Aurora Odds: A Kp of Two Over Sunday Night's Sky

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistSunday night's sky is in crisis. The aurora forecast is a Kp of two, per NOAA. Two!

2. 

   Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentFive or higher on that scale is when you get a geomagnetic storm.

3. 

   Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentTwo is below storm level, so the lights stay near the Arctic Circle, if at all.

4. 

   Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistSo nothing over Yorkshire. I put the good anorak out, Nina. It's laid on the bed.

5. 

   Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThen put it back. The three day forecast peaks at a Kp of five, which is a G1 storm. That's the minimum.

6. 

   Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistA G1. Minimum. Lovely, we're hoping for the smallest storm there is.

7. 

   Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThe Moon is a first quarter Sunday night, about forty-two percent lit, per the Naval Observatory. That's bright enough to wash out faint things.

8. 

   Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistThe Moon's interfering. Of course it is.

9. 

   Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentMonday at three forty-one PM Eastern, Japan launches MMX toward Phobos, a moon of Mars, to collect samples and bring them home.

10. 

    Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistThey're bringing back soil from a moon. I can't get a parcel back from Doncaster.

11. 

    Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentYour best option is the Orionids, peaking around Wednesday. At best, about twenty meteors an hour, from dark skies. That's Halley's Comet debris.

12. 

    Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistTwenty an hour. That's not bad if I can find somewhere actually dark.