Whorls on fire

Here in the UK, we’re preparing for what scientists are calling a ‘solar tsunami’. All predictions are on that we will have a rare glimpse of Northern lights — a vivid neon glow of solar activity if the grey cloud perpetually engulfing England lifts tonight.

In many locations around the world, the inhabitants are regularly entertained by earthlights—strange, recurring balls of light in the sky. Even more strangely, when earthlights appear, UFO sightings, religious visions and all manner of anomalous visions are also reported.

Strange lights
In the early 1980s, the inhabitants of Hessdalen Valley in Norway, which lies 120 km south of Trondheim, began reporting strange lights — sometimes several hundred a day.

In 1983, Erling Strand, an engineer and lecturer at Østfold University, set up Project Hessdalen to examine these inexplicable light phenomena. He rigged up an elaborate system of gadgetry to capture any data or images of earthlights at monitoring stations dotted throughout the valley. These stations are activated every time an earthlight interrupts one of the electronic beams connecting the stations. During his first investigation in the winter of 1984, 53 earthlights were observed.