Expeditions as Experiments by Marianne Klemun & Ulrike Spring

Author:Marianne Klemun & Ulrike Spring
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, London

Documenting the Aurora

The experience of the aurora is immediate, sudden and overwhelming—one way of comprehending it is to take a step back, into the realm of scientific observation, by opening a gap between the observed and the observer. Efforts to narrow the gap or even to close it, are one of the aims (and claims) of science and can continuously be seen in the discourse on the aurora.

As mentioned above, Weyprecht assigned to four expedition members the responsibility of documenting the northern lights in a so-called northern lights journal. 43 Yet, when leaving the ship behind in the ice in May 1874 (no remains of the ship have ever been found), the return to Europe on foot and by boats did not allow any excess weight or room, and Weyprecht decided to leave the journal behind, because, as he later regretfully stated, he then thought that “the mere description” could not generate positive results. 44 But he took along the journal with the meteorological observations where some aurora observations were noted down—he even asked some expedition members to copy the notes from the heavy folio books into a smaller notebook in order to save weight. 45 The interpretation of the aurora in the years to come thus had to rely on these peripheral observations, in addition to Weyprecht’s own notes and the meteorological journal. 46 Another shortcoming derived from the different ways in which observation had been conducted. As mentioned above, while the officers were very thorough in their observation noting down most traces of the aurora, the two captains tended to record only the most spectacular aurora displays in this journal. While the final number of the aurora displays was thus not fully reliable, Weyprecht nevertheless regarded the “relative figures” as “sufficiently exact”, since the observers took regular turns at observation. 47 Yet he was less certain about the scientific merit of the observations on the position of the aurora, as it turned out to be impossible to conduct regular measurements of its location with exact instruments; he had to rely on estimations and compass bearings instead. 48 While Weyprecht knew very well the deficits of his aurora material and hence analysis, he nevertheless was aware of the new knowledge he brought to the field. His aim was to add new information to the growing literature on aurora observations, and he saw the publication of his findings justified by the fact that the aurora displays were different from the ones already observed and especially from the ones observed further south and which often had been the basis for research on the aurora. 49 Accordingly, his visionary plans for simultaneous scientific observation at various places on the globe (which were realized in 1882–3 with the IPY) included the observation of the aurora in the north and possibly the south. The uncertainty of scientific knowledge about the aurora borealis, and the desire to change this into certainty were an important motivation for Weyprecht before setting out to the Arctic in 1872;

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