Sound of the Aurora

Abstract

IN NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 484, one of your correspondents speaks of the sound of the aurora as “crackling”, or as that of “the flickering of blazing fire”, while another describes it as like the “rustling or switching of silk”. On Monday, April 12 last, there was an electric storm here, and at 7 p.m. when I walked home (the blazing lightning leaving but momentary intervals of darkness), I heard all round me the constant crackling or rustling of blazing flames. Towards the north-west across a low arc near the horizon pale sheet lightning swayed quickly to and fro. There was no rain at the time, that came heavily afterwards. The sound of flames was close round me, and others had the same experience. No one I can find has ever seen lightning so completely fill the air or heard such strange sounds.