[aurora-announce] Northwest detector update

[Mark A. Haun]

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry to announce that the northwest aurora detector (near Walla Walla,
WA) will remain offline until at least March.

We thought we had the equipment trouble figured out, but the problem was
somewhere else all along (the power supply).  This was almost fixed, but a
minor accident on the mountain did some additional damage.  The access road
is now closed for the winter, delaying further work until March.

The latest problems have made it clear that the present setup (telemetry via
two-meter amateur radio) is too failure-prone and time-consuming to
maintain.  We're looking at two options for the future:

1)  Establishing an 802.11b (wireless ethernet) link to the mountain.  It is
just over 11 miles from an access point, with perfect line of sight.

2)  Moving the detector to a more accessible location.  This would mean
having to recalibrate the alarm thresholds, increasing the risk of false
alarms, and possibly missing some very faint auroras.  Failing option #1,
it's probably a worthwhile compromise.  

If you live in eastern Washington or Oregon, are located in the country or
in a small town with a dark northern horizon, have an "always-on" Internet
connection, and would be interested in hosting the aurora detector, please
contact me.

In the meantime, if you're looking for timely data to help you see an
aurora, I suggest you take a look at www.spacew.com.  If you have a PC
running Windows, their "Aurora Monitor" software can collate a large amount
of data from satellite- and ground-based sensors and present it to you in an
easy-to-read form.  They've also just introduced an SMS text messaging
service for cell phones and pagers.  Following this data takes some time,
but it can be almost as reliable as the Aurora Alarm, and even gives you
some advance warning of the big storms.

(Disclaimer:  Those services are not free.  I have no affiliation with them. 
I don't even use the software myself, since I run the Linux OS on my
computer.)

Mark
markhaun@uiuc.edu