Kristian Birkeland

Kristian Olaf Bernhard Birkeland (1867-1917) grew up in Christiania, todays Oslo. As a student he published articles in mathematical journals. In 1885 he began studying physics at university and interested particularly for electromagnetism. After passing his exams, Birkeland got a travel grant which enabled him to visit the leading research centers that work in electromagnetism in Europe. He returned home as a skilled experimental physicist. Birkeland was a professor of physics at the University of Oslo in 1898, only 30 years old.

1896 Kristian Birkeland published his aurora theory: Northern lights occur when electrically charged particles from the sun were captured by Earth's magnetic field and guided towards the atmosphere at the pole areas. To prove the theory, he implemented the famous Terell experiment, where he made artificial aurora. Experiment aroused enthusiasm throughout the Science research. In 1899 got to set up a Northern Lights Observatory at Halddetoppen and a bi-station on the Talvik peak at Alta. Birkeland conducted several expeditions to northern lights poles to measure the earth's magnetic field and determine how perturbations in the field are related to the Northern Lights.

Sources:

http://www.tekniskmuseum.no/forskning-og-eksperiment/kristian-birkeland

https://snl.no/Kristian_Birkeland

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