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In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis (or the northern lights), its named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas, by Pierre Gassendi in 1621
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According to Neil Bone (The aurora: sun-earth interactions, 1996), the term aurora borealis--northern dawn--is jointly credited to have first been used by Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who both witnessed a light display on Sept. 12, 1621. However, Bone also includes a description of the northern lights made 1,000 years prior by Gregory of Tours (538-594.) It included the phrase, "... so bright that you might have thought that day was about to dawn."
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Some displays are particularly spectacular and widespread and have been highlighted in news accounts. Examples include auroral storms of August-September, 1859, Feb 11, 1958, (lights 1250 miles wide circled the Arctic from Oregon to New Hampshire)
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The auroras that resulted from the "great geomagnetic storm" on both 28 August and 2 September 1859 are thought the most spectacular in recent recorded history. so brilliant that at about one o'clock ordinary print could be read by the ligh
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The auroras that resulted from the "great geomagnetic storm" on both 28 August and 2 September 1859 are thought the most spectacular in recent recorded history. so brilliant that at about one o'clock ordinary print could be read by the ligh
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June 1896, Norwegian Kristian Birkeland, the “father of modern auroral science,” suggested the theory that electrons from sunspots triggered auroras.
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March 13, 1989, (the whole sky turned a vivid red and the aurora was seen in Europe and North America as far south as Cuba).
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March 13, 1989, (the whole sky turned a vivid red and the aurora was seen in Europe and North America as far south as Cuba).
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In the longer term, auroral displays are correlated with an 11-year cycle in sunspot activity and other perturbations of the sun; the more restless the sun, the more aurorae. 2006-7 corresponded to a minimum in solar activity.
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A very low accurence of northern lights
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The next maximum in solar activity will be around 2013, with frequent Northern Lights displays likely for another two or three years after that.
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There was aa description of the northern lights made 1,000 years priorfrom naming it by Gregory of Tours (538-594.) It was recorded with the phrase, "... so bright that you might have thought that day was about to dawn."
