Posts tagged #Photography

The Sound of Aurora Borealis - Have you ever heard it?

Flashback Friday

Aurora Borealis - Norrsken

A few years back we were coming back from a backcountry ski trip in Alaska. A friend of ours told us that tonight will be a spectacular night for Auroras. It's so funny, if there is a big chance for aurora, the whole town will now about it (or so it seems) at least all your friends will now about it. One of the great things about having an outhouse is that it actually forces you out, sometimes in the middle of the night, and a lot of those times you end up stargazing and watching the Aurora as it flares in the sky above you. Either way, I was ready for Aurora that night. It's really a hit or miss. Sometimes the conditions for Aurora are optimal, and yet nothing happens. Sometimes the forecast is low and you witness a show out of this world just because you had to pee in the middle of the night.

This night I was out for several hours taking pictures. I hadn't been doing much aurora photography back then so the quality is not great, but I think you get the picture.

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The Sound of Aurora Borealis

This is also the one and only time that the Aurora made me scared, I don't know of what or how, but It just made me so scared. Like this really uncomfortable feeling, and it happened along with the sparkling sound I heard. It was almost like too overwhelming, and I felt as if the sky would fall down, or at least the Aurora, because the light was so intense. I remember that my cats were freaking out too, because I was outside and they were inside. It was a debate before if you could actually hear the Aurora or not, but it's confirmed, you can, or something.

"A recording produced Sept. 9, 2011 during a geomagnetic storm by using three microphones and a VLF antenna picked up 20 similar clap sounds," Laine reported last week on his website. "Some of them were close enough in order to be detected by all three microphones. The collected data allowed the estimation of the location of the sound source. The sound source was the open sky." - ADN

Isn't it amazing, that there are so many things we still don't know about. We have only discovered a tiny little percentage of all the universe, and we keep finding more and more species on earth, almost at the same rate as others go extinct :( .

Have you ever heard the Aurora?

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Adventure Bound?

"To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world" - John Muir

Wednesday Thoughts

New home, new life?

7 years ago I landed with two suitcases at the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska. I had no idea what adventure I was getting myself into. Head over heel I fell in love with the state (how could you not?). My life in Alaska was filled with adventures and new friends, and research of course.

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Since then I have filled my backback with memories and experience, both good and bad. 7 years change you, and I have changed as a human being at the same rate as the world has changed around me. I am not who I was that day when I landed at the airport 7 years ago, I have grown and have become a different person. Now I have found a second family over here, who would have thought that 7 years ago?

Where were you 7 years ago?

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Posted on August 31, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Alaska, The great wide open, Wednesday Thoughts and tagged Alaska Summer Years Experience Research Family happy memories memories Seward Denali Caribou Alaska range Photography utlandssvensk 2016 Adventure Mountains.

Fieldwork in Yellowstone National Park

På Svenska

Hi friends, it's Flashback Friday again

Yellowstone National Park

Being married to an ecologist has its perks. While we were driving from Alaska to Wisconsin we drove through Montana and Yellowstone. We needed a break and we also needed to check in on some of Ws fieldwork. Both W and I do research about fire, me in Alaska and he in Yellowstone, or jellystone as we sometimes call it. As always when me and W go somewhere, I fall behind because I just can not get enough of all the tiny little things I see, or all the awesome views.

Dalahäst

Before I moved to Alaska one of my best friends gave me a little miniature "dalahäst" which is a painted horse. Of course that one was with us this day too. Fires can be really destructive, but I think it's beautiful to see what can grow out of a fire.

Dalahäst in the burned forest

Old and new

New seedlings

Lodgepole pine

After the burn

Coniferous Trees

Coniferous trees are either serotinous, not serotinous, semi-serotinous or a mixture between the two first. In Yellowstone National Park the Lodgepole pine is a mixture between the two first examples and the fire can benefit the reproduction of the forest. Serotinous species are dependent on fire to open up the cones and "activate" the seed, and the opposite is true for species that are not serotinous.

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt - John Muir

Hiking in Yellowstone

I love being able to walk away from the road system and feel like we are in the middle of nowhere. Yellowstone is so huge, and so beautiful, and if you haven't been there yet, its definitely a place to see. Just remember that walking off the main road will show you extraordinary places. I would definitely recommend to do a backpacking trip. However, please don't walk off the road in areas of hot springs...use a map and consult the backcountry office for permits and current conditions, carry bear spray and know your bear safety!

Leaving Yellowstone

When we left the park we used a new (to me) exit, the city of Cody, and the landscape changed drastically. I asked W if he still thought this was grizzly country, because I surely did not think it looked anything like it. Literally 5 minutes later, we see this grizzly below getting up on its hind legs as we approached with the car. He started to cross, before he changed his mind and we could see his friend in the bushes. One of the coolest things I ever seen. Didn't capture him/her getting up on the hind legs, but man that was so cool!