Were Auroras More Common in Cleveland’s Past?
Darkness is having a bit of a moment in northeast Ohio. Just over a month after Clevelanders observed the spectacle of the total solar eclipse on April 8th, residents were treated to a rare aurora borealis dancing across the night sky on May 10th. Although the polar regions experience auroras frequently, sometimes over 100 nights a year, these days it takes a significant solar storm to make the lights intense enough for folks living in the rust belt to get a glimpse of the phenomenon. This hasn’t always been the case.
1859 was another banner year for cosmic events in Ohio. In late August, British astronomer Richard Carrington observed a cluster of sunspots through a solar telescope. While observing the sunspots on September 1st, Carrington witnessed a blinding light emanating from the sunspots, perhaps the first recorded solar flare in human history. The geomagnetic storm that followed was a sensation, with auroras observed as far south as Cuba. Cleveland witnessed a spectacular aurora during the night of September 4th. The Plain Dealer described it as “bars of light…flashing with amazing luminousness” that spanned the entire sky “extending from the South-west to the North-east.”[1]
The storm was historic in scale and confirmed the connection between solar activity and auroras. Dubbed the “Carrington Event,” the resulting solar radiation wreaked havoc on the world’s telegraph network. The superintendent of the Canadian Telegraph Company was forced to close the line due to interference.[2] Astonished telegraph operators in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia discovered they could communicate with each other with “auroral electricity” after disconnecting the galvanic batteries that powered their machines.[3]
Cute as that sounds, the energy the storm produced was no joke. Newspapers reported the geomagnetic storm burned several telegraph wires including a line connected to the main telegraphy office in Cincinnati, where the surge “arrived like a comet” and consumed a mile and a half of wound wire “as quick as lighting.”[4] In an era where we are becoming accustomed to once-in-a-lifetime events, here’s another nightmare to add to the pile: A study conducted in 2013 by renowned insurers Lloyd’s of London estimated that a “Carrington-level, extreme geomagnetic storm is almost inevitable” in the near future and could inflict damage to electrical systems anywhere between $600 billion and $2.6 trillion.[5]
But before you start prepping for another apocalypse scenario, consider this: In the 165 years since the Carrington Event, our technology has proved a greater threat to the auroras than vice versa. Scientists at the Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute in Thiene, Italy compiled months of satellite data in 2014 and produced an atlas documenting the scale of the problem. “We found that about 83% of the world’s population and more than 99% of the U.S. and European populations live under light-polluted skies,” the team reported in a 2016 study. Very few Americans live in areas with sufficient darkness to view the Milky Way let alone an aurora.
Our connection to the sky isn’t all we have lost, over 40% of Americans live under such intense light pollution that our eyes never transition from cone to rod vision.[6] Without darkness, our bodies halt production of melatonin, an essential hormone that queues our brain to rest and, it turns out, fight tumor growth. A study published in 2012 found that female night-shift nurses exposed to prolonged artificial lighting experienced a 73% higher incidence of breast cancer than populations exposed to lower levels of artificial light at night.[7] Some of us are literally dying for the light.
The costs of light pollution to the environment are equally shocking. The International Dark Sky Association estimates that around 30% of all outdoor lighting in the US is wasted. With an annual price tag of over $3 billion, that unnecessary light not only results in economic damage but also disrupts the natural environment.[8] As many as a billion migrating birds die every year as a result of collisions with windows, often after becoming disoriented by light pollution.[9] I’ve walked the quiet streets of Cleveland in the pre-dawn hours with volunteers from Lights Out Cleveland, a citizen-science organization documenting the toll of light pollution on wildlife. On our worst mornings, we clear the sidewalks of dozens of dead and injured birds. The lucky survivors are shuttled to the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center for rehabilitation and the dead birds are delivered to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History where they are cataloged and made available for further research.
Fortunately, there are solutions available to our light pollution problem. Governments, businesses, and homeowners can properly shield their exterior lights to direct it where it is needed and implement motion detectors, so the light is only present when it is needed. All of us can also take an evidence-based approach to lighting and counter the mistaken association of bright lights with safety. Study[10] after study[11] has found that exterior lights do not deter crime or accidents even if we feel safer in lit environments.
What we lose with that false sense of security is a connection to the night and all the wonders it holds. Some of us have spent so long disconnected from the sky above us that we don’t even recognize the heavens above when we do catch a rare glimpse. When the Northridge earthquake knocked out power to more than 2 million people in Los Angeles in January 1994, the Griffith Observatory received multiple calls from frantic folks who reported a strange “silvery cloud” arcing over the city.[12] The astronomers reassured the callers that the Milky Way was nothing to fear.
The choice is ours to either continue down the path of a human-built environment or exercise some restraint to restore our night skies. Reading through Cleveland’s newspaper archives, I was struck at how often the city witnessed the aurora in the years before mass electrification. The aurora that accompanied the Carrington Event of 1859 received plenty of press. It was such an awesome display that a 16-year-old girl from Ottawa County was delivered to the “lunatic asylum,” the Plain Dealer reported, because she believed the aurora “betokened the approaching end of the world.”[13] Another aurora in December of 1860 cast a red glow over the city that caused one panicked resident to pull a fire alarm.[14]
Most auroras witnessed over Cleveland, however, elicited a sense of awe and even reverence, like the one in October of 1855 that was so bright it “cast the shadows of trees and buildings distinctly over street and field.” On July 4th of 1860, an aurora composed of “crimson and white waves” appeared just before midnight over Cleveland. The cosmic dance, in the words of one reporter, “form[ed] a grand finale far exceeding any of the artificial fireworks of the evening.”[15]
Based on the giddiness of the Clevelanders squinting up at the bleary threads of light over Lake Erie during the recent aurora, I think they would agree that we have much to gain from the loss of a little unnecessary light.
Notes
[1] The Plain Dealer. “The Aurora ‘Borealis’ of September 4, 1859.” December 17, 1859, 2.
[2] The Plain Dealer. “Foreign News.” August 29, 1859, 3.
[3] The Cleveland Leader and Morning Herald. “Cause of the Aurora Borealis.” September 5, 1859, 2.
[4] The Plain Dealer. “Telegraphing.” November 14, 1859, 2.
[5] Lloyd’s of London and Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc. Solar Storm Risk to the North American Electric Grid. 2013. Accessed May 17, 2024. https://assets.lloyds.com/assets/pdf-solar-storm-risk-to-the-north-american-electric-grid/1/pdf-Solar-Storm-Risk-to-the-North-American-Electric-Grid.pdf.
[6] Fabio Falchi, et al., “The New World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness.” Science Advances vol. 2, issue 6 (10 June 2016). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600377
[7] Barbara Dickerman and Jianghong Liu, “Does Current Scientific Evidence Support a Link between Light at Night and Breast Cancer among Female Night-Shift Nurses?” Workplace Health & Safety 60, no. 2 (June 1, 2012).
[8] “Light Pollution Wastes Energy and Money and Damages the Climate,” International Dark Sky Association. October 17, 2023. Accessed May 18, 2024. https://darksky.org/resources/what-is-light-pollution/effects/energy-climate/
[9] Scott R. Loss et al., “Bird–building Collisions in the United States: Estimates of Annual Mortality and Species Vulnerability.” The Condor 116 (1): 8–23 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1650/CONDOR-13-090.1
[10] Rebecca Steinbach et al., “The Effect of Reduced Street Lighting on Road Casualties and Crime in England and Wales: Controlled Interrupted Time Series Analysis.” Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health vol. 69, issue 11. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2015-206012
[11] Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. The Chicago Alley Lighting Project: Final Evaluation Report. 2000.
[12] Joe Sharkey. “Helping the Stars Take Back the Night.” The New York Times, Aug. 30, 2008. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/business/31essay.html?_r=0
[13] The Plain Dealer. “Items of News.” September 30, 1859, 2.
[14] The Cleveland Leader and Morning Herald. “Fire Alarm.” December 17, 1860, 1.
[15] The Cleveland Leader and Morning Herald. “Northern Lights.” July 6, 1860, 1.
