Abstract
CULLINGTON1 has recently reported the observation of an aurora-like phenomenon to the south-west of Apia (Samoa) which appears to have been produced by charged particles arriving along lines of force from the site of an atomic explosion, at great altitude in the neighbourhood of Johnston Island, some 2,000 miles distant. The interpretation of this phenomenon has been discussed in some detail by Fowler and Waddington2 and by Kellogg, Ney and Winckler3. Since the particles are clearly guided by the Earth's magnetic field, the impact point for the particles, if we neglect the small drift in longitude, corresponds to the magnetic conjugate point for Johnston Island.
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References
Cullington, A. L., Nature, 182, 1365 (1958).
Fowler, P., and Waddington, C. J., Nature, 182, 1728 (1958).
Kellogg, P. J., Ney, E. P., and Winckler, J. R., Nature, 183, 358 (1959).
Quenby, J. J., and Webber, W. R., Phil. Mag., 4, 90 (1959).
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ELLIOT, H., QUENBY, J. The Samoan Artificial Aurora. Nature 183, 810 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/183810a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/183810a0
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