Listening to Northern Lights

A Minnesota Planetarium Video- Natural Radio: When solar flares hit the Earth's magnetic field, the skies at both poles can light up with auroras. The particles also create very low frequency electromagnetic waves, a type of natural radio that can be picked up around the globe. Every year sound recordist Steve McGreevy heads north where the reception is best and points his receiver at the sky. Made for use in the Planetarium dome, thus the circular frame of the images)

Produced for Minnesota Planetarium and Space Discovery Center
http://mplanetarium.org/

Produced by Joel Halvorson
NASA Earth-Sun Museum Alliance (ESMA)
http://informal.jpl.nasa.gov/museum/E...

Stephen McGreevy, Natural Radio
http://www.auroralchorus.com/

Audio gear for listening:
http://www.auroralchorus.com/wr3gx.htm

Barrett Golding, audio
http://HearingVoices.com/

Part of NPR Lost & Found Sound series
http://www.npr.org/programs/lnfsound/

Calvin Hall, photography
http://www.alaskasaurora.com/

For the International Polar Year (IPY)
http://www.ipy.org/

• Category

  Travel & Events

[patachu666]

SHUT UUUUUP! i want to listen to the noises.

[TheThreadshitter]

OK, those whistlers are reminding me of the synths in Tom Sawyer by Rush.

[outpostflags]

shut up

[Matt D]

I'm not wasting 7 minutes and 45 seconds on a video titled 'listening to northern lights' without what I'm suppose to be listening to being in the forefront of the video. BLAH!

[vanillagirlca]

When I first heard this, I was working security at night at a cadet camp in Saskatchewan. At first, I thought some wiseguy was playing with the radios.

[TheAdyren]

I sat in my car once and listened to static for 30 mins one night. I heard the whistlers. And just sat in the car looking weird I am sure to the people coming out of wal mart. Haha. Love it.

[intrepidxprodigy91]

You know, it is neat to wonder how people thousands of years ago who knew nothing about science perceived this phenomena. Magical waves of all colors radiating and twisting in the skies...it is no wonder how spiritualism and religion became such powerful forces...they were attempts to explain things like this.

[sayitasiseeit1]

I agree..!! I don't care about the scientific commentary......some things can just be without having to explain everything..!! Shut up and let the lights talk..!

[MrsVegetaEasKaioShin]

lol

[Alfredo Castaneda-Garcia]

I wonder if there is an actual term for this conversion from electromagmetic waves to mechanical waves? I am using some of this information to see if I can interpret colour using this same technique, like the Eyeborg.

When I was near a transformer I could hear the bus of 60 HZ, 180 HZ, and 300 HZ together and because I have perfect pitch, I had no trouble perceiving this.

I wonder if this radio listening can be turned into an expansion of our senses?

[VoyagerPWS]

Another gem found on YouTube. Way to go, Steve McGreevy! (I haven't heard from you in several years again. I hope you're still out there recording.) And thanks to hearvox for posting.

It's refreshing to hear authentic recordings, rather than the almost-entirely-fake "therapeutic" space audio that permeates YouTube.

For more authentic space audio from spacecraft sources, see my channel (click VoyagerPWS).