Science

Do the Northern Lights Make a Mysterious ‘Clapping’ Sound? Listen for Yourself

Researchers Believe to Have Recorded Sounds Caused by the Aurora Borealis

The aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, are seen near the city of Tromsoe, northern Norway. (Photo: AP/Rune Stoltz-Bertinussen)

The Blaze has brought you many fascinating pictures and time-lapsed video of the northern lights. But, if you have you ever had the chance to see the aurora borealis in person, did you try listening to them? Did you know they could even make a sound?

The sound associated with the mystical lights, which are caused by energetic particles in the atmosphere, has long been a rumor, but a new study may confirm that they do in fact make a clap or clank noise. Over 12 years, researchers at Aalto University in Finland have been trying to record these noises and finally announced they had found evidence of a sound.

The eight-second clip recorded in 2004, which was only just heard in May 2012 after the audio was copied, is thought to be the first time the sound of the northern lights has been captured by three different microphones at the same time.

Here’s more from the researchers on the study:

This eight second video is extracted from a set of test recordings that have been collected within the Auroral Acoustics project (2000-2012). During this time period high-quality audio recordings were made during approximately 100 geomagnetically opportune nights at different locations in Finland. These recordings form a database that is half a terabyte in size. This short clip has been selected from some video recording experiments that were performed during some nights simultaneously and independently of the main activities.

Listen to it here:

The team also reports hearing the mysterious sound again on a recording captured in 2011. Universe Today has more from the researchers on these findings:

“In the past, researchers thought that the aurora borealis was too far away for people to hear the sounds it made,” said Unto K. Laine from Aalto University in Finland. “However, our research proves that the source of the sounds that are associated with the aurora borealis we see is likely caused by the same energetic particles from the Sun that create the northern lights far away in the sky. These particles or the geomagnetic disturbance produced by them seem to create sound much closer to the ground.”

[...]

“Our research proved that, during the occurrence of the northern lights, people can hear natural auroral sounds related to what they see,” said Laine.

The researchers report that the material is still experimental so the science may not be officially sound on it yet. What exactly causes the noise is also still unknown. The researchers report the sounds not being regularly associated with the northern lights. They also state that given the different descriptions of the sounds — crackles or muffled bangs — they believe the mechanism by which they’re caused could vary. They do believe their results open “a new phase in the Auroral Acoustics project.”

The researchers presented these experimental findings at the ICSV19 proceedings in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week.

(H/T: GeekOWire)

Comments (19)

  • lukerw
    Posted on July 12, 2012 at 12:24am

    Light is a Wave… Sound is a Wave…

    Report Post » lukerw  
    • NC1
      Posted on July 12, 2012 at 9:20am

      It was a Yeti or Sasquatch banging rocks together.

      Report Post » NC1  
  • dmerwin
    Posted on July 11, 2012 at 11:06pm

    Ahh, no. Lived in Alaska for 35 years, seen many displays. I have heard one hand clapping.

    Report Post » dmerwin  
  • Angry-Elf
    Posted on July 11, 2012 at 10:47pm

    It‘s either global warming or Bush’s fault… Those are the only two plausible answers!

    Report Post » Angry-Elf  
  • infidelsaplenty
    Posted on July 11, 2012 at 10:09pm

    I’ve heard a light crackling sound with some displays, and no, … the neighbors weren’t eating popcorn!

    Report Post »  
    • NC1
      Posted on July 12, 2012 at 9:21am

      I heard the crackling sound too when I saw them in AK.

      Report Post » NC1  
  • bullcrapbuster
    Posted on July 11, 2012 at 6:11pm

    When I was growing up on the farm in central Manitoba I heard the northern lights make a flapping sound. My siblings and a few of the neighbors kids that were over visiting also heard the sound. We were watching the lights straight over head and they started to swirl and flip back and forth and shoot out accross the sky. It was at that time we heard the sound that corresponded to the quick shifting of the lights. It lasted for a few seconds. It made the sound of a sheet flapping in the wind. I was about 12 years old. It was a dead calm night.(no wind)

    Report Post » bullcrapbuster  
    • scruffycat
      Posted on July 11, 2012 at 7:54pm

      Before moving out to the west coast back in the mid-40′s my mom grew up in northern Minnesota and as a kid growing up in socal in the mid-50′s I can remember her telling me about the Northern Lights and how on a really really quiet cold cold night you can actually hear a sound coming from them. Thats fascinating as they are above the atmosphere in the ionosphere where with a lack of air there really isn’t any sound. So there has to be a secondary interaction between the electrical current flowing in a northern light streamer and then that current conductor flipping around very quickly possibly producing squarewaves or at least EM waveforms with steep edges. It is possible to pulse-code-modulate a microwave signal with say, a human voice, and then direct that RF signal directly into a persons brain and have them be able to hear the person speaking without any kind of detector or demodulator. Once a person thinks they are hearing sounds from the northern lights it would be a nice test if they would shove earplugs into their ears immediately and see if the sound continues or stops. I know the microphone supposedly picked the aurora sound up but I would still like to run the test just in case it was induced em that the mic picked up.

      Report Post » scruffycat  
    • Ordell Robbie
      Posted on July 11, 2012 at 9:12pm

      I remember spending most of a night in a field outside of Buffalo NY around 1970 watching and listening to a spectacular display of the Northern Lights. The description of the sound as being like a sheet flapping in the wind is right on the mark. That is exactly how I have been describing it for all these years.

      Report Post »  
  • liberalescheisskopf
    Posted on July 11, 2012 at 5:40pm

    Aalto University in Finland, discovered the sounds some eight years after the recordings. Aalto is pronounced ‘hoax’ in english…..

    Report Post » liberalescheisskopf  
    • AlcoholicMB
      Posted on July 11, 2012 at 7:01pm

      Finnish: Aalto

      English: corrugation, fluid, flute, liquid, wave

      Report Post » AlcoholicMB  
  • blackyb
    Posted on July 11, 2012 at 5:22pm

    I got an old radio that can do that trick.

    Report Post » blackyb  
  • Lothmar
    Posted on July 11, 2012 at 4:07pm

    Ah the age old question, “what is the sound of one aurora clapping?”

    Report Post »  
  • MAMMY_NUNN
    Posted on July 11, 2012 at 4:07pm

    Sounded like Barny Franks honeymoon recording.

    Report Post »  
  • Skrewedretiree
    Posted on July 11, 2012 at 3:57pm

    I grew up in Alaska, and during the Winter months we often saw Northern Lights displays. I never heard anything during those times.

    The one thing I do remember is how they hung like a green-light curtain slowly swaying as if in a breeze, something I have rarely seen filmed and cannot be had in a still photo. I really loved watching them when the nights were clear and cold and the sky was clear.

    The next best thing is the time I spent at sea in the Navy when I was young. Away from land, the sky is clear as a crystal on a cloudless night and the Milky Way stands out in bold relief. The phosphorescent plankton in the water sparkles. We thought at first it was starlight reflected, but the Old Salts told us what it was. When the ship passed through the water, the plankton illuminate. Our wake was a sparkling green trail that could be seen from the air.

    Then there was the green powder-puff flashes of “heat lightning” in the moisture laden air over the harbor in Guantanamo Bay on a clear night. No noise on that either, but flashes of green light. Totally weird!

    Report Post » Skrewedretiree  
  • Gonzo
    Posted on July 11, 2012 at 3:49pm

    Somebody opened a beer, that’s all.

    Report Post » Gonzo  
  • SREGN
    Posted on July 11, 2012 at 3:46pm

    That’s people trying to turn them off.

    Report Post »  

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