“I have heard old people affirm that they have heard the shuffle or noise of the feet of the dancers,” wrote George Marwick of Yesnaby, who was born in 1836; a Whalsay man wrote about it in The Shetland News in 1933; and John Rae was told the same by the Inuit in the Arctic. But few scientists believed it, and understandably so since the Northern Lights occur 80 kilometres and more above us. It was only in 2012 that a researcher in Finland made recordings of the sound of the aurora, but mechanisms are still unclear.

Dr David Kerridge, who for many years led the British Geological Survey’s earth magnetism research, discusses the evidence for auroral sounds and describes the current understanding of how the aurora is created. He explains how the Northern Lights give a visible signal of storms in space weather conditions around the Earth – and the possible impacts on technologies in space and on the ground. He goes on to look at something else that George Marwick wrote, which sounds intriguing but strange:

How might we test this, to establish the facts one way or the other? Dr` Kerridge opens up some lines of investigation. Tom Muir, who co-edited George Marwick’s papers, provides an introduction.

Dr David Kerridge’s visit has been made possible by support from EventScotland.