Eyes closed, listening intently, I can pick apart the individual sounds. Random, staccato clicks dominate, like an old and somewhat scratched LP recording played on grandmotherâ??s gramophone. Behind the clicks lies the chorus. I am transported to a dark, calm night in some distant tropical forest. The warm still air is heavy with the sound of thousands of frogs, voices in competition then in chaotic unison, a melodious cacophony. The mind begins to tune out the clicks and crackles; now I am convinced it is the sound of great raindrops, collected by the forest canopy above, falling onto the tense nylon of my tent. I lie and listen to the lyrics of lifeâ?¦ but life it is not. What I hear is not the forest of my imagination, but the stark sterility of the ionosphere filtering and reflecting one of the most violent phenomena known to man. Iâ??m listening to lightning.
Dr Andrew Collier is a physicist from the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban, under tenure of the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory. Two weeks into our voyage to Antarctica, in an old t-shirt, tousled hair, and the beginnings of a russet beard, he is usually to be found in the shipâ??s library at work on a laptop. Iâ??m hard-pressed to place this multi-faceted gentleman â?? he is at once open and friendly, with obvious enthusiasm for his science, yet his youth and current scruffiness belie the fact that he is a well-published expert in space physics, and the scientific leader of the summer expedition. Specialising in the dynamics of our own magnetosphere, Andrew is travelling south for the fourth time to update the sensitive equipment at SANAE IV used to monitor iono-and magnetospheric phenomena. By listening to the radio â??soundsâ?? created by the 45 to 100 lightning strikes occurring around the globe every second, he and his protégé Sherry Bremner are analysing the electromagnetic atmosphere surrounding the planet.
 (more…)
