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Auroras Observed in Portugal in Late 18th Century Obtained from Printed and Manuscript Meteorological Observations

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Abstract

We present a new catalogue of observations of the aurora borealis at Lisbon, i.e., at low-latitudes, in the late 18th century by Jacob Præ torius and Henrique Schulze, two German artillery officers. Dates of 18 auroras compiled by Præ torius and Schulze are compared with those published in other catalogues for that period. The number of annual auroras observed by the two Germans is then compared with two indices of solar activity showing a very good level of consistency between all time series. Finally, we have assessed the number of auroras observed taking into consideration the phase of the lunar cycle and the geomagnetic latitude of Lisbon.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Física, Escuela Politécnica, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 10071, Cáceres, Spain

    JosÉ M. Vaquero

  2. Centro de Geofísica da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ricardo M. Trigo

  3. Departamento de Eng. Civil da Universidade Lusófona, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ricardo M. Trigo

Authors
  1. JosÉ M. Vaquero
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  2. Ricardo M. Trigo
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Correspondence to JosÉ M. Vaquero.

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Vaquero, J.M., Trigo, R.M. Auroras Observed in Portugal in Late 18th Century Obtained from Printed and Manuscript Meteorological Observations. Sol Phys 231, 157–166 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-005-1583-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-005-1583-7

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