Storm chaser Aaron Jayjack is on a different kind of chase tonight. He spoke exclusively with AccuWeather about what it takes to catch the aurora borealis on camera.
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00:00 We're heading north to Canada, where Aaron is getting ready to capture some stunning
00:03 images of the Aurora Borealis.
00:06 Aaron, where will you be targeting tonight for the best visibility and when you're expecting
00:11 the show to begin?
00:13 Hey guys, yeah, I am in southern Manitoba right now here on the Canadian Prairie, and
00:20 this is a great spot to see Aurora way up north here, close to the North Pole, where
00:25 these coronal mass ejections, the CMEs, can play with the atmosphere and create beautiful,
00:31 brilliant light shows in the atmosphere.
00:34 And tonight, we have a possible Aurora show here on the Prairie, and it looks like, you
00:39 know, the forecast right now is a KP7, a 7 on a 0 to 9 scale, so quite a significant
00:45 Aurora show is possible tonight here in southern Manitoba.
00:49 But one of the things you've got to deal with is cloud cover, and you can see above me right
00:53 now, there is a little bit of cloud cover here in southern Manitoba.
00:56 So I'm targeting somewhere here in southern Manitoba and westward to the south, to southern
01:01 Saskatchewan.
01:02 It does look like there's a potential clearing in the clouds off to the west there in Saskatchewan,
01:06 so that is my target this evening.
01:08 Well, you know, this isn't the first time you've chased the Aurora Borealis.
01:14 How do you capture such stunning videos during these events?
01:18 Yeah, so depending on the strength of the Aurora, sometimes, you know, just with your
01:24 eyes, you can see an incredible light show.
01:27 And even with just, you know, with your phone, you know, with just regular video with your
01:31 phone, you can capture that Aurora show.
01:33 But to get the real stunning photos, you need a long exposure camera, a camera that can
01:38 do a long exposure, and you're looking at a long exposure I shot right now with Star
01:42 Trails just a couple of weeks ago when we had some Aurora.
01:45 So that is the key is a long exposure, but even smartphones these days can do a longer
01:50 exposure and capture that Aurora.
01:53 But again, even if you don't have a phone or a way to shoot good photography like that,
01:58 you can just go out with your eyes and see a brilliant show, especially if we get a KP7
02:04 event is realized.
02:05 Well, it's good to see that we can see it with our eyes.
02:10 Thank you for that, Aaron J. Jack.
02:12 Yeah, no problem.
02:14 Hopefully I'll be sending some brilliant video up to you guys later tonight.
02:21 Looking forward to it.