The Aurora of November 17, 1882 was a

geomagnetic storm A geomagnetic storm, also known as a magnetic storm, is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a solar wind shock wave and/or cloud of magnetic field that interacts with the Earth's magnetic field. The disturbance that d ...

and associated

aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

event, widely reported in the media of the time. It occurred during an extended period of strong geomagnetic activity in

solar cycle 12 Solar cycle 12 was the twelfth solar cycle since 1755, when extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began. The solar cycle lasted 11.3 years, beginning in December 1878 and ending in March 1890. The maximum smoothed sunspot number observed ...

. The event is particularly remembered in connection with an unusual phenomenon, an "auroral beam", which was observed from the

Royal Observatory, Greenwich The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in ...

by astronomer

Edward Walter Maunder Edward Walter Maunder (12 April 1851 – 21 March 1928) was an English astronomer. His study of sunspots and the solar magnetic cycle led to his identification of the period from 1645 to 1715 that is now known as the Maunder Minimum. Early an ...

and by

John Rand Capron John Rand Capron (1829–1888) was an English amateur scientist, astronomer and photographer. Though a solicitor by profession, he became an expert on spectroscopy, particularly in relation to the aurora, and published many articles during his l ...

from Guildown,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

Magnetic effects

The magnetic storm that caused the brilliant auroral display of November 1882 was reported in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and other newspapers as having an effect on

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

systems, which were rendered useless in some cases.The Transit of Venus storm
solarstorms.org The ''

Savannah Morning News The ''Savannah Morning News'' is a daily newspaper in Savannah, Georgia. It is published by Gannett. The motto of the paper is "Light of the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry". The paper serves Savannah, its metropolitan area, and parts of South Ca ...

'' reported that "the switchboard at the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...

office was set on fire several times, and much damage to equipment was done. From

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

, the 'volunteer electric current' was at one time strong enough to light up an electric lamp". Measurements taken in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, where the telegraph also was affected, indicated that a

telluric current A telluric current (from Latin ''tellūs'', "earth"), or Earth current, This has a detailed history of observations as understood at the time. is an electric current which moves underground or through the sea. Telluric currents result from both na ...

five times stronger than normal was present.Angot, A. ''The Aurora Borealis'', London: R. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co, 1896, p.143

Aurorae

Polar observations

During the event, bright auroral phenomena were recorded from across the world, including several observations from polar latitudes, thanks to the event occurring during the First

International Polar Year The International Polar Years (IPY) are collaborative, international efforts with intensive research focus on the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor in 1875, but died before it first occurred i ...

. In one case, two members of the ill-fated

Lady Franklin Bay Expedition * The Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881–1884 to Lady Franklin Bay on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic was led by Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, and was promoted by the United States Army Signal Corps. Its purpose was to establish a mete ...

, including the astronomer,

Edward Israel Edward Israel (July 1, 1859 – May 27, 1884) was an astronomer and Polar explorer. Early years Israel was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan on July 1, 1859. He was the son of Mannes and Tillie Israel, the first Jews to settle in Kalamazoo. After gra ...

, while observing at

Fort Conger Fort Conger is a former settlement, military fortification, and scientific research post in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It was established in 1881 as an Arctic exploration camp, notable as the site of the first major northern polar r ...

near the

north magnetic pole The north magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic north pole, is a point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the Earth's magnetic field, planet's magnetic field points vertically downward (in other words, if a magnetic comp ...

, instinctively ducked to avoid an aurora described as "as bright as the full moon".Silverman and Tuan in Landsberg, E.H. (ed.) ''Advances in Geophysics'', Academic Press, 1973, p.192McAdie, A.
What is an Aurora?
', ''

The Century Magazine ''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associatio ...

'', Vol. 54, No. 6, Oct 1897, 874-878

Observations in the United States

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' of November 18 reported a "brilliance as bright as daylight" at

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

, and a "blood red" sky at

St Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

. In a 1917 paper for the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, the electrical engineer,

Elihu Thomson Elihu Thomson (March 29, 1853 – March 13, 1937) was an English-born American engineer and inventor who was instrumental in the founding of major electrical companies in the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Early life He was born ...

, described seeing "colored streamers passing upward from all around towards the zenith from north, east, west and south", with "great masses or broad bands to the east and west".Thomson, E.
Inferences Concerning Auroras
', in ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'', Vol 3, 1 (Jan 15, 1917), 3. Note that Thomson gives the date as April 1883, but in a subsequent "correction" (3, 1917, 222) identifies it as November 17, 1882, after receiving further information from Alexander McAdie.

Capron's beam

The most unusual phenomenon of the auroral storm, witnessed from Europe at approximately 6 p.m. on November 17, was described in detail in various ways, including as a "beam", "spindle", "definite body" with a "

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

"-like shape and pale green colour, passing from horizon to horizon above the Moon.See Maunder, E. W.
A Strange Celestial Visitor
', in ''The Observatory'', April 1916, 213-215 The phenomenon, which transited the sky in approximately seventy-five seconds, was witnessed and documented by the amateur scientist and astronomer,

, at Guildown,

. Capron made a drawing of what he referred to as the "auroral beam"; it subsequently was published along with an article in the ''

Philosophical Magazine The ''Philosophical Magazine'' is one of the oldest scientific journals published in English. It was established by Alexander Tilloch in 1798;John Burnett"Tilloch, Alexander (1759–1825)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford Univer ...

''. In the article, Capron collected twenty-six separate accounts, of which the majority came from the

: these included reports of the object's torpedo-shaped appearance and an apparent dark nucleus. Several of Capron's correspondents speculated that the phenomenon might have been a

meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as micr ...

, but Capron (and Maunder, who wrote a note in ''The Observatory'' on Capron's study) thought it could have represented a transient illumination of an otherwise invisible auroral arc.Maunder, 1883, 193 The writer,

Charles Hoy Fort Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American writer and researcher who specialized in anomalous phenomena. The terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are sometimes used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold w ...

, later referred to this incident in his book ''

The Book of the Damned ''The Book of the Damned'' was the first published nonfiction work by American author Charles Fort (first edition 1919). Concerning various types of anomalous phenomena including UFOs, strange falls of both organic and inorganic materials fro ...

'', in which he collected further reports from various articles (including several in the journal ''Nature'') published both at the time and subsequently:

In the London Times, Nov. 20, 1882, the Editor says that he had received a great number of letters upon this phenomenon. He publishes two. One correspondent describes it as "well-defined and shaped like a fish … extraordinary and alarming." The other correspondent writes of it as "a most magnificent luminous mass, shaped somewhat like a torpedo."Fort, C. H
The Book of the Damned
pp. 293-294

Although Fort suggested the event had supernatural overtones, scientific opinion was that the "beam" likely represented an extremely unusual auroral phenomenon. Maunder commented:

This "torpedo-shaped" beam of light was quite unlike any other celestial object that I have ever seen. The quality of its light, and its occurrence while a great magnetic storm and a bright aurora were in progress, seem to establish its auroral origin. But it differed very widely in appearance from any other aurora that I have ever seen.Maunder, 1916, 214

Solar phenomena

In a 1904 article, Maunder was to describe the storm as a "very intense and long-continued disturbance", which in total, lasted between November 11 and 26. He pointed out that this synchronised "with the entire passage across the visible disc" of

sunspot Sunspots are phenomena on the Sun's photosphere that appear as temporary spots that are darker than the surrounding areas. They are regions of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic flux that inhibit convection. Sun ...

group 885 (Greenwich numbering).Maunder, E.
The "Great" Magnetic Storms, 1875 to 1903, and their association with Sun-spots, as recorded at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
', MNRAS, LXIV, 3, (Jan 1904), 206 This group originally had formed on the disc on October 20, passed off at the west limb on October 28, passed again east–west between November 12–25, and returned at the east limb on December 10, before finally disappearing on the disc on December 20.Maunder, 1904, 216 The association of the November 1882 sunspot, or group of sunspots, with the strong auroral display, the collapse of the telegraph system, and variations in the magnetic readings taken at Greenwich was to prompt Maunder to pursue further research of the link between sunspots and magnetic phenomena.Clark, S. G. ''The Sun Kings: the unexpected tragedy of Richard Carrington and the tale of how modern astronomy began'', Princeton University Press, 2007, p.142

References

{{Solar storms 1882 in science Geomagnetic storms November 1882 events