Through the north window the heavens were emblazoned with an auroral display, which flamed and flared and died down into blackness.

What you've told me correlates directly with the change in weather patterns and the auroral displays of the past several nights.

"We're expecting it to pick up pretty soon," he said of the intensity and frequency of auroral displays.

The ruined land beneath was bathed with an eerie, flickering light, for a great auroral display was raging over half the world.

"There's another big auroral display predicted for tonight - Professor Sessui and his merry men certainly timed it well."

Soon after midnight, when it was obvious that the auroral display had passed its climax, Rajasinghe had been carried back into his bedroom.

Now that the auroral display had faded the lower part of the capsule was in total darkness, and he had no means of illuminating it.

But the auroral display kept me alert.

I wondered if the lights we saw were -auroral displays.

When they reach the Earth, they not only produce spectacular auroral displays but also deform the Earth's magnetic field.