An interview with solar physicist Pål Brekke

Photo: Kevin Schenk

What is your background – where did you grow up and when did you first see the Northern Lights?

I am a solar physicist with a PhD from the University of Oslo. I grew up in Arendal on the south coast of Norway where the Northern Lights can be seen on some occasions. I think I was eight years old when my dad took me out and showed me the Northern Lights for the first time. This was a time when the Sun was close to its maximum activity level at the time.

Describe what it was like?

It was green curtain-like structures that were dancing in the sky. There were also a lot of pinkish colors at the top – it really was an amazing view for a little boy to see.

How you became interested in the Aurora Borealis and subsequently involved in researching the phenomena?

It was actually the Sun that caught my interest, largely because it is so fascinating – a real star that we can study in detail and a star that actually affects us in so many ways. I have never done real research on the aurora itself, but I have studied the effects that the Sun has on the Northern lights.

I love to talk to people about the Sun and the aurora – and luckily this is a topic that most people find very interesting. My present job is to support aurora scientist and space researchers in Norway.

How do you record the Northern Lights from a scientific perspective?

The most natural way of observing and recording the aurora is to use a good camera and to take lots of pictures and videos. However, in modern times scientists have started using sophisticated instruments that can also reveal the physics behind the phenomena. Spectrometers for example can detect what kind of atoms are “glowing” up in the atmosphere. We launch rockets from Andøya and Svalbard through the aurora and we can also use satellites to monitor it from space.

Can you describe what causes the Northern Lights to appear, so that those of us with online basic knowledge of solar activity can understand?

Basically it starts with something happening on the Sun. This will cause a kind of gust in the solar wind – a constant stream of particles blowing out from the Sun. These particles will hit the Earth’s protective magnetic field and stir up this invisible shield. Some of the particles from the Sun will be channeled along the magnetic filed lines, down towards the Polar Regions on Earth.  These particles will collide with different atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere, which will make the atoms emit green and pinkish colors. The effect is actually the same as on a light tube or a neon light used in commercial signs.

What have been the highlights of your career as a solar scientist?

That must be my six years at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center working for the European Space Agency as the SOHO Deputy Project Scientist. SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) is space-based solar observatory, one of the most successful satellites in history. It has provided us with a wealth of new knowledge about the Sun and has also proven to be a very important warning satellite for solar storms. It was fantastic to work with a very dedicated team of engineers and scientists in the SOHO team – helping scientists all over the world to get their favorite observations using SOHO.

What do you enjoying doing when you are not working?

I like to spend time with my kids and to be on my boat in the summer. I love the ocean and going to our summerhouse in Lyngør, which is a town on an island just off the coast of south Norway. I also enjoy skiing in the winter.

If you’ve seen and been inspired by the Northern Lights you won’t be surprised to discover that this spectacular celestial light-show has been inspiring writers and artists for centuries! The Northern Lights have cropped up in everything from Norse mythology to Chinese folklore, even featuring in the Old Testament. References and myths have been linked to topics such as fertility, war, and life after death.

Some of our favorite examples include:

The Northern Lights in Literature – Philip Pullman
Peopled by animal-formed manifestations of the human soul, child kidnapping ‘Gobblers’, armored bears and zeppelins, Philip Pullman’s The Northern Lights captures a fantastical world that mirrors the mystery and spectacle surrounding the Aurora Borealis itself…

The novel has also gone ‘stellar’, making a successful transition to the big screen starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig (as well as a long-running theater production). The Northern Lights is a gripping fantasy story first published in 1995, the first book in the His Dark Materials Trilogy. Set in a parallel universe, the book centers around feisty heroine Lyra Belacqua, the mysterious particles of Dust, Aurora Borealis and Arctic North. Debate has centered around Pullman’s attack on religion but he refuses to be drawn too far down this controversial route…perhaps readers should simply accept a good story when it comes along!
Other writers to have waxed lyrical about the Northern Lights include the poets William Wordsworth, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson. Namesake, the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, also inspired legends of literature, Shakespeare and Tennyson.

The Northern Lights in art

The Northern Lights in Art – James Turrell and Olafur Eliasson

James Turrell and Olafur Eliasson have tackled the inspiration of celestial light on a much grander scale, conjuring outdoor phenomena into man-made mega installations.

Born in California in 1943, James Turrell is best known for spending the bulk of his career as an artist converting a volcanic crater in the desert into a giant kaleidoscope. Having learned to fly a plane at the age of sixteen, Turrell says he’s been greatly influenced by his time spent in the sky, observing some of nature’s greatest works of art such as the Aurora Borealis. Roden Crater, a natural cinder volcanic crater, is located outside Flagstaff, Arizona, and has been described as a vast naked-eye observatory, as well as ‘a mechanic for bringing the heavens down to earth’. When this epic project is finally realized, spaces within the crater will be used to harness rare visual phenomena. The Crater will translate the Aurora Borealis into a visual feast indoors, channeling the light into a warren of chambers.

Olafur Eliasson was born in Copenhagen in 1967 and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts before going on to work with architect and geometry expert, Einar Thorsteinn. In his famous Weather Project installation at the Tate Modern in 2003, Eliasson represented the sun and sky in the great expanse of the Turbine Hall, with a fine mist creating cloud-like formations. It’s easy to see why viewers of work such as ‘Beauty’ (part of the Take Your Time exhibition) have described the experience as akin to witnessing the Northern Lights. The use of humidifiers, lamps and mirrors play a major part in his work, creating a striking and spectacular beauty that emulates nature.

The Northern Lights in Music

From symphony orchestras to the Super Furry Animals, the response to the Northern Lights is as diverse as it is widespread. Topics that have caught our attention include:

What if we could hear the Northern Lights, what would they sound like..? Mike Oldfield dedicated his 45 minute-long orchestral work, Music of the Spheres, to tackling the question of Musica Universalis, the ancient theory that every celestial body has an inner music. Great music to tune into if you want to ‘space’ out.

Contemporary Danish musician Henrik Hytteballe was inspired after seeing the Northern Lights whilst on holiday in Norway to compose the soundtrack now featured on Norway’s My Northern Lights microsite.
What if polar bears could hear the Northern Lights?? Finnish composer Sibelius’ ‘Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Minor’ has been described by one conductor as a ‘polonaise for polar bears’ (that’s a stately Polish processional dance in case you didn’t know!).

What if the world ends at the Arctic? The concept of distance and the end of time unite in the Super Furry Animals song ‘Northern Lites’, as they ask “Blow me far away to the Northern Lites,” in what is apparently a reference to Armageddon…