11-March Aurora Australis

11-March Aurora Australis

Over the Admiralty Sea Mount today and more icebergs, the Balleny Islands are apparently not far off. The Balleny islands were discovered by the English whaling captains John Balleny and Thomas Freeman, 9th February 1839. The Ballenys consist of a string of islands stretching 195 km from north to south.

Bob woke me at 3am to say that an Aurora Australis was developing. I throw my overalls on (easiest way to get dressed quickly) and race up to the bridge. A wonderful sight to see the patterns of green light wave across the night sky..

Aurora Australis is one of the worlds most beautiful of all natural phenomena. It is generally thought that it is streams of naturally charged particles, positive electrons or protons shot from the sun at round the speed of light. The particles are thought to be pulled to the North and South magnetic poles of the earth. When the particles reach the outer atmosphere, 800 miles above, they strike atoms and molecules in this layer, stripping off the electrons and thus causing the light. Bob mentioned that it is quite possible that the directly overhead and curved pattern that we can see tonight is likely due to the our current close proximity to the magnetic south pole.
I tried to start a rumour about new species of electric eel that have set up breeding grounds around magnetic south. The negative females just hang around the pole and the more positive males swim towards them in auto pilot mode when they feel like it.