Aurora borealis actually makes noise

The cold night air hangs still, charged with the auroral glow. Then, a distinct *crackling* or a soft *hiss* drifts across the snow-covered landscape, a sound seemingly born from the shimmering curtains of light itself.

For centuries, indigenous peoples have spoken of the aurora’s song. Modern science, however, has long struggled to reconcile these anecdotal accounts with physical reality. Sound requires a medium to travel. At the altitudes where the aurora ignites, 100 kilometers or more above the Earth, the air is simply too thin to transmit any audible acoustic energy back to the surface. Yet, recordings persist from instruments placed on the ground, capturing these elusive whispers of the sky. The current hypothesis posits that temperature inversions near the ground or localized electrical discharges generated by the aurora’s magnetic field could be creating these proximate acoustic phenomena.

The Northern Lights remain a grand cosmic ballet, now performed with an enigmatic, audible accompaniment. This auditory dimension challenges our existing understanding of atmospheric physics, reminding us that even the most well-studied natural wonders can hold profound, unarticulated secrets.

Aurorae are caused by charged particles from the sun colliding with gases in Earth's atmosphere.