Evening star., 1941-09-19
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

BY THOMAS X. HENRY.
With streamers of weird. green
luminescence at times filling the en-
/ tire dome of the sky, Washington
early last night experienced the fin
est display of northern lights of this
generation.
Thousands watched the phenome-
non which varied from moment TO
moment 1t was completely unex-
pected and caused strange rumors
to spread through the city-that the
Army was testing a new weapon.
that Hitler was coming, that it was
a portent of some coming disaster.
Newspaper Offices were flooded
with calls asking for an expiana-
| tion. For many here it was the first
sight of the aurora borealis.
Communication Hampered.
Washington shared the race ex-
perience with the rest Of Eastern
United States south to Georgia.
From other places various degrees
of interference with radio, telegraph
and telephone communication was
reported, but locally there seems to
have been little trouble.
The phenomenon first was no
ticed shortly after dark when shim-
mering, green, luminescent clouds
were observed flying across me
northwestern heavens. AS darkness
advanced the display spread over
the entire sky and lasted for ap-
proXimately two hours.
Sometimes it took the form OF
green Streamers stretched from
zenith to horizon. At other times
the green clouds-or they might be
described as waves of faint, green
f1ame-danced over the sky follow
ing no regular pattern. Again there
would be a broad, greenish-gray
arch in the northwest. At times the
lights would almost disappear, to
come back in full strength few
moments later.
The dimness of the lights can be
appreciated from the fact that the
stars constantly could be seen shin
ing behind them.
Some See Rainbow Hues.
Most of the time the lights we're
like thin, green, shimmering flame.
Some reported moments when there
were flashes of blue, red, orange and
purple.
Disturbance to communicat ton
lines was felt as far West as Albu-
querque, N. Mex. The worst dis
turbances were north of the Ohio
and east of the Mississippi. High
speed news wires delivered only un-
ineligible gibberish for minutes at
time
Radio Disrupted.
London reported communications
all over the world were awry. Aus
tralia was cut off for long stretches.
Gables from America were messed
up. Rome. Berlin and Moscow
radios, usually heard clearly, failed
to come through. Blacked-out Hell
sinki saw particularly fine display
which was interpreted as an omen
of an early winter As far south as
New York the light at times reached
the brightness of full moonlight
The phenomenon is not fully un-
derstood by physicists. Much re-
search work has been carried out by
collaborators of the terrestrial mag
netism department of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington.
The explanation generally ac-
cepted is that streams of electri-
cally charged particles, possibly
electrons and protons, are shot from
the flaming surface of the sun with
a velocity a little less than that of
light. These particles are pulled
towards the north and south mag
netic poles of the earth. They
strike the extremely tenuous outer
atmosphere extending as much as
800 miles from the planets surface.
Collide With Atoms.
There they collide with atoms and
molecules of the atmosphere, strip
ping of outer electrons and causing
light-producing energy states. The
elements are chiefly oxygen and
nitrogen and the light produced is
such as can be duplicated by test
tube experiments with these ele-
ments.
The precise nature OF the par
ticles shot from the sun is unknown.
The major part of the display is
from so to 80 miles above the earth.
The dominant color, as was
shown in Washington last night, is
greyish- green.
Source Puzzle Solved.
This is due to single wave-length
of light the source of which puzzled
physicists for a generation. Recent
studies have shown it is produced
only by atomic oxygen-oxygen IN
the form of single atoms instead Of