Auroral Research Articles

Nature's Most Spectacular Light Display: Tracking the Aurora Borealis

For many weather watchers, the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, ranks high on their bucket list. Each year, many people make the trek to the northern latitudes to witness the spl...

Do the Chinese Astronomical Records Dated AD 776 January 12/13 Describe an Auroral Display or a Lunar Halo? A Critical Re-examination

The enhancement of carbon-14 in tree rings around AD 774/775 has generated wide interest in solar activity at that time. The historical auroral records have been examined critically. Of particular interest was the “white vapour” observed in China on AD 776 January 12/13. Both Usoskin et al. (Astron. Astrophys.55, L3, 2013; U13) and Stephenson (Adv. Space Res.55, 1537, 2015; S15) interpreted this record as an auroral display. Subsequently, Neuhäuser and Neuhäuser (Astron. Nachr.336, 225, 2015; NN15) proposed five “criteria” for the likeliness of aurorae and on this basis rejected an auroral interpretation. Instead, they interpreted it as a lunar halo, and suggested there were no auroral records as a proxy of solar activity in the interval AD 774 – 785. We consider if their “lunar halo hypothesis” and their auroral criteria could be of use in future researches on historical auroral candidates. We first show a counter-example for the lunar halo hypothesis from a parallel record on 1882 November 17, which was seen as a whitish colour, in the southerly direction, and near the Moon. We then consider NN15’s criteria on colour, direction, and sky brightness and investigate other counter-examples from early-modern auroral observations. We also consider the extension of the white vapour in AD 776 according to the distribution of Chinese asterisms, and show that its large extension was inconsistent with the lunar halo hypothesis. Conversely, the streaks of white vapour penetrating the eight Chinese asterisms can be reproduced if we consider auroral-ray structures at altitudes between 97 km and 170 km, along geomagnetic field lines between the L-shells L=1.55 and 1.64. Our investigations show that we should consider candidate auroral records in historical documents not on the basis of the newly suggested a priori criteria by NN15 but based on all the available observational evidence.

Explaining Natural Science in Hexameters. Scientific Didactic Epic in the Early Modern Era

Didactic epic is one of the most intensely studied genres of Neo-Latin poetry. However, the numerous didactic poems that consider scientific topics as diverse as polar lights and balneology have to date received little attention. Insofar as these poems are considered at all, they are primarily understood as exercises in literary imitatio and demonstrations of poetic virtuosity, largely disregarding their professed objectives of explaining science to their readers. Focusing on a case study of the Iris (1730) by the Jesuit poet Carlo Noceti, the present article suggests that the formal aspects of these texts should not be evaluated in isolation from their contents. Rather, it seems preferable to treat them as serious attempts to familiarise readers with new notions, facts and insights in the age of the Scientific Revolution. The article is complemented by an Appendix listing all pertinent poems known to the author.

HSR19-106: Association Between Pathological Complete Responses and Long-Term Survival Outcomes Among Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Objective: Pathological complete response (pCR) has been a commonly used endpoint in neoadjuvant trials for breast cancer (BC). A pooled analysis of 12 neoadjuvant BC trials by Cortazar et al (2014) reported a positive association between pCR and long-term survival outcomes among patients with general BC and certain subtypes including triple negative BC (TNBC). To update and extend the evidence to assess the association of pCR and survival outcomes in TNBC, this study reviewed and summarized cohort studies and recent clinical trials in the literature. Methods: English publications reporting association between pCR and survival outcomes among TNBC patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy were searched in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane CENTRAL, and Northern Light Sciences Conference Abstracts. Full-text publications from all years and conference abstracts since year 2016 were identified. Relevant clinical trials, real-world evidence (RWE) studies, and meta-analyses were included for review and extraction. Results: Of total 1,880 publications retrieved, 35 reported association between pCR and survival outcomes for neoadjuvant TNBC (9 clinical trials, 21 RWE studies, and 5 pooled/meta-analyses). The sample size of TNBC patients varied between 25 and 1,645. Different pCR definitions were used across studies, of which absence of tumor in the breast and axillary nodes was most common (N=29). The prognostic impact of pCR was evaluated for multiple survival outcomes: overall survival (OS; N=19), disease-free survival (DFS; N=14), relapse-free survival (RFS; N=7), event-free survival (N=5), distant DFS (N = 4), and local RFS (N=2). Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to assess the association between pCR and these outcomes in 31 studies. Clear separation of survival curves in favor of pCR was observed in all the studies. Log-rank tests were conducted in 18 studies, and statistically significant association was reported in majority of them, except for 1 RWE study with small sample size (N=35) and 1 pooled analysis with a different pCR definition (absence of tumor in the breast) than most of the others. Cox proportional hazards model was used in 17 studies, wherein hazard ratios of survival outcomes comparing pCR vs non-pCR ranged from 0.08 to 0.53. Conclusions: Despite divergent study designs and pCR definitions, evidence from both clinical and real-world settings consistently suggest that pCR is a strong predictor of OS and other survival outcomes among TNBC patients.

Antarctic blackfin icefish genome reveals adaptations to extreme environments

Icefishes (suborder Notothenioidei; family Channichthyidae) are the only vertebrates that lack functional haemoglobin genes and red blood cells. Here, we report a high-quality genome assembly and linkage map for the Antarctic blackfin icefish Chaenocephalus aceratus, highlighting evolved genomic features for its unique physiology. Phylogenomic analysis revealed that Antarctic fish of the teleost suborder Notothenioidei, including icefishes, diverged from the stickleback lineage about 77 million years ago and subsequently evolved cold-adapted phenotypes as the Southern Ocean cooled to sub-zero temperatures. Our results show that genes involved in protection from ice damage, including genes encoding antifreeze glycoprotein and zona pellucida proteins, are highly expanded in the icefish genome. Furthermore, genes that encode enzymes that help to control cellular redox state, including members of the sod3 and nqo1 gene families, are expanded, probably as evolutionary adaptations to the relatively high concentration of oxygen dissolved in cold Antarctic waters. In contrast, some crucial regulators of circadian homeostasis (cry and per genes) are absent from the icefish genome, suggesting compromised control of biological rhythms in the polar light environment. The availability of the icefish genome sequence will accelerate our understanding of adaptation to extreme Antarctic environments.

M. Concepción Gimeno

Angewandte Chemie International EditionVolume 58, Issue 32 p. 10790-10790 Author ProfileFree Access M. Concepción Gimeno First published: 22 February 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201901959AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Graphical Abstract “If I could have dinner with three famous scientists from history, they would be Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, and Rosalind Franklin. And I would ask them how was research and life being a scientist in their time …” Find out more about M. Concepción Gimeno in her Author Profile. M. Concepción Gimeno The author presented on this page has recently been named one of the IUPAC Distinguished Women in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Her latest contribution to Angewandte Chemie was: “Synthesis of Gold–Silver Luminescent Honeycomb Aggregates by Both Solvent-Based and Solvent-Free Methods”: M. C. Blanco, J. Cámara, M. C. Gimeno, A. Laguna, S. L. James, M. C. Lagunas, M. D. Villacampa, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 9777; Angew. Chem. 2012, 124, 9915. Date of birth: December 7, 1962 Position: Professor, University of Zaragoza E-mail: gimeno@unizar.es Homepage: http://conchita-gimeno.webs.com/ ORCID: 0000-0003-0553-0695 Education: 1985 Degree in Chemistry, University of Zaragoza 1988 PhD in Chemistry, Prof. Rafael Usón and Prof. Antonio Laguna, University of Zaragoza 1988–1989 Postdoctoral position, Prof. F. Gordon A. Stone, University of Bristol Awards: 2017 IUPAC Distinguished Women in Chemistry Award; 2017 Excellence in Organometallic Chemistry Research Award in Spain (Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry); 2017 Best Research Group Award (Research and Future, Aragón, Spain); 2018 Medal of the Aragón Government Courts; 2018 Excellence in Research Award of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry Research: Synthesis of group 11 metal complexes and their use as luminescent materials, in catalysis, or in drug design Hobbies: Reading, travelling, music If I could have dinner with three famous scientists from history, they would be Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, and Rosalind Franklin. And I would ask them how was research and life being a scientist in their time. If I were not a scientist, I would be a writer. I chose chemistry as a career because I was very interested in mixing substances and see what happened. My biggest motivation is to discover new compounds with real applications. I would have liked to have discovered the use of immunotherapy for cancer treatment. The most important thing I learned from my parents is the importance of small things and the effort needed to achieve your dreams. If I won the lottery, I would do a long journey around the world. My favorite place on earth is Qaleraliq glacier in Greenland (with superb Northern Lights). I can never resist a good meal in good company. My favorite food is seafood paella; I always miss it when I am away from Spain. My favorite author (fiction) is Gabriel García Marquez, among others. My top three films of all time are The Godfather, Casablanca, All about Eve, and many others. My favorite piece of music is Adagio in G Minor by Tomaso Albinoni. My 5 top papers: 1“Axially Chiral Allenyl Gold Complexes”: A. Johnson, A. Laguna, M. C. Gimeno, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014 , 136, 12812. (Allenyl gold complexes are important organogold complexes relevant to intermediate catalytic gold species). 2“Luminescent Re(i) and Re(i)/Au(i) complexes as cooperative partners in cell imaging and cancer therapy”: V. Fernández-Moreira, I. Marzo, M. C. Gimeno, Chem. Sci. 2014 , 5, 4434. (Theranostic probes based on two different metal fragments to provide emissive properties in one side and biological activity in the other). 3“N-Heterocyclic Carbene Ligands as Modulators of Luminescence in Three-Coordinate Gold(I) Complexes with Spectacular Quantum Yields”: R. Visbal, I. Ospino, J. M. López de Luzuriaga, A. Laguna, M. C. Gimeno, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013 , 135, 4712. (Compounds with excellent photophysical properties, suitable for use as dopants in OLEDs). 4“Intensely Luminescent Gold(I)–Silver(I) Cluster Complexes with Tunable Structural Features”: Q.-M. Wang, Y.-A. Lee, O. Crespo, J. Deeton, C. Tang, H.-J. Gysling, M. C. Gimeno, C. Larraz, M. D. Villacampa, A. Laguna, R. Eisenberg, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004 , 126, 9488. (Luminescent gold–silver clusters with a broad scope of color tunability). 5“Aurophilicity at Sulfur Centers: Synthesis and Structure of the Tetragold(I) species [(Ph3PAu)4S](CF3SO3)2⋅2 CH2Cl2”: F. Canales, M. C. Gimeno, P. G. Jones, A. Laguna, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1994, 33, 769; Angew. Chem. 1994, 106, 811. (Electron-deficient gold complexes stabilized by aurophilic interactions). Volume58, Issue32August 5, 2019Pages 10790-10790 ReferencesRelatedInformation

Impacts of experimental warming and northern light climate on growth and root fungal communities of Scots pine populations

Abstract Global warming is driving plant range shifts towards higher latitudes, where plants encounter different light environment (photoperiod and light spectral quality) than that to which they are adapted. Light environment may indirectly influence the belowground part of the plant, where trees associate with ectomycorrhizal (ECM) and other biotrophic fungi. We studied joint impacts of warming and light climate on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and its root-associated fungi in a reciprocal transplantation study, where pine seedlings from southern and northern tree populations were grown under similar experimental temperature in southern (60°N) and northern (69°N) Finland. Based on fungal ITS rDNA, the abundance of Basidiomycota, and ECM fungi in particular, was highest in the roots of southern pines in the south and in northern pines in the north, and seedling biomass was determined by population origin. Our results imply that root-associated fungi may respond differentially in native vs. non-native light environment of the host plant.

Heart-Shaped Valentines, from Nature to You

Mars is red. The ocean is blue. Auroras glow bright, and Pluto loves you, too.

The state of the atmosphere in the 2016 southern Kerguelen Axis campaign region

The near-surface environment of the Southern Ocean is subject to particular biases in weather and climate simulations, particularly during the summer season, and relatively few analyses of cloud and radiation properties have been reported for the region. Here we provide an analysis of ship-based measurements of downwelling radiation, cloud fraction and cloud base height from the RSV Aurora Australis during the Kerguelen Axis marine science campaign which was conducted in the Southern Ocean south-east of the Kerguelen Plateau between January and March 2016. Our study period focussed on a 22-day interval during the first two months of the campaign. We compared estimates of cloud fraction obtained with a cloud imager and ceilometer, and found good agreement between the two measurement types, particularly when the camera images were analysed in a narrow overhead field to account for differences in the measurement techniques. We used the Interim European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis (ERA-Interim) and the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System Polar Weather and Research Forecasting model (Polar WRF) to provide comparison data for our measurements. We found that both comparison data sets generally underestimated cloud cover (observed cloud fraction ~0.96 compared with 0.87 for ERA-Interim and 0.63 for Polar WRF). As a consequence, the comparison data showed biases in both the surface shortwave irradiance (+59 W m−2 for ERA-Interim and +154 W m−2 for Polar WRF) and the longwave irradiance (−23 W m−2 for ERA-Interim and −46 W m−2 for Polar WRF). The observed mean net surface cloud radiative effect (CRE) of −228 W m−2 was significantly more negative than found in previous observations in the Southern Ocean region, and compares with a net surface CRE of − 138 W m−2 for ERA-Interim which also showed relatively strong cloud forcing. The observed net surface CRE bias for ERA-Interim of + 90 W m−2 appears primarily the result of the reanalysis underestimating the cloud fraction, which at least partly relates to a lack of low clouds. Polar WRF was also found to have a deficit of low clouds. We characterised the relationship between the ratio of irradiances by Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) and shortwave radiation and cloud transmittance. As a consequence of cloud, light levels were estimated as being below the level for light-limited photosynthesis during 31% of the available time the sun was above the horizon (69% of each day on average), compared with the expected clear-sky value of 10%. Over the campaign period, the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean was influenced by the positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). Notably, the surface SAM index in January and March was the most positive observed since 1957. This situation generally led to near-surface climatological differences over the southern part of the campaign region over much of the period, which included significant negative anomalies in mean sea level pressure and air temperature, and positive anomalies in zonal wind. Overall, the cloudiness of our study region appeared to be above average for the time of year, but we could not identify a clear cause for this in the prevailing climatic conditions. While the level of shortwave radiation was likely below average for the time of year, this deficit is not likely to have significantly impacted on photosynthesis in the mixed layer of the ocean.

ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИЕ О «СЕВЕРНЫХ ОГНЯХ» В ДРЕВНЕГЕРМАНСКИХ ТЕКСТАХ

The article deals with the investigation of the phenomenon of the northern lights as a part of the language world image represented in the Old Germanic texts dated back to the VIII-XIII centuries. Its linguistic peculiarities have also been analyzed. As a result of the research of this astronomic and natural phenomenon the main ways of its metaphoric transferring have been elicited. We attempt to describe two prevailing models of metaphoric transferring, which are used to provide a familiar image of the northern lights by means the Old Germanic languages had at their disposal. According to the data there are two metaphoric models - based on the images of animals and natural phenomena, and the latter prevails.

Aurora borealis and string of pearls in vitreoretinal lymphoma: patterns of vitreous haze

AimsPeculiar retinal signs of vitreoretinal lymphoma (VRL) have been identified. However, limited information on the vitreous features of VRL is available. This study aims to characterise the vitreous involvement in...

The northern and southern lights are different. Here’s why

The northern and southern lights are different. Here’s why

Looking Outward at the Audience in <em>Aurora Leigh</em>

Looking Outward at the Audience in <em>Aurora Leigh</em>

Walt Whitman at the Aurora: A Model for Journalistic Attribution

Walt Whitman at the Aurora: A Model for Journalistic Attribution

The Spectral Arctic: A History of Dreams and Ghosts in Polar Exploration by Shane McCorristine

Reviewed by: The Spectral Arctic: A History of Dreams and Ghosts in Polar Exploration by Shane McCorristine Elsa Richardson Keywords Shane McCorristine, Elsa Richardson, Britain, England, nineteenth century, polar exploration, Franklin expedition, Far North, spectrality, Northwest Passage shane mccorristine. The Spectral Arctic: A History of Dreams and Ghosts in Polar Exploration. London: UCL Press, 2018. Pp. 326. In his account of a failed expedition to find the Northwest Passage, the explorer William Edward Parry recalled overwintering in a harbour of Melville Island. With the ships anchored in thick ice and their men idle, boredom quickly became a problem to be staved off with time consuming routines and ingenious entertainments. Theatrical performances were staged, calisthenics classes were held on deck, and a barrel organ was produced for the crew to dance to. In spite of these precautions, the eerie stillness of the dark landscape induced a kind of collective somnolence, where melancholic moods developed and reveries took on a life of their own. Here with the sound of wolves howling in the distance, the Aurora Borealis lighting the sky overhead, and everywhere the vast emptiness of a frozen world, is the spectral North to which Shane McCorristine’s new book attends. Long imagined as a remote and unmapped region, against which heroic adventurers could test the limits of their endurance, narratives of exploration also trafficked in the strange and the sublime. Excavating stories of clairvoyance, ghosts, mummies, and shamans from archival documents, memoirs, and fictional texts, McCorristine argues for the supernatural as a constitutive element of the Arctic imaginary in Victorian Britain. In the process, he asks that we take dreams more seriously, that we recognise that they are “not simply abstract and disembodied experiences for people, but forms of practice” (49). To dismiss Parry’s strange reveries as marginal to the real business of imperial exploration—maps, men, and nations—would be to overlook the ways in which that history was shaped by dreams, superstitions, visions, and other enchantments. The Spectral Arctic builds on a growing field of humanities research dedicated to histories of the uncanny and the unexplainable. Investigating subjects like spiritualism, mesmerism, mysticism, and the occult, scholars from a range of disciplines including literary studies, philosophy, sociology, and geography, have identified the supernatural as key to understanding the history of modern Britain. These highly varied studies find common ground in their challenge to the disenchanted reading of modernity first made famous by the [End Page 304] sociologist and political economist Max Weber, by which rationalisation and intellectualisation have been credited with forcing magic, religion, and spirituality from the public realm. Over the last two decades historians have chipped away at the idea of disenchantment to reveal the magical imagination at work in the operations of capitalism and the structures of modernity itself. In his first book, Spectres of the Self: Thinking about Ghosts and Ghost-seeing in England, 1750–1920 (2010) McCorristine explored the idea of the haunted self, but his new work moves away from ghostly subjectivities to attend to the “cultural production of the spectral” instead (43). Describing the Arctic as a space where “intense bundles of dreams, bodies and spirits gathered,” his interest lies in how the region was constructed in the popular Victorian imagination (12). One of the strengths of this approach is that it privileges voices silenced by the standard narrative of polar exploration. Western women, excluded from exclusively male expeditions, appeared in Arctic ballads, poetry, and fiction as the objects of love and sexual longing, as enduring emblems of home and country. They were, according to McCorristine, “spectrally present” not only in the form of literary representations, but also as disembodied witnesses to the search for the Northwest Passage (176). At the centre of The Spectral Arctic is the ill-fated Franklin expedition: its disappearance in 1848, the recovery missions launched, the influential appeals of Lady Jane Franklin, the sad discovery of shallow graves, evidence of cannibalism, and the unravelling of a national fantasy. Newspapers from the period covered the search in detail and some featured extraordinary reports from young women who claimed to have visited the expedition. Placed into a mesmeric trance, more than a dozen clairvoyant women travelled to the...

Some Sign Will Be Seen: The Aurora Borealis at Black Elk’s Death

When the Lakota holy man Black Elk died in 1950, a spectacular display of the aurora borealis lit up the night sky. Eyewitness accounts recount vivid northern lights and echo oral history from nineteenth-century Lakota who gave explanations of the meaning of auroral phenomena. The reports of the 1950 aurora suggest that a massive, sporadic solar flare and subsequent coronal mass ejection were responsible for the event. News media reports, contemporaneous scientific observations, and solar observatory data confirm this hypothesis.

A watercolor painting of northern lights seen above Japan on 11 February 1958

A 61 years old watercolor painting of red aurora was recently provided from a Japanese citizen, and it contributed to understand the detailed time evolution around the peak time of the large magnetic storm on 11 February 1958. The painting gives information of the elevation angle of the red aurora seen from low latitude (27.4° magnetic latitude) at 1205–1225 UT during the beginning of the recovery phase of the magnetic storm. Combined with the hand-made sketch of the same red aurora seen from the Abashiri Local Meteorological Office (located at 34° magnetic latitude) at 1215 UT, the position of the red aurora is determined via triangulation. It is found that the red aurora reached up to 400 km at 41° magnetic latitude, which is 1.0° higher in magnetic latitude than the red aurora which appeared just before the peak time of the magnetic storm.

Northern lights to neon lights: Kirkenes to transform into polar Chinatown

Northern lights to neon lights: Kirkenes to transform into polar Chinatown

Red lights in the sky, hunger in sight. Aurora borealis and famine between experience and rhetoric in the early Middle Ages.

The purpose of the present paper is to analyse the mental and cultural attitudes of early medieval people towards one celestial “unidentified” phenomenon: aurora borealis. Celestial signs were often – but not always - interpreted on the basis of biblical prophecies, as visible words through which God forewarned humanity of future major events like the death of a king, pestilence, or famine. Attention will be mainly focused on the latter aspect, and specifically on the potential connection between the signs associated with the end of times in the Gospels, and actual records of aurorae, which were in turn interpreted as proving and confirming biblical prophecies. Aurora borealis seems to have generated anxiety about climate and hunger and to have enjoyed a particularly bad reputation, the reasons depending either on the moral purposes of related records, the rhetorical strategies they offered, or the actual emotional impact they had on the observers.

Images and Expectations of Chinese Tourists Visiting an Arctic Destination: Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland

During the last years an increasing number of Chinese tourists are travelling to the Arctic regions. Rovaniemi in Finland is one of the most popular destinations among them. Here Chinese tourists, with a preconceived image of the Arctic, can enjoy clean air and nature, meet Santa Claus, see the Northern Lights, and thus meet their expectations.This paper is based on an online survey made in April and May 2016 among Chinese that went to visit Rovaniemi and its surroundings.Results show, among other things, that there are a growing number of tourists organising their own travel, and a higher demand for leisure activities. The level of satisfaction after the experience is pretty good, and the expectations, according to the pre-formed images, are fulfilled.