Success of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation: revealing the chance Viking sailors could reach Greenland from Norway
According to a famous hypothesis, Viking sailors could navigate along the latitude between Norway and Greenland by means of sky polarization in cloudy weather using a sun compass and sunstone crystals. Using data measured in earlier atmospheric optical and psychophysical experiments, here we determi...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.172187 2024-09-15T18:08:57+00:00 Success of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation: revealing the chance Viking sailors could reach Greenland from Norway Száz, Dénes Horváth, Gábor Hungarian Science Foundation 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172187 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.172187 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.172187 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 5, issue 4, page 172187 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2018 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172187 2024-06-24T04:28:24Z According to a famous hypothesis, Viking sailors could navigate along the latitude between Norway and Greenland by means of sky polarization in cloudy weather using a sun compass and sunstone crystals. Using data measured in earlier atmospheric optical and psychophysical experiments, here we determine the success rate of this sky-polarimetric Viking navigation. Simulating 1000 voyages between Norway and Greenland with varying cloudiness at summer solstice and spring equinox, we revealed the chance with which Viking sailors could reach Greenland under the varying weather conditions of a 3-week-long journey as a function of the navigation periodicity Δ t if they analysed sky polarization with calcite, cordierite or tourmaline sunstones. Examples of voyage routes are also presented. Our results show that the sky-polarimetric navigation is surprisingly successful on both days of the spring equinox and summer solstice even under cloudy conditions if the navigator determined the north direction periodically at least once in every 3 h, independently of the type of sunstone used for the analysis of sky polarization. This explains why the Vikings could rule the Atlantic Ocean for 300 years and could reach North America without a magnetic compass. Our findings suggest that it is not only the navigation periodicity in itself that is important for higher navigation success rates, but also the distribution of times when the navigation procedure carried out is as symmetrical as possible with respect to the time point of real noon. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland The Royal Society Royal Society Open Science 5 4 172187 |
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Open Polar |
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language |
English |
description |
According to a famous hypothesis, Viking sailors could navigate along the latitude between Norway and Greenland by means of sky polarization in cloudy weather using a sun compass and sunstone crystals. Using data measured in earlier atmospheric optical and psychophysical experiments, here we determine the success rate of this sky-polarimetric Viking navigation. Simulating 1000 voyages between Norway and Greenland with varying cloudiness at summer solstice and spring equinox, we revealed the chance with which Viking sailors could reach Greenland under the varying weather conditions of a 3-week-long journey as a function of the navigation periodicity Δ t if they analysed sky polarization with calcite, cordierite or tourmaline sunstones. Examples of voyage routes are also presented. Our results show that the sky-polarimetric navigation is surprisingly successful on both days of the spring equinox and summer solstice even under cloudy conditions if the navigator determined the north direction periodically at least once in every 3 h, independently of the type of sunstone used for the analysis of sky polarization. This explains why the Vikings could rule the Atlantic Ocean for 300 years and could reach North America without a magnetic compass. Our findings suggest that it is not only the navigation periodicity in itself that is important for higher navigation success rates, but also the distribution of times when the navigation procedure carried out is as symmetrical as possible with respect to the time point of real noon. |
author2 |
Hungarian Science Foundation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Száz, Dénes Horváth, Gábor |
spellingShingle |
Száz, Dénes Horváth, Gábor Success of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation: revealing the chance Viking sailors could reach Greenland from Norway |
author_facet |
Száz, Dénes Horváth, Gábor |
author_sort |
Száz, Dénes |
title |
Success of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation: revealing the chance Viking sailors could reach Greenland from Norway |
title_short |
Success of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation: revealing the chance Viking sailors could reach Greenland from Norway |
title_full |
Success of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation: revealing the chance Viking sailors could reach Greenland from Norway |
title_fullStr |
Success of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation: revealing the chance Viking sailors could reach Greenland from Norway |
title_full_unstemmed |
Success of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation: revealing the chance Viking sailors could reach Greenland from Norway |
title_sort |
success of sky-polarimetric viking navigation: revealing the chance viking sailors could reach greenland from norway |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172187 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.172187 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.172187 |
genre |
Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science volume 5, issue 4, page 172187 ISSN 2054-5703 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172187 |
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Royal Society Open Science |
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5 |
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4 |
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172187 |
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1810446326506192896 |