* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: The great aurora of 4 February 1872

Blobrana · L

Title: Aurorae in Australian Aboriginal Traditions
Author: Duane W. Hamacher

Transient celestial phenomena feature prominently in the astronomical knowledge and traditions of Aboriginal Australians. In this paper, I collect accounts of the Aurora Australis from the literature regarding Aboriginal culture....

It should be noted that a significant geomagnetic storm led to strong aurorae visible around the world on 4-5 February 1872 (Silverman 2008). Accounts from Australia describe brilliant aurorae in Perth, Adelaide, and Melbourne on these days. While the aurorae may have been visible at more northerly latitudes (ibid), no accounts were recorded from more northerly latitudes in the TROVE newspaper database. There were no recorded accounts of Aboriginal perspectives of the aurora, although it is almost certain that Aboriginal people would have seen it in the skies.

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Title: Auroras in Arabian Peninsula
Author: Hassan M. Basurah

This paper describes aurora displays in the central and the West sides of Saudi Arabia. The list of the auroral events includes date, place and source of information for visually observed parameters such as: colors, shape, distribution on the sky and time duration of the phenomena. One of them, the aurora of 4 Feb. 1872G at Makkah (latitude 21.5° N) is considered to be one of the greatest auroras of the last two centuries.

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Title: Low-latitude auroras: The great aurora of 4 February 1872
Authors: Silverman, S. M.

The aurora of 4 February 1872 was comparable to, and perhaps even greater than, that of 1/2 September 1859. In this paper we show that the aurora of 4 February 1872 was seen worldwide, and that in the Caribbean, Egypt, Southern Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Indian subcontinent, and China these observations extended as low as 20° magnetic latitude. Observations are also available in the north to as far as the vicinity of the north magnetic pole. This aurora is then comparable to, or greater than, in geographical extent, and in equatorward closeness, to that of 2 September 1859. Both must now be included as the only known members in the class of greatest auroras of the past few hundred years. For the 1859 aurora, however, there is no accepted observation at a lower magnetic latitude than about 20°. By contrast, several observations for the aurora of 4 February 1872 are reported at magnetic latitudes of the order of 10°, and one probable observation at an even lower magnetic latitude of about 3°. This paper presents a survey and discussion of these observations.