Search Result for "aurora australis":
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. the aurora of the southern hemisphere;
[syn: aurora australis, southern lights]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Aurora \Au*ro"ra\, n.; pl. E. Auroras, L. (rarely used) Auror[ae]. [L. aurora, for ausosa, akin to Gr. ?, ?, dawn, Skr. ushas, and E. east.] 1. The rising light of the morning; the dawn of day; the redness of the sky just before the sun rises. [1913 Webster] 2. The rise, dawn, or beginning. --Hawthorne. [1913 Webster] 3. (Class. Myth.) The Roman personification of the dawn of day; the goddess of the morning. The poets represented her a rising out of the ocean, in a chariot, with rosy fingers dropping gentle dew. [1913 Webster] 4. (Bot.) A species of crowfoot. --Johnson. [1913 Webster] 5. The aurora borealis or aurora australis (northern or southern lights). [1913 Webster] Aurora borealis, i. e., northern daybreak; popularly called northern lights. A luminous meteoric phenomenon, visible only at night, and supposed to be of electrical origin. This species of light usually appears in streams, ascending toward the zenith from a dusky line or bank, a few degrees above the northern horizon; when reaching south beyond the zenith, it forms what is called the corona, about a spot in the heavens toward which the dipping needle points. Occasionally the aurora appears as an arch of light across the heavens from east to west. Sometimes it assumes a wavy appearance, and the streams of light are then called merry dancers. They assume a variety of colors, from a pale red or yellow to a deep red or blood color. The Aurora australisis a corresponding phenomenon in the southern hemisphere, the streams of light ascending in the same manner from near the southern horizon. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

aurora australis n 1: the aurora of the southern hemisphere [syn: aurora australis, southern lights]