In the frozen vastness of Antarctica, a giant spider-like antenna listens to radio waves pulsing around Earth via our planet’s magnetic field. Triggered by solar winds and lightning, these waves can tell scientists about space. Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey use them to study space weather and its links to Earth’s climate. But to a scientist, waves are more than just data points: they are an artistic medium.
Radio waves, once converted into sound, produce “strange and wonderful noises” that have a melodic quality, says researcher Nigel Meredith of BAS. This inspired him to team up with professional artists to turn data into music.
On June 15, the team released Infinite shapesan album featuring sounds of Antarctica.
The project grew out of Meredith’s awareness of the sound quality of data collected by the Halley Research Station antenna in Antarctica when played back in audio form. Most of the radio waves circulating around our planet are in the audible frequency range and can therefore be directly converted into sound. And that’s where the fun begins, because these sounds are literally out of this world but are also very familiar.
“Our goal is to evoke the beauty, wonder, and vastness of space in the form of emotional and experiential works while remaining grounded and inspired by science. »
Diana Scarborough
multimedia artist
Sferics, short radio pulses generated by lightning, sound like a crackling campfire. When they travel long distances, the pulses distort into sonic “adjustments” that sound like a rapid-firing toy laser gun.
The chorus waves are reminiscent of a chorus of songbirds at dawn. These waves are generated when electrons pushed by solar winds enter the Earth’s magnetosphere. (These electrons also trigger auroras.) And just like birdsong, the waves are strongest at dawn.
Such sounds can inspire the public to engage in space weather research and understand its importance, Meredith says. Choral waves, for example, can accelerate electrons to very high energies, which can then threaten satellites and humans in space by damaging electronics and DNA.
After meeting Cambridge, UK-based multimedia artist Diana Scarborough at a science meets art event, the two partnered to form the Space Sounds Project. Composer Kim Cunio, director of the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University of Wellington, later joined him. Over the past few years, they have worked on short films, dance performances, podcasts and publications, all featuring what the team calls a “unique combination” of science, music and visual arts.
Since 2020, the trio has produced nine albums, available for streaming on the project platform. Band Camp Page. The spatial sounds that Meredith brings together inspire the artists: Cunio composes the music and Scarborough designs an image for each piece and a trailer video for some albums, often incorporating striking images of the research station and natural phenomena such as aurora. “We each bring our unique perspectives, skills and curiosity,” says Scarborough. “Our goal is to evoke the beauty, wonder, and vastness of space in the form of emotional and experiential works while remaining grounded and inspired by science. »
The albums could appeal to anyone who likes classical, experimental or background music, or just people interested in space and visual arts. They all come with a brief text explaining the science behind the sounds.
The team’s new album is a little more down-to-earth. It features field recordings from the RRS Sir David Attenboroughin Antarctica in 2025 to study how climate change affects the release of nutrients from Earth’s polar regions. The sounds of the sea, wind, penguins and seals, as well as the background sounds of the boat deck and researchers at work are all included.
The team continues to explore the sounds of other planets and space bodies. Each has its own unique characteristics depending on how and where the radio waves were generated. For example, solar particles hitting Jupiter’s massive magnetic field look like a giant ocean wave crashing onto the shore, as the paper reveals a recording from 2016 by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
Scientific symphonies
The team has released nine albums, inspired by Antarctic (album cover on the left) and even outer space (RIGHT).
A striking aspect of spatial soundsthe team says, is how closely they resemble depictions of space and aliens in popular culture: “It’s a bit like stepping into the set of a 1960s sci-fi movie,” the trio writes in one of the album’s liner notes. Meredith wonders whether producers of that era were inspired by the first recordings of space radio waves – the oldest date from the 1880s and 1890s, when the waves were first picked up by telephone and telegraph wires. Or, Cunio says, similarities could be caused by the same type of equipment used both to convert radio waves into sound and to create early science fiction sound effects. “We’ve been thinking about it for a few years,” he says, but “no one knows exactly why they look the same.”
Meredith plans to explore a wider range of space weather data. This would involve sonicating more of the data that space weather researchers collect for their models and forecasts, such as electron intensity or solar wind speed above Earth. These sounds would then inspire music, Meredith says, and be used to convey ever more complex and detailed science to the public.
