Speaker Event – Astrosleuthing an Aurora: Robin Metcalfe

Historical records as old as the first millennium BCE contain reports of mysterious glowing lights in the night sky, some of which have been attributed to aurorae. But how do we know that celestial phenomena described vaguely as an “unusual red glow”, “a pre-dawn rainbow” or “a five-coloured light” can definitively be connected to auroral activity? In this talk, I will explain the science behind the production of an aurora – from its origins at the Sun’s surface to the light show in Earth’s atmosphere – and in the process we will see how the evidence left behind by an aurora can be used to sleuth out its connection to ancient records.