Science: Great Aurora

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In Portugal, terrified villagers rushed through the streets shouting "0 firn do mundo!" (the end of the world). In war-minded France, the cry was "C'est la guerre!" In Austria and elsewhere in Europe, kneeling peasants gibbered prayers. In Holland, merry celebrants hailed the vast curtains of red, orange, purple, green, blue and white light shifting and shimmering in the northern sky as a happy omen for the delivery of Princess Juliana (see p. 77). In London, which had not seen the aurora borealis since the dire night of a Zeppelin raid during the War, someone, thinking that Windsor Castle was on fire, called the Windsor Fire Department. European telephone exchanges generally were jammed by excited or fearful inquiries.

London scientists said the aurora was the most impressive in 50 years. Scientists at the University of Grenoble in France said that western Europe had not seen such a display since the year 1709.

In North America the lights were visible as far south as Baltimore. In Canada, where bright auroras are comparatively frequent, the people repeated their belief that the phenomenon is a sign of cold weather to come.

Most astronomers believe that auroras are caused by swarms of electrified particles shooting out from the sun. Like a compass needle, these particles seek the Poles and they visibly ionize the air atoms, as an electric current ionizes gas atoms in a commercial sign. Auroras are brighter and more frequent when sunspots are active, and sunspots have been more active in recent months than at any time since 1870. Last fortnight a magnetic storm of unusual violence caused transatlantic telephone communication by short-wave radio to fade out (TIME, Jan. 31). Last week, while the great aurora waved its brilliant folds across the sky, transatlantic short waves faded again.