some early descriptions of aurorae in china
TRANSCRIPT
Annales Geophysicae
ISSN: 0992-7689 (printed version)ISSN: 1432-0576 (electronic version)
Abstract Volume 13 Issue 5 (1995) pp 517-521
Some early descriptions of aurorae in China
P. K. Wang (1), G. L. Siscoe (2)
(1) Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin, 1225 W. Dayton Street, Madison, WI 53706,USA(2) Center for Space Physics, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215, USA
Received: 22 August 1994/Revised: 25 November 1994/Accepted: 2 December 1994
Abstract. Eight accounts from ancient Chinese literature have been found that describe phenomena in contexts and in metaphorsthat are distinctly auroral. These accounts relate to personages purported to have lived in the third millennium B.C. The historicityof the personages and the actual dates of their lives are still a matter of controversy. Thus the accounts should be considered at aminimum as valuable additions to the inventory of ancient allusions to the aurora. At the other extreme, if taken at face value, theydocument the occurrence of low-latitude aurorae in the third millennium B.C.
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Last change: October 3, [email protected]© Springer Berlin Heidelberg 1995