangular-format movie about the aurora, and we were able to draw upon that material for cultural and scientific parts of the narrative.

LNP: We hear Poul Jensen talk about photographing the aurorae as part of the show. Tell us more about Dr. Jensen and his work.

RH: Poul Jensen is from Denmark and came to Alaska to obtain a Ph.D. in Space Physics (the science of the aurora is part of this field). While here, he became passionate about photographing the aurora and has done so extensively. In addition to the footage he contributed to our show, he has also produced a DVD of aurora footage set to music, which is available at his web site, AstralisProductions.com.

LNP: Thank you, Dr. Herrick.

We encourage you to preview Aurora Storm and find a place for it in your dome’s repertoire. With ongoing studies of the Sun and its influence on our planet, this is a multidisciplinary show you can use with topics ranging from cultural aspects, earth science and astronomy to geophysics and astrophysics. And it’s just simply a beautiful experience!