AURORA BOREALIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23079, 2 July 1938, Page 12

AURORA BOREALIS

SECRETS REVEALED | EFFECT OF RECENT DISPLAYS COMMUNICATIONS CRIPPLED [from our own correspondent] 'm VANCOUVER, May 25 fll Astronomers in many countries for months past have been investigating 1 the most brilliant display of the North, em Lights (Aurora Borealis) in 35 years. It was so vivid that it was seen $ as far south as Bermuda. It created such an electrical din that it crippled radio and telegraph communication throughout Canada and the United States, and several European countries. It is not unuspal for telegraphic com. munication across the Canadian Prairie to be halted by "the Glories" for a single night, but on the recent occasion, it was several days before delicate telegraph instruments could .be used again. In the meantime, emergency equipment was relied on. The static discharges were traced to five great spots on the sun's surface--four of them at least 25,000 miles in diameter.^

* Both the Northern lights and its equivalent at the South Magnetic Pole puzzled scientists for centuries, but recent discoveries have stripped them of much of the mystery surrounding them. Some of the outstanding puzzles may be solved in the next year or so, when they will again reach the maximum intensity of their customary 11year cycle, synchronising with eruptions on the face of the sun. Mild Bombardment of Earth

Professor G. F. Alorell, distinguished English astronomer, says there is always a mild bombardment of the earth with electro-magnetic particles ot energy from outer space. "Being a powerful magnet," says the professor, "the earth collects thes< particles around its north and soutl magnetic poles, thus producing there an almost continuous auroral display But periodically the sun, itself a colossal magnet and storehouse of electro magnetic energy, is subject to great cyclonic outbursts with exceptional eruptions of this energy. "If the earth comes within thistream of energy, perhaps in the form of electrons, the particles divide, attracted to the poles just as needles or iron filings would be to an ordinan magnet." One of Canada's leading astronomers Professor Madijl, of Toronto, has col lected individual experiences from th* Arctic of the effect on human beings oi the Aurora when it is exceptionally active. On such occasions, its distance from the earth, generally believed to be about 40 miles, is said to be consider ably closer. Strange Effects on Human Beings

The director of an Eskimo mission told of being bathed in a weird aurora! glow,, in the form of an elongated pillar of light, which dissolved upward While within the glowing circle, he felt exhilarated and stimulated, as if iu contact with a vivifying current. When it passed, there was a sensation ol vitality being suddenly turned off. > Natives in the Arctic region say that unusual brilliance by the Northern Lights causes their senses to be keyed lip to the point when sleep becomes im possible. Science has yet to pronounce judgment on these strange effects of the Aurora on human beings.