AURORA AUSTRALIS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 May 1921, Page 10

AURORA AUSTRALIS.

' PREVIOUS RECENT DISPLAYS. While the recent Aurora Australis is unusual, it is not unique. On March 23 last year, some residents of Ramarama witnessed a display in the early hours of the morning. It also was seen in Auckland, but, occurring at an hour when very few people were abroad, did not attract so much attention as Sunday’s display. The observers described the aurora as follows:—“It first attracted attention in the south-western sky. The whole southern sky was lighted with an orange-pink glow, that varied after a few seconds in brilliancy. We could also distinguish wide, ray-like bands of whiter light. Two brilliant meteors were observed in the same 2 part of the sky.” Another manifestation of the phenomenon was noticed in Auckland just before midnight on May 11, 1917. On that occasion it was noted that the display corresponded with the description of auroral rays, as distinct from arcs. The rays covered the whole southern sky. Broad bands of light, quite distinctly defined, streamed across the eky, radiating from an arc some distance above the horizon. The greater portion of the display was over by 12.30 a.m., but in the south-eastern section of the sky, nearer the light of the moon, the rays persisted, showing clearer than elsewhere. THE “SUNSPOT” THEORY. Commenting on the display, Mr. Wragge writes to the Auckland Herald: A great magnetic storm, operated by the abnormal giant “sunspot.” is now affecting the earth, as is evidenced by the magnificent display of the Aurora Australis. In the great rosy auroral streamers one actually witnesses the tremendous wireless waves from the sun bomoarding this planet. The display will have proved, all the more beautiful in the South Island and with increase of latitude generally; and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere should hdve an equally grand manifestation of the Aurora Borealis. That the ocean cables and telegraphic services generally will be more or less affected is certain. It is most unusual that such a magnificent spectacle should be observed in such a comparatively low latitude as that of Auckland, and it proves the intensity of the wireless waves emanating from the sun. As has already been stated, th'e gigantic solar upheavals at this time are quite abnormal, as it is highly probable that Alpha Centauri, our next nearest sun, is unduly influencing our sun through 25 trillions of miles by its etheric waves. Sunday’s display afforded an excellent example of the electro-magnetic vibrations permeating the universe and linking up everything. Mr. Wragge added that the display might be observed as far north as the Tropic of Capricorn. SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS. The occurrence of auroral displays has been the subject of considerable scientific investigation, most of which, however, has taken place in the Northern Hemisphere. It has been observed that the frequency of the displays is much greater in some years than in others. At most places the variation in quency has shown a general similarity to that of sun spots. A further observation on the subject is that it is hardly open, to doubt that there is an intimate connection between the aurora when visible in temperate latitudes and terrestrial magnetism. A bright aurora visible over Europe seems always accompanied by a magnetic storm and earth currents, and the largest magnetic storms and the most conspicuous auroral displays have occurred simultaneously. On some of the occasions recorded since 1859, the aurora was brilliant in both hemispheres, while magnetic storms are most numerous, the connection between them is much less uniform.