Talk-Line Northern Lights ASCII (180 lines)

Crosspost/imported from:

rec.arts.ascii (moderated) #3503 (6 + 19 more)
From: ric...@rs4.tcs.tulane.edu (Dave Rice)
[1] Line: Aurora borealis/Northern Lights
Date: Fri Dec 30 20:21:39 PST 1994
Organization: Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

There was a request for an ascii art northern lights posted here some time
ago.  Here is an attempt:
_____________________________________________________________________________
  ` : | | | |:  ||  :     `  :  |  |+|: | : : :|   .        `              .
      ` : | :|  ||  |:  :    `  |  | :| : | : |:   |  .                    :
         .' ':  ||  |:  |  '       ` || | : | |: : |   .  `           .   :.
                `'  ||  |  ' |   *    ` : | | :| |*|  :   :               :|
        *    *       `  |  : :  |  .      ` ' :| | :| . : :         *   :.||
             .`            | |  |  : .:|       ` | || | : |: |          | ||
      '          .         + `  |  :  .: .         '| | : :| :    .   |:| ||
         .                 .    ` *|  || :       `    | | :| | :      |:| |
 .                .          .        || |.: *          | || : :     :|||
        .            .   . *    .   .  ` |||.  +        + '| |||  .  ||`
     .             *              .     +:`|!             . ||||  :.||`
 +                      .                ..!|*          . | :`||+ |||`
     .                         +      : |||`        .| :| | | |.| ||`     .
       *     +   '               +  :|| |`     :.+. || || | |:`|| `
                            .      .||` .    ..|| | |: '` `| | |`  +
  .       +++                      ||        !|!: `       :| |
              +         .      .    | .      `|||.:      .||    .      .    `
          '                           `|.   .  `:|||   + ||'     `
  __    +      *                         `'       `'|.    `:
"'  `---"""----....____,..^---`^``----.,.___          `.    `.  .    ____,.,-
    ___,--'""`---"'   ^  ^ ^        ^       """'---,..___ __,..---""'
--"'                           ^                         ``--..,__
_____________________________________________________________________________
Winter night's northern lights                              by: D. Rice 12/94
_____________________________________________________________________________
A few comments on aurora and on the figure:

Aurora borealis and its southern counterpart, aurora australis, are phenomena
that occur only in the high latitudes, about 65 degrees North or South.  The
earth's atmosphere glows due to the impingement of energetic particles that
are trapped by the earth's magnetic field.  These particles circle the lines
of force until they hit the atmosphere where the field dips into the earth.
When they hit the atmosphere, they cause the air to glow.

The glow is not terribly bright, in general.  Thus the glow is seen usually
under conditions of low ambient light from other sources.  This means that
the sightings are mostly in winter, because it is light all the time in the
summer at high latitudes.  Also, clouds, fog, or smoke will obscure aurora.
The moon can overpower aurora in its region of the sky.  Because the
atmosphere itself is doing the glowing, the aurora is transparent--stars,
planets, earth satellites, and other luminous bodies can be seen through it.

Most auroras are diffuse greenish-white clouds.  These are not so interesting
because they resemble clouds lit by moonlight.  When the sun, the main source
of particles, is particularly energetic, the entire sky may be lit with
aurora.  A spectacular show happened in 1959, where aurora was seen as far
south as Mexico City.  When they are this extensive, they are generally red.

The most interesting auroras fall between these two extremes.  They appear to
be "curtains," bands or streamers that thread their way through the night
sky.  These curtains appear to have nearly vertical "folds" and the streamers
extend horizontally great distances -- like some of Cristo's artwork.  There
may be one or many streamers.  If more that one, the streamers follow nearly
parallel tracks, locally speaking.

The color can vary from bluish to green to red within a "fold," with red on
the bottom or hem of the curtain.  The hem is usually more distinct than the
top of the curtain, which can be quite diffuse.

I based this work -- with huge artistic license -- on a photo by Vic Hessler
of the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.  The
Geophysical Institute has also put out a video on auroral phenomena; music
was composed to accompany it.  It is commonly said that auroras can be heard,
by my ears never did, despite 16+ years of trying.

The ASCII figure doesn't do justice to the phenomenon.  I tried to represent
the detailed nature of the "folds" by using only vertical ascii characters
and centered dots.  At a distance the ascii-aurora looks like "smoke."  I
don't know what to do about it, except to view it as light against a dark
background, as on a computer screen.  There are numerous other things one
could do in ascii.  I put this art on one computer screen of text, but it
could be extended from the horizon ahead overhead to the horizon behind.
These things really do cover a sizeable part of the sky.  Also, animation
could show the movement and intensity variations of the streamers as a
function of time.  The starry background could move with the rotation of the
earth, and maybe even twinkle a bit.

----------------------------------------------------------------------->8

Mike Jittlov adds:

September 20, 1993 - I was visiting Iceland, and extremely fortunate
to be in the company of vikingologist The Legendary Skia and her
friend Sarah.  We were touring the western edge of the island, by
Snaefellsnes Volcano -- the real-life site of Jules Verne's "Journey
to the Center of the Earth", and what UFO-believers call Earth's
"Positive Psychic Pole" (the other pole somewhere in Tibet).  A UFO
convention was even scheduled there, the next week.  I wonder if they
saw anything as sensational as what we would soon witness.

It began as a faint cloud streak, which seemed a little too bright
for the twilight -- I thought it might be an irridescent jet trail,
like those occasionally seen over Los Angeles.  But it stayed long
after the night fell, and soon we could see the rippled hanging
-curtain effect of a postcard-perfect aurora.

>Also, animation could show the movement and intensity variations of

The aurora barely moved, at first...  15 minutes later, it was visibly
shifting.  In 15 more minutes, it was a giant, undulating sky-snake,
with a partner joining it.  A few dark clouds drifted below, giving a
sense of immense scope -- the world-serpents were awesome, easily the
fuel of legends.  15 minutes later, a third aurora joined, with all
three now writhing wildly -- at full speed, no time-lapse animation
was needed to see their motion.

Both Skia and Sarah could see _lots_ of different colors, ooo-ing and
aaah-ing at the reds (a sign of war or dramatic change).  All I saw
were pale greens and blues - either a deficiency of my male eyes, or
too many hours staring through my Sony Handicam's monochrome monitor.
I was also feeling strangely tired - that inbetween stage before sleep
comes (there was no reason, Skia had been doing all the car-driving).

Suddenly at 9:45pm, from a point-source above us, laser-like streams
came shooting down, in a full 360-degree display.  And a few minutes
later, swirling patterns began appearing and vanishing above, as if
the gods were pressing their fingerprints on the Great Dome of Night.
I could finally see more colors in those - red and purple.  I forced
myself awake and aware, looked through the Handicam, but disappointed
that nothing was visible in the viewfinder.  I tapped the record
button anyway, just to get my friends' wonderful exclamations.

That was a very fortunate move.  When I returned to LA and played the
tapes back on a color TV, the visual spectacle was actually recorded.
It's faint, but you can see the full-speed organic riots of color,
and hear our constant "oh-ghod-WOWW!!" reactions.

Here's my view, using (& over-complicating) Dave Rice's Aurora-ascii:

_____________________________________________________________________________
  ` |:| |:: |: .|: /:.\\  `.::|.|./|+|: | :|: :| : .   .  / `/,_\` \   .   .:
      ` ::| :| :||/ |:_ :    `.:|/:|::|\:`|:: |: . |: .  ( ,'// \ \ `   *  :|
 .       .' ': .|| '|:_\|::.  / '  `||| | ::| |: : |:.|   / /((`\\ ` `.   :.|
    .           ''//|| \|:|:/:.'  / . \ :\|:| :| |*|  : :(:(.``))`) \ ,   :||
  *         *  ( //(,;))|)|| :/:: . . `   ` '\:| | :| . . : \_// / ' )  :.||:
             .` ((_//'/ /|:| | :|/::...\   `   ' | || | : |:  ',' / /   | |::
      .       \` \_/,' ''  '/: ||'|:| |:    \ *  \ '| | : :|\:. ," '  : | |||
.        .     `.__  /_/   .   .: ||: :|\:.  `     \  | | :|.||. _/   |:| |:|
  .               ./ '    /  .  ' ''| ||`|:. .\     .\  | || ::!.   +:| | |`:
e       +        /    .        /    . ': |||.  +       \+ '| |||  . :|| |.`
@@e            /   .    '      '  . .   +'||!   \ .    ..`. `||:  :.||;`    .
@@@e.   .a@e '         / .    /     :   .::!:    `   . .: |`|:' . |||`
     a@a@@@@a.        ,       '     | ..:.|`      \.:: :| | '\ .|.||`  .
.=a@@@@@@@@@@e@e     /   a@e /   +   ..:|` \    .+ ||| || ' .:`|| `     .
       '.=@@@@@@e.  / a@@@@@e'     .:|.`   ` ..:|| ||; '   |:| |``
  .  /            .=a@@@@@@@@e.  .a@&.      \!|!'''       :| |     \       .
   /              /     .   '.=a@@@@@@@e.   ``|::..   \  :||;  .     `
 /               '         /       `|`|;.    \ `:||:   + !|'           \
  __    +       /          '        :   ':.  `    `'|.  \ `:             \
"'  `---"""----....____,..^---`^``----.,.__`` \       `. \  `.       ____,.,-
    ___,--'""`---"'   ^  ^ ^       ^      _""""'---,..___ `_,..---""'
--"'                          ^       ii d#b             ``--..,__
_____________________________________________________________________________


I understand there's a Northern Lights festival in Tromsoe, Norway,
in just two weeks...  <sigh>  ...And right after that, the Tromsoe
Film Festival, for little-seen creatively eccentric movies... <SIGHHHHHHH>

o================================o:; ,::::,*.:::::.*.::::::::::::
|   Mike Jittlov - Wizard, etc   |';* ';;'..`::::'   `:*`:;::::::
|  jit...@gumby.cs.caltech.edu  |;.;+,  '* ```:'o   o `,  `::;::
|     & alt.fan.mike-jittlov     |,',.::.. .' .' |\^/|:. `*:.. `*
| (but lately backpacking around |...May All Your \Y/ Good Dreams
| Scandinavia & Middle Earth...) |and Fine Wishes /_\ Come True:)
o================================o===============_/ \_===========

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