Sounds in the Sky: Listening for the Aurora Borealis at Fort Chipewyan : Arcadia: Explorations in Environmental History 2012, no. 2: Sounds in the Sky: Listening for the Aurora Borealis at Fort Chipewyan

• Main Author: McCorristine, Shane
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany 2012
• Subjects: Environmental Knowledge; arctic; British Empire; explorations; imperialism; science; ships; Arctic; Canada; Fort Chipewyan; Chipewyan; North West Passage
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5282/rcc/3681; http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/3681/

In 1819, British commander John Franklin set out to his first Arctic land expedition in order to survey the northern coast of Canada and to find the fabled North-West Passage. However, part of the expedition's scientific agenda was to investigate the phenomenon of aurora borealis or Northern Lights in the Arctic region. Hearing aurorae was something which eluded most Arctic explorers, and was therefore explained as superstition or an acoustic illusion.