Abstract
A BRILLIANT auroral display was visible over most of England and from many places on the continent of Europe on the night of January 25–26. Dr. B. A. Keen, president of the Royal Meteorological Society, has sent the following account of the spectacle: “At Harpenden, Herts, the display was seen from 6·45 p.m. until well after midnight. The early stages appeared as a red glow in the north-west and later in the north-east, with a low broad green arc in between. The area of the luminous sky increased, and by 8·30 p.m. the green colour with areas of red extended well south of Orion. Up to 11 p.m. there seemed to be three periods of brilliant display: the first, and perhaps the best, at 7·45 p.m. when a bright red glow in the north-north-east was traversed by many sharply defined green and white shafts ; at 8·30 p.m. especially in the east ; and again at 9·45 p.m. when diffuse and rapidly fluctuating green streamers appeared between north-east and north-west, directed towards the zenith. Thereafter, the luminosity decreased, but as late as 11 p.m. a broad green arc stretching from north-west to north-east was still clearly visible. About midnight, a fourth display foegan with red streamers in the north-west, which extended until a broad red band was formed passing through the zenith to the north-east. At 1 a.m. faint red and green glows were still visible.
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Aurora of January 25–26. Nature 141, 192 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141192a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141192a0