Mysterious Riders of the Celestial Winds
“Who but God can conceive such infinite scenes of glory? Who but God could execute them, painting the heavens in such gorgeous display?”
WHAT aroused the sense of piety in Charles F. Hall, 19th-century Arctic explorer? One of the most awesome natural phenomena visible to the human eye, the aurora borealis—commonly known as the northern lights.
Fascination with these celestial lights dates back to the fourth century B.C.E., when Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote his theory on this phenomenon. It was not until 1621, however, that French scientist and mathematician Pierre Gassendi introduced the term “aurora borealis” (or, northern dawn) as we presently use it. Aurora was the name of the rosy-fingered Roman goddess of dawn in classical mythology. She was also the mother of the winds, the north wind being called Boreas.
What causes the aurora? Could it be caused by the sun’s rays reflecting from tiny ice crystals in the air? Or sunlight reflecting from icebergs? Or explosions created by the meeting of warm air and cold air? None of these. Advanced scientific study traces this phenomenon to a direct association between activity on the sun and the earth’s magnetic field.
Ninety-three million miles [150 million km] away, at the heart of our solar system, the marvelous auroral spectacle begins. Nuclear explosions occurring on and in the sun hurl large amounts of gas into space at speeds estimated by some to reach 2,500,000 miles per hour [4,000,000 km/hr]. These gusty solar winds, containing streams of high-energy particles, can reach earth’s outer atmosphere within 24 to 48 hours. As they enter the outer fringes of the earth’s magnetic field, many charged particles are trapped and drawn toward the poles. They subsequently collide with nitrogen molecules and oxygen atoms, exciting them and activating a display of lights. A similar reaction occurs when turning on a switch for a neon light.
At times it seems as if the auroral curtains almost touch the ground. However, this phenomenon occurs only between 60 and 600 miles [100 and 1,000 km] above earth’s surface. Lower altitude collisions create shades of yellow and green, while at the higher altitudes, red and blue emissions result. Some displays are enormous—measuring from 2 to 3 miles [3 to 5 km] thick and over 100 miles [160 km] high—extending literally thousands of miles.
Where Can We See Them, and What Do They Look Like?
Unfortunately, only a very small percentage of earth’s population will ever see the aurora. It is virtually unknown to people living in the tropics. However, if you live in southern Greenland, Iceland, northern Norway, or northern Alaska, the aurora dances as often as 240 nights a year. Northern Siberia and central Canada will see them about 100 nights a year, while residents of southern Alaska view them only about 5 nights a year. Central Mexico may witness an occurrence once a decade. In the Southern Hemisphere, these dancing lights, called aurora australis, perform mainly for seals, whales, and penguins. However, New Zealand, parts of Australia, and Argentina fall within the sparsely populated auroral region and thus experience the celestial display.
A clear night sky provides a perfect backdrop for the ever-changing panorama of curtains, arcs, and waterfall shapes that billow and sway across the heavens. An invisible belt, ringing the north and south geomagnetic poles, somewhere between 55 and 75 degrees latitude, appears to be where the lights are brightest. Polar explorer William H. Hooper admits: “Language is vain in the attempt to describe its ever varying and gorgeous phases; no pen nor pencil can portray its fickle hues, its radiance, and its grandeur.”
Can You Really Hear Them?
While scientists have not discounted the possibility that sounds occur as a result of an aurora, it is unclear how any discernible disturbance could come from within the display itself. The phenomenon occurs a considerable distance above the earth. Sound takes about five seconds to travel a mile [3 sec per km], so the noise would noticeably lag after the visible flash.
Interestingly, during one bright aurora, a man was blindfolded, and “at almost every brilliant rush of auroral light, he exclaimed, ‘Don’t you hear it?’” An amateur astronomer said: “It sounded like cellophane and steam. It was one of the eeriest moments of my life.” A native Inuit from Fort Chimo, Ungava, Canada, was asked to relate what he heard one clear night as he was heading home with his dog team. “They went whoo-o-o-sh, whish- whoo-o-o-sh, like that. It was not wind. The night was very calm. . . . And the dogs were scared. They scattered in all directions they were so scared.”
Are such sounds hallucinations—noises in the head? Some think so. However, scientist William Petrie in his book Keoeeit—The Story of the Aurora Borealis offers a possible explanation. He reasons: “A faulty light switch can make a faint hissing or crackling sound as electrical charges escape instead of following the normal route through the switch. Now since an aurora is the result of the entry into the atmosphere of electrically charged particles, one might expect electrical conditions near the earth’s surface to be altered. Recently, it has in fact been determined that the conditions are changed substantially, with the result that charges of electricity ‘leak’ away from the surface, and in so doing, possibly generate a faint sound.”
How powerful is it? The Alaska Geographic quarterly Aurora Borealis—The Amazing Northern Lights, published in 1979, reports that “the electrical power associated with the auroral discharge is enormous, about 1,000 billion watts, or annual 9,000 billion kilowatt hours—more than the present annual U.S. electric power consumption, which is a little less than 1,000 billion kilowatt hours!” The aurora emits waves called radio noise that can be picked up by a radio receiver but not heard by humans. Fortunately, the ionosphere shields us from this noise, so we are able to use a radio.
Violent auroral storms have disrupted commercial communications media. On one occasion crude telephone calls interfered with easy-listening music broadcast by a radio station. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline was once charged with 100 amperes of electricity because of the aurora. Even radar systems have been fooled into reporting nuclear-missile attacks. One giant display over North America in 1941 reportedly woke up sea gulls on the waterfront of Toronto, Canada.
Lasting Impressions
Edward Ellis, 19th-century adventurer and author, upon observing the aurora borealis, was impelled to say: “I pity the man who says, ‘There is no God’ or who can look unmoved to the very depths of his soul by such displays of infinite power.” Witnessing these mysterious riders of the celestial winds for the first time evokes superlatives, such as awesome! spectacular! majestic! This phenomenon is such an attraction that people from as far away as Japan charter flights to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, just to see the northern lights. A local resident said of one such group: “Some of them cried afterward, they thought it was so beautiful.”
Indeed, only the work of our Master Designer can touch our emotions in such a beautiful way. It is just as the psalmist was moved to write: “The heavens are declaring the glory of God; and of the work of his hands the expanse is telling.”—Psalm 19:1.
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Aurora Borealis Legends and Superstitions
For generations northern cultures believed the auroras to be: “Torches held in the hands of spirits to guide the souls of those who have just died to a land of happiness and plenty”
“Spirits of the dead playing ball with a walrus head”
“An ill omen of war and pestilence”
“The ghosts of their slain enemies”
An indication that “the weather would change for the worse”
“Fires over which the great medicine men and warriors . . . simmered their dead enemies in enormous pots”
“A radiating snake dancing in the sky”
“The spirits of children who died at birth”
“Helpful in curing heart ailments”
[Picture Credit Line on page 24, 25]
NASA photo