2016/03/08 by Hisashi Hayakawa, Hiroaki Isobe, Akito Davis Kawamura +3 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Art history #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy #Biography #Historical Astronomy and Related Studies #Historical record #History #Physics #Rainbow #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Sunspot #astro-ph.SR #physics.hist-ph #physics.space-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/pasj/psw032
Accepted by Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan
arxiv created 2016/03/08 · openalex publication_date 2016/04/04 · arxiv updated 2016/04/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract Solar activity has been recorded as auroras or sunspots in various historical sources. These records are of great importance for investigating both long-term solar activities and extremely intense solar flares. According to previous studies, they were recorded as “vapor,” “cloud,” or “light,” especially in oriental historical sources; however, this terminology has not been discussed adequately, and remains still quite vague. In this paper, we suggest the possibility of using “unusual rainbow” and “white rainbow” as candidates of historical auroras in oriental historical sources, and examine if this is probable. This discovery will help us to make more comprehensive historical auroral catalogues, and require us to add these terms to auroral candidates in oriental historical sources.