Aurorae Borealis

The northern lights have inspired awe and reverence in people all throughout the northern latitudes. At their most impressive, they form an immense halo of pulsating light around the pole, stretching hundreds of kilometers out into space. People in the 18th century were unsure what to make of these mysterious lights. The Lapps saw the lights as messengers of God which might strike down anyone foolish enough to provoke them. In Scandinavian folklore, the lights are reflections from icebergs, the wings of migrating geese, or from shoals or herring swimming close to the surface of the sea.

It was Galileo who first dubbed the term ?boreal aurora? to describe the northern lights, after Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn. Though the name stuck, it is misleading because aurora seen in southern latitudes glow pinkish-red. True aurora is green and white.

Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland (1867-1917) had long been fascinated with the strange and hypnotizing lights. In 1899 he and several others made a journey to a mountaintop in Norway, during which they experienced frostbite, week-long blizzards and months of sunless winter desolation. There he verified that the aurora was

A very rare ?veil? aurora appears as an extensive, uniform luminosity across the sky. If a veil is present but has dark holes where the sky is seeping through, it is called a black aurorae.

In an unusually rare appearance, the northern lights shone brightly on November 5, 2001. Sparked by a solar flare Sunday that spewed extra charged particles into Earth?s magnetic field, the northern lights dazzled citizens right here in the Heartland. The ghostly show sparked phone calls to police departments around the nation.

Birkeland was eccentric and brilliant. An avid Egyptophile, he often wore a fez and red leather slippers with pointed toes. He was a highly controversial physicist in his day, keeping notes strung out everywhere and was thrown into the air by bolts of electricity on more than one occasion by one of his experiments gone awry. He arranged to give an important lecture on the morning of his wedding day and was obliged to speak very fast in order to reach the ceremony on time. After five long years of neglect, his wife left him.

On November 5th I was fortunate to view some of the aurorae borealis right here in Cape Girardeau. I saw arcs of light descending from the sky and illuminating the ground in small areas. I thought I was seeing a spotlight from a helicopter or something. I knew it was unusual but if I had known what I was viewing I would have given more serious effort at observing the sky. I hope I get to view the northern light

Some topics in this essay:
Washington University, Europe Isolated, Kristian Birkeland, Norway Despite, Cape Girardeau, Aurora Roman, Sun Earths, northern lights, Ian Redmount, Martin Israel, earths magnetic, magnetic field, earths magnetic field, kristian birkeland,