A scientist in finland has proposed a new theory about the source of the mysterious sounds associated with the northern lights, or aurora borealis. Heres why a scientist in finland is searching for the source of the faint and mysterious sounds sometimes heard during displays of the northern lights. How one scientist decoded the mysterious sounds of the. Northern lights make noise, too scientific american.
We are tls, a moving image agency and we believe content is only king when it catches. The recorded, unamplified sounds can be similar to crackles or muffled bangs, which last for only a short period of time. But telling stories counts for little if no one is watching or listening. Some say they have heard the northern lights aurora borealis.
But for at least the past century, some of those stories have also mentioned eerie noises. On a clear january night in northern sweden, after hours of squinting and wondering if this or that small cloud might be the northern lights, a shimmering, aliengreen ribbon unfurled across the sky. Scientists find explanation for sounds of northern lights. The popping and crackling sounds associated with aurora borealis or the northern lights are born when the related geomagnetic storm activates the. Though it did not happen all the time, on some of the most intense displays i did hear a sound. The popping and crackling sounds associated with aurora borealis or the northern lights are born when the related geomagnetic storm activates the charges that have accumulated in the atmospheres inversion layer causing them to discharge, according to researchers at aalto university, finland.
Another mystery of the northern lights is the sound that they are said to make. The whistling crackling noise which sometimes accompanies. According to this study, when the northern lights occur, the spectrum of the temporal envelope of the crackling noise or in other words, the rapid changes in the sound amplitude contain. Laine has studied the sounds made by the northern lights for more than 15 years, in fields and on frozen lakes near his home in southern finland. Laines solitary hunt for the elusive sound of the northern lights demanded great patience. Live sound, video mapping lighting from cleveland ohio. Many people claim to hear crackling noises during intense auroras, and although sound itself could not carry from 60 miles up it is possible that the lights powerful electrical field might. Researchers have recorded sound evidence to support the idea that noises long reputed to accompany the aurora borealis do exist. It sounded like a crackling sound a little like the wind blowing against leaves. Whistling at the northern lights opinion the telegram. Witnesses say the sounds are comparable to radio static, like a faint crackling, light. Arctic wilderness tales often wax poetic about dazzling displays of northern lights painting the skies. How one scientist decoded the mysterious sounds of the northern lights.
Mathematical model confirms the hypothesis of the origin. Northern lights make for quite a sight and some odd sounds research detailing clapping noises vindicates folk tales, reports by wilderness travelers. It was sort of a crackling rustling type sound almost like a cross between static discharge and semi dried leaves being blown along the ground in the fall. There have been few intense auroras over finland in the past 16 years, thanks in part to the solar minimum, a period of decreased activity in the suns natural 11year solar cycle. The twoway there have been folktales for centuries about sounds supposedly coming from the.
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