Agora – Historical events and observations

A watercolor painting of northern lights seen above Japan on 11 February 1958

¹ National Institute of Polar Research, 10-3 Midori-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-8518, Japan
² Department of Polar Science, SOKENDAI, 10-3 Midori-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-8518, Japan
³ The Akaeda Hospital, 578-2 Kamikawai-cho, Yokohama, Kanagawa 241-0802, Japan

^* Corresponding author: kataoka.ryuho@nipr.ac.jp

Received: 5 April 2019
Accepted: 20 June 2019

Abstract

A 61 years old watercolor painting of red aurora was recently provided from a Japanese citizen, and it contributed to understand the detailed time evolution around the peak time of the large magnetic storm on 11 February 1958. The painting gives information of the elevation angle of the red aurora seen from low latitude (27.4° magnetic latitude) at 1205–1225 UT during the beginning of the recovery phase of the magnetic storm. Combined with the hand-made sketch of the same red aurora seen from the Abashiri Local Meteorological Office (located at 34° magnetic latitude) at 1215 UT, the position of the red aurora is determined via triangulation. It is found that the red aurora reached up to 400 km at 41° magnetic latitude, which is 1.0° higher in magnetic latitude than the red aurora which appeared just before the peak time of the magnetic storm.