Skeleton of a beached whale under an aurora borealis
Watching the aurora borealis or northern lights twisting and pulsing in the night skies above the Arctic Circle is a special treat for those who venture north between October and March. What observers see is the effect of Earth’s magnetic field—the reason why there’s life on Earth as we know it.
However, as well as deflecting and safely channeling charged particles hurled at us from the sun, our planet’s magnetic field also—says a new study—helps gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) find their way through the ocean.....MUCH MORE
A new study offers some of the first evidence that gray whales might depend on a magnetic sense to find their way through the ocean, and that strong solar storms—and thus intense displays of aurora borealis—leave them blind.
How animals use magnetoreception—detecting a magnetic field to perceive direction, altitude or location—is a remarkable story.
Reported in the journal Current Biology, “Gray whales strand more often on days with increased levels of atmospheric radio-frequency noise” by Granger et al. outlines research that made the remarkable discovery that whales are more likely to strand themselves on days when solar storms disrupt Earth's magnetic field....
Had he been around, Birkeland would probably have figured it out 60 years ago, the Northern Lights being just one of his areas of interest:
"New Research on Northern Lights Will Improve Satellite Navigation Accuracy"
Ha! Birkeland smiles.
He should have been awarded a couple Nobel prizes.*
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*Here's the Nobelprize.org Nomination Database:
Nominated in two separate fields for a total of seven different prizes by 13 total nominations.
And here's the introduction to the Plasma Universe entry on Birkeland:
Kristian Olaf Bernhard Birkeland (13 December 1867 - 15 June 1917) was a Norwegian scientist who has been called "the first space scientist"[1] and "the father of plasma experiments in the laboratory and space"[2] [3] [4]. He is perhaps most well-known for his scientific work on the aurora using a terrella (a magnetized globe), and as inventor of an electromagnetic cannon, and, a method of electrically producing artificial fertilizer. He also became a full professor of physics at the University of Oslo at the age of 31.
Birkeland also had astrophysical research published on cathode rays,[5] the Zodiacal lights,[6] comets,[7] the Sun and sunspots,[8] the origin of planets and their satellites,[9] the Earth's magnetism.[10]
Some of Birkeland's other contributions to science included:[2]
• Derived the general expression for the Poynting vector
• Gave the first general solution to Maxwell's equations [11]
• Pioneered the field of charged-particle beams
• Utilized the concept of "longitudinal mass"
• Constructed the first foil diodes
• Pioneered the field of visible-light photography of electrical discharges
• Advocated charged-particle propulsion engines for space travel
• Created Norsk Hydro's nitrogen-fertilizer industry (the Birkeland-Eyde method for production of potassium nitrate)
• Invented an electromagnetic rail gun capable of firing a 10-kg projectile
• Established Birkeland's Firearms company
• Anticipated cosmic rays (discovered in 1911) with his calculations involving energies of several billion electron volts
• Held patents on the electromagnetic cannon,[12] electric blankets, solid margarine, and hearing aids.
In 1969 when field-align currents had been identified in the Earth's atmosphere, they were named in his honor: Birkeland currents.[13]....
