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1192 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 6, DECEMBER
2003

Characteristics for the Occurrence of a High-Current, Z-Pinch Aurora
as Recorded in Antiquity Anthony L. Peratt, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract--The discovery that objects from the Neolithic or Early Bronze
Age carry patterns associated with high-current Z-pinches provides a
possible insight into the origin and meaning of these an cient symbols
produced by man. This paper directly compares the graphical and radiation
data from high-current Z-pinches to these patterns. The paper focuses
primarily, but not exclusively, on petroglyphs. It is found that a great
many archaic petroglyphs can be classified according to plasma stability
and instability data. As the same morphological types are found worldwide,
the comparisons suggest the occurrence of an intense aurora, as might be
produced if the solar wind had increased between one and two orders of
magnitude, millennia ago.

Index Terms--Aurora, high-energy-density plasma, magnetohydrodynamics
(MHD) instabilities, petroglyphs, pictographs, stone henge, Z-pinch.

I. INTRODUCTION

ON July 9, 1962, the United States detonated a 1.4-megaton thermonuclear
device in the atmosphere 400 km above Johnston Island. The event produced
a plasma whose initial spherical shape striated within a few minutes as
the plasma electrons and ions streamed along the Earth's magnetic field to
produce an artificial aurora. Fig. 1 shows a photograph of the artificial
aurora three minutes after detonation as recorded from a KC-135 aircraft.

Concomitant with the artificial aurora was a degradation of radio
communications over wide areas of the Pacific, lightning discharges,
destruction of electronics in monitoring satellites, and an
electromagnetic pulse that affected some power circuitry as far away as
Hawaii.

The event was recorded worldwide as the plasma formed at least two intense
equatorial tubes, artificial Van Allen belts, around the Earth [1], [2].
These tubes, or plasma toroids, contained relativistic electrons bound by
magnetic fields; the source of intense amounts of synchrotron radiation.
The radiation lasted far longer than expected; the decay constant was of
the order of 100 days. (Mankind, unknowing, has viewed synchrotron
radiation from the Crab nebula for centuries. The only known mechanism
that produces synchrotron radiation are electrons spiraling about a
magnetic field at nearly the speed of light).

Thus, the shape of the phenomena as recorded at radio, visible, and high
frequencies was that of plasma "donuts" encircling the Earth, which
mimicked the Van Allen belts.

Manuscript received May 19, 2003; revised October 15, 2003. This work was
supported by the Mainwaring Foundation, in association with the University
of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia. The
author is with the Plasma Physics Group, Los Alamos National Labora tory,
Los Alamos, NM 87545 USA (e-mail: alp at lanl.gov). Digital Object
Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2003.820956

Fig. 1. Starfish thermonuclear detonation July 9, 1962, 400 km above
Johnston Island. The photograph was taken from a Los Alamos KC-135
aircraft three minutes after initiation time. An artificial striated
aurora has already formed from the plasma particles, spreading along the
earth's magnetic field. The brightest background object (mark) at the top,
left-hand corner, is the star antares, while the right-most object is
-Centauri. The burst point is two-thirds of the way up from the lowest
plasma striation.

The artificial aurora shown in Fig. 1 also shows plasma striations that
arise from instabilities. This paper describes characteristic features of
laboratory plasma experiments and simulations, especially for high-current
Z-pinch conditions, and compares these features with petroglyphs and other
ancient writings, which may have been associated with auroral
observations.

As in the natural aurorae at the northern and southern magnetic poles, the
streaming charged particle electrical currents, Birkeland currents, are of
the order of megaamperes [3].

II. DYNAMICS OF AN INTENSE AURORA

The shape of the aurora is determined by the supersonic solar wind,
Earth's magnetospheric shield (approximately 100 km above the Earth
surface), and Earth's dipolar magnetic field. (It is the magnetopause that
diverts the impingement of the solar flux into a tear-dropped shaped
shell. At the widest, the width of the magnetopause is of the order of 130
000 to 150 000 km while the tail may stretch away from the Earth far
beyond 1 000 000 km. For comparison, the mean distance between the Earth
and Moon is 384 402 km).

The circular or oval inflowing and outflowing electrical currents are
shown in Fig. 2. These sheets of electrical currents form the rapid waving
curtains of light in an auroral display (Fig. 3), a result of the
electrons interacting with and exciting molecules...

0093-3813/03$17.00 © 2003 IEEE

PERATT: CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF A HIGH-CURRENT, Z-PINCH
AURORA 1193

Fig. 2. Artists depiction of Birkeland currents flowing into and out of
the earth's atmosphere at high latitude. These currents, once the subject
of intense debate, are routinely measured by today's satellites and have
total magnitudes of millions of amperes (megaamperes). Courtesy of S. G.
Smith, Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University.

Fig. 3. (Left) View of the Earth's aurora obtained by UV light by the
Viking satellite. The auroral emissions completely encircle the
geomagnetic pole, located approximately in the center, and are brightest
near midnight, located in the lower right corner. The diameter of this
auroral ring is about 5000 km. (Right) The solar wind plasmas filtered
through Earth's magnetosphere responsible for the aurora on Earth. These
spectacular phenomena occur in two auroral arcs lying at polar latitudes
in both the northern and southern hemispheres, and are caused by plasma
electrons flowing down in sheets along the Earth's magnetic field. These
sheets of electrons, or electrical currents, filament up to form the rapid
waving curtains of light in an auroral display, a result of the electrons
interacting with and exciting molecules in the upper atmosphere.

...in the upper atmosphere [4], [5]. The aurora is sporadic, usually
lasting for a maximum of several hours but sometimes for days. The most
intense and largest auroral displays occur during a solar storm when the
incoming flux increases dramatically [6].

III. INSTABILITY OF THE AURORAL SHEETS

A. Auroral Morphologies

The auroral plasma column is susceptible to two plasma in stabilities;
hollowing of the relativistic electron beam to form the sheets and the
diocotron instability that cause the sheets to filament into individual
current strands causing the "swirls" or "curtains" [7], [8]. These
instabilities also produce the radiation observed over a wide range of the
electromagnetic spectrum [9][11].

The dimensions of the auroral circle can be hundreds of kilometers in
diameter while the width of the sheet can be tens of kilometers.

Fig. 4. Depiction of an intense auroral funnel. The figures show both down
flowing and up-flowing Birkeland currents contained with two Concentric
sheets. (Left) Oblique upward view. (Right) Side view. Barely discernible
at the lower center are the Z-pinch instabilities.

For an intense inflow of plasma, the aurora would be shaped by the
strength of its own azimuthal magnetic field, i.e., a Z-pinch.

In the case of a strong aurora involving many tens of megaamperes of
current, most of the funnel would be visible in light emission and the
individual filaments and vortices strongly visible. In a narrow
field-of-view, the light-emitting filaments would appear as "dots" or
"elongated dots" and filamentary strands. This geometry would predominate
if the charged particle outflow from the sun were to increase an order of
magnitude or more for an appreciable length of time.1 In addition,
portions of the magnetosphere and its tail would also be visible [12].

Fig. 4 is a graphic depiction of an intense auroral funnel. The thin outer
plasma has filamented into small diameter plasma currents and inner plasma
sheets and core. The upper part of the funnel has either a diamond,
mottled, or cellular structure, while the incoming part of the funnel
consists (looking up) of concentrics of dots and cylinders. The
instabilities that occur in the mid to bottom part of the funnel will be a
topic of study in this paper.

For an intense aurora, the converging filaments are seen not only as dots,
but also as dots connected to the visible converging filaments at higher
altitude. We shall delineate the aurora plasma sheet into two parts, the
upper funnel or inflow region and the lower plasma sheet and solid
columns.

B. Auroral Luminance

Charged particle excitation from the inflowing plasma is responsible for
the luminosity and color of atmospheric auroras. The color depends on the
upper atmosphere's state and height above the Earth. Various deexcitation
processes in atoms of oxygen and nitrogen cause mostly green, red, and
blue auroras. Exceptionally yellow auroras can be observed in places where
red and green auroras overlap. The most common green color is caused by
the emission line 557.7 nm of the oxygen O(1S) [3].

1 An increased outflow of plasma from the Sun in the past was first
suggested three decades ago by Gold [70].

1194 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 6, DECEMBER
2003

The luminance of auroras ranges from 4.83 10-5 lm per sterradian per meter
square to 4.83 10-2 lm per sterradian per meter squared. In comparison,
the full moon luminance is 6000 lm per sterradian per meter square.

Observations suggest that the geomagnetic storm producing an energetic
aurora derives from the direct injection of 10 eV to 10 KeV electrons from
the solar plasma flux. In fact, the source of the high-energy electrons
need not necessarily be solar but may be any electric space phenomena that
causes an inflow of plasma to the Earth.

An update of research in solar plasma, interaction of solar and the
Earth's space plasmas, geomagnetic storms, substorms, and aurorae, the
magnetosphere and ionosphere, and the simulation of space weather may be
found in [13].

IV. EXPERIMENTAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODOLOGY

The experimental data was taken from various terawatt power machines with
a majority of the data taken by the author on the Maxwell Laboratories
Blackjack 5 pulsed-power generator. Data was also drawn from the U.S.
Department of Energy Laboratories pulsed-power facilities at the Los
Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories [14].
High-explosive generators in the U.S. and Russia added to the data set.
The currents ranged from hundreds of kiloamperes to 150 MA and time scales
from tens of nanoseconds to microseconds [15], [16].

The plasma load geometries were generated by applying high-voltage pulses
to gas-puffs to simulate an aurora-like plasma inflow, wire arrays to
simulate filamentation dynamics, and concentric plasma sheets formed by
nested cylindrical foils to produce high velocity shock waves [17], [18].
In size, the geometries were a few centimeters in diameter and 23 cm in
length. Thicknesses of the wires and foils were typically 10 to 30
micro-meter.

A. Diagnostics

The diagnostics generally included laser shadowgraphy, Schlieren
photography, laser-double pulse holography, fast framing cameras, streak
cameras, X-ray detectors, bolometers, soft and hard X-ray pinhole cameras,
Rogowski coils, and waveform recording probes.

In some experiments, thermoluminescent detectors measured the photon
spectrum over 1 to 10 MeV, electron energy spectra, bremsstrahlung
spectrum, and their angular distribution.

B. Solution of the Chandrasekhar- Fermi Equations on High-Performance
Computers

Theoretical and computational analysis of a plasma column are based on a
fundamental plasma theorem for conditions of dynamical stability. This
theorem was first used in magneto hydrodynamics (MHD) by Chandrasekhar and
Fermi to establish the condition for dynamic stability of cosmic
gravitational masses balanced by gravitational, magnetic, and kinetic
pressures [19]. The basic geometry under consideration by Chandrasekhar
and Fermi was cylindrical as was that of Shafranov, who extended the use
of the theorem to investigate equilibrium conditions for current-carrying
plasma columns [20]. 

Extension of the theory to account for three-dimensional (3-D) kinetic
motions were carried out by Peratt, Green, and...

Fig. 5. Conical inflow of a current conducting plasma column. The flow is
from top to bottom with striations in the body of the column, and the
beginning of a plasma feature at top-center. These experimental
photographs pertain to a 5 MV, 3 MA plasma.

Fig. 6. Helical instabilities in the laboratory and space. (Left) 1.3-MA
plasma column. (Middle) Centimeter-length plasma column conducting 2 MA.
Framing camera picture, 5 ns (5 billionths of a second). (Right)
Ten-kilometer, 150-mA electron current injected approximately 100 km above
the earth.

... Nielsen, who benchmarked the computations against both low and
high-current plasma columns with 3-D relativistic particle codes [21],
[22]. (See also Section XVIII).

Verification and validation of the computer codes are a necessity [23].
All simulations are benchmarked to high-energy density data. Similarly,
experimental data are benchmarked to the simulations to understand the
column evolution.

V. EVOLUTION OF THE HIGH-CURRENT Z-PINCH

The overall time history of the pinched column, from formation to eventual
breakup, has been a topic of some interest. The evolution is studied with
the 3-D, electromagnetic and relativistic particle in cell simulation code
TRISTAN [8], [24]. Other works on the topic are found in the literature
[25][28]. Overall, the data give a picture similar to that shown in Fig. 4
where inflowing plasma converges into a striated or patterned plasma
column (Fig. 5).

A. Instability of a Solid Plasma Column

A solid plasma column such as that shown in the center of Fig. 4 (or the
lower column of Fig. 5) is susceptible to two types of instabilities, m=0
(sausage) and m=1 (helix), where m is the number of azimuthal variations,
[8], [20][23]. The m=1, or helix, is a common instability in both
laboratory and space plasmas and occurs when a magnetic field axial to the
column preexists. (It is not unusual for a plasma to produce a circular
magnetic field with a slight vertical component that rapidly develops into
the axial field needed for the development of a helix). Fig. 6 shows
examples of both cases, respectively.

PERATT: CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF A HIGH-CURRENT, Z-PINCH
AURORA 1195

Fig. 7. Outer spheroids produced by the plasma pinch. (Top Left)
Experimental, early time. (Bottom Left) Later time. (Right) MHD
supercomputer graphical solution of the Chandraskhar- Fermi equations.

From left to right: a 1.3 MA plasma; a 5-ns 3-cm-long 2-MA plasma and a
millisecond 150-milliampere beam, about 10 km long. Increasing the current
in all cases produces a smaller diameter helix.

B. Column Structure

The morphology of the Z-pinch as it evolves in time is that of a self
organizing structure of an outer spheroidal plasma envelope and inner
toroids, as discussed by Ortiz-Tapia and Kubes [29], [30].

Generally, in an intense electrical discharge in the multimega volt,
multimegaampere range, as would be measured in an intense aurora, nine
distinct pinches that are spheroidal in shape are formed. While there is
no known theoretical basis for nine spheroids, experimentalists most often
mention "between eight and ten." In Fig. 7, the bottom two were cut off in
the recording. These spheroids, or "plasmoids" consist of an outer
spheroidal plasma envelope and inner toroids that define both the magnetic
fields and the currents within them [8].

1) Spheroids: The frames in Fig. 7 portray the outer spheroid isophotes,
some including the central visible core (the central plasma core is not
plotted in the simulation). The pictures on the left are X-radiographs
while that on the right is a computer simulation. Generally, one, two, or
three plasmoids are visible at a time but as many as eight are common. It
is also not unusual to find a truncation or modification of the top-most
spheroid.

2) Inner Toroids: Intense optical radiation, synchrotron radiation, and
X-rays are recorded from the inner plasma toroids. The basic geometry is
shown in Fig. 8, where (a) is the basic geometry, (b) is a framing camera
picture of the centimeter size 1.3-MA pinch [29], (c) is the
centimeter-size 6-MA pinch, and (d) is the centimeter-size 6-MA pinch with
optically dense (brightest) plasma shown. Note that the densest plasma
forms ...

Fig. 8. Inner toroids within the stack of spheroids produced in a multi
megaampere plasma column. (a) Basic geometry. (b) Centimeter-size 1.3-MA
pinch. (c) Centimeter-size 6-MA pinch. (d) Centimeter-size 6MA pinch with
optically dense (brightest) plasma shown.

Fig. 9. (Left) Illustrations of simulations of the flattening of a
stack of multimegaampere conducting plasma toroids. The current causes
the toroids to both flatten out in the center and start to warp and
fold at the ends as shown. (Right) X-ray radiograph of a l6-MA pinched
plasma 4 cm in diameter. (Top) Plasma sinusoidal pinch perturbation at
6.5 s. (Bottom) Formation of flattened toroids from the initial
ripples at 9.5 s. The bottom figure rungs appear cutoff, but are the
natural shape. (Los Alamos Plasma Physics, P-24).

... the top feature, the sides of the toroids, and the bottom base that
flares downwards and away from the column.

VI. EVOLUTION OF THE PLASMA COLUMN TOROIDS

In pairs, the electromagnetic forces on the toroids in the stacks shown in
Fig. 8 are long-range attractive, short-range repulsive, or force-free
(merging) [31][33]. However, in a stack, the repulsive-attractive forces
tend to flatten all but the top and bottom toroids. This is illustrated on
the left side of Fig. 9. 

A pinched plasma X-ray radiograph is shown on the right side of Fig. 9.
The top radiograph is a plasma column with sinusoidal pinch perturbation
at early time. On the bottom, the radiograph shows that these ripples have
rapidly converged inward by the intense self-magnetic pressure to produce
flattened toroids. 

The radiographs in Fig. 9 are sequential, measured in the X-ray regime at
6.5 and 9.5 s after column formation. The total current conducted through
a 4-cm column diameter was 16 MA. The bottom toroids appear to be cutoff
photographically but this is the actual untouched radiograph.

1196 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 6, DECEMBER
2003

Fig. 10. Radiography derived time sequence of a multimegaampere stack of
toroids in the highly nonlinear instability phase. The sequence shown
starts from a previous nonlinear phase where the pinch ripples on the
outer surface have collapsed into squared, folded and warped toroids.
Figures derived from a few selected laser shadographs and schlieren
photos. Time proceeds from left to right and top to bottom.

The experimental data set is a complete time-motion sequence of the
Z-pinch. Selected radiography frames and simulation graphs have been
assembled in Fig. 10, the latter of which is a time sequence of a
multimegaampere stack of toroids in the highly nonlinear instability
phase. Time proceeds from left to right and top to bottom. The current
conducting plasma column shown starts from a previous nonlinear phase,
where the pinch ripples on the outer surface have collapsed into squared,
folded and warped toroids. 

As shown in Time 1, the maximum number of toroids are those of the initial
outer spheroid envelope, nine. However, as the current increases, the
toroids come under intense self and neighboring toroid pressures forcing
dramatic toroid deformations. In the data depicted, the top most toroid
folds into a bulb-like shape. 

Time 2 illustrates the flattening of all the toroids such as those shown
in Fig. 9, bottom right. 

With increasing current, the toroids warp violently and produce well
defined vortex curls at their edges. These edge vortices wrap up in a
spiral. In some case, the folding may be flat or square, as is the
flattened toroid. The edges curl in and out and upwards and downwards to
the current flow. 

In some cases, mushroom-like structures form as shown in the center frames
(Time 3). For increased current at later times, the center toroids are
forced to merge, reducing their number as shown at Time 4. The central
toroid can be tubular, flat, or spheroidal. Time 4 also illustrates the
effect of luminosity on the morphology observed.

VII. HYDRODYNAMIC SHOCKWAVE PATTERNS FROM AURORAL SHOCKS AND COLLIDING
PLASMA SHEETS IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE

The auroral electrical circuit is by far the best known of all space
plasma circuits [34], [35]. It is derived from a large number of
measurements in the magnetosphere and ionosphere. Above the lower
atmosphere, at about 100 km, multiple layers of plasma form the
ionosphere. The auroras occur in the lower portion of the ionosphere,
primarily from about 90 to about 150 km, as the result of electrons
interacting with and exciting molecules in the upper atmosphere.
Prehistoric man at northern latitudes often likened the patterns produced
to the butting of goat's horns in combat [3]. 

The inflowing currents are relativistic (particles with velocities
approaching the speed of light) and sporadic, producing high Mach number
shocks at interfaces in the intense current plasma column (Fig. 4). In
addition to the vertical particle flows are shock-surface phenomena
produced by the impingement of the outer shell on the inner shell forming
an extremely intense aurora when the outer shell stagnates at the main
plasma column. 

At early time a number of unperturbed surfaces exist that are susceptible
to shock-induced instabilities, outlined by Zel'dovich and Razier [36].
For example, the outer cylinder surfaces shown in Fig. 4 eventually slam
into the inner-cylinder surface whose inward acceleration has been stopped
by the plasma it compressed. 

Other planar surfaces susceptible to shock instabilities are the upper
atmospheric strata. It is these layers in which we observe the auroral
curtains and instabilities today from sporadic high intensity electrical
pulses traveling along the auroral column. 

At a planar interface of gas or plasma, a shock pulse initiates a series
of hydrodynamic instabilities that differ from the plasma column
instabilities. In hydrodynamics, these are the RichtmeyerMeshkov
instabilities recorded by Budzinskii and Benjamin [37]. 

Initially, a pulsed perturbation on a denser layer causes a rippling of
the layer that rapidly develops into periodically spaced spike like
features. These features, or "spikes" then evolve in a way shown in the
top frame of Fig. 11, the first frame of a laboratory simulation of the
time evolution of an ionospheric layer shocked by a Mach 1.2 pulse (time
increases from left to right and top to bottom) [38].

PERATT: CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF A HIGH-CURRENT, Z-PINCH
AURORA 1197

Fig. 11. Time evolution of an ionospheric layer shocked by Mach 1.2 pulse.
Time increases from left to right and top to bottom. (RAGE calculation, R.
Weaver, Los Alamos National Laboratory.)

As shown in the sequence, the shock impulse causes the generation of yet
more instability spikes that themselves morph into yet more complex
instability shapes. The center-most feature, the point of shock impact,
has changed appreciably from its initial spike profile, into a tripling of
morphology associated with fast instability growth [39].

VIII. ELECTRICAL DISCHARGES ASSOCIATED WITH INTENSE AURORAL CURRENTS

A. Lightning

Strong electrical discharges are associated with intense inflowing charged
particles. This is the lightning most often seen in connection with
atmospheric discharges whose tortuosity are the jagged and complex light
strokes seen in the sky and accompanied by the sound of the shock wave.

B. Heteromacs

Kukushkin and Rantsev-Kartinov at the Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia,
found that, based on fractal dimension analysis of experimental data from
plasma pinches, electric current-carrying plasmas are a random fractal
medium. The basic building block of this medium was identified by
Kukushkin and Rantsev-Kartinov to be an almost-closed helical filamentary
plasma configuration called a heteromac [40].

Fig. 12. Heteromac configuration [40].

Heteromacs (Fig. 12) are coupled together through long range
self-sustained filamentation and, thus, form a dynamical percolating
network with dissipation. Hence, heteromacs can include filamentary,
cellular, and bubble-like clusters. 

Heteromacs tend to repeat a pattern at increasingly smaller sizes in a
random manner. The tendency of heteromacs is to display the plasma in
random fractal, self-repeating and overlaying patterns.

IX. PETROGLYPHS

Petroglyphs, the carving of pictures on rock, have mystified and inspired
historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, shamans, religious cults and
even some astronomers for centuries, if not millennia [41]. They are found
on every continent except Antarctica. Some are mere scratches while others
were chiseled centimeters deep. 

Petroglyphs, "rock art," are thought to date back to the Pleistocene and
Paleolithic--the earliest markings by man on rock. While the dating of
petroglyphs has been a high priority for all who study or record them,
there exists no consensus that an absolute age can be attached to any one
pre-Colombian petroglyph. Differing exposures to the elements leads to
differing durability, coloration of the rocks patina or desert varnish (a
natural coating of manganese, iron oxides, and clay minerals), and lichen
overgrowth. The uncovering of the Glorieta Mesa and Rowe Mesa horizontal
petroglyph sites from under one meter of earth near Santa Fe, NM might
give the best indication of the ages of some petroglyphs. Campfire
remnants some centimeters above the petroglyphs suggest that they are at
least 4000 years old. In this paper, we shall limit the study to
petroglyphs thought to range in age from 10 000 to 2000 BC [41]. 

A. von Humboldt pioneered the recognition of the social importance of
information carried in petroglyphs. From 1799 to 1800, while exploring the
hydrographic anomaly of the Casiquiare, a natural canal joining the
Orinoco River of Venezuela with the Rio Negro of the Amazon basin, von
Humboldt observed petroglyphs high on a bluff which prompted his advocacy
that pre-Colombian civilization, far from being primitive, was the remnant
of once-higher-societies in South America [42], [43].

1198 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 6, DECEMBER
2003

Concurrent with Humboldt's exploration of South and Central America,
Russia, and China, the Lewis and Clark expedition detailed their
horticultural, geological, anthropological, and geographical findings of
the American Northwest. On April 23, 1806, Lewis and Clark made their
campsite on the Columbia River between Four O'clock Rapids to the east and
John Day Bar to the west near what was named Hieroglyphic Rocks. According
to Wilkes, "about eight miles above their encampment they came to the
Hieroglyphic Rocks. These are about twenty feet high, and on them are
supposed to be recorded the deeds of some former tribe" [44]. 

Nearly 100 years later, Col. G. Mallory in an 1882-1883 re port entitled
"Pictographs of the North American Indians, A Preliminary Paper," voiced a
much different opinion of petroglyphs [45]. In fact, the title of his
later work is far too modest. "Picture Writing of the North American
Indians" is probably the most comprehensive study of petroglyphs
worldwide. 

While the extent of Mallory's work is unparalleled, the interpretation of
the phenomena is totally consistent with the regard in the late 1880s of
the American West's perception of the "Indian" and other "primitive"
peoples. For example, in the introduction to his work, Mallory paraphrases
Sir F. Bacon in saying that "pictures are dumb history." 

Mallory assigned various meanings to the petroglyphs that would be
concordant with the beliefs of western settlers or Native Americans at
that time. However, Mallory's interpretation of petroglyphs as thoughts of
the mind is a concept that remains with us today. 

His uneasiness with attributing this concept to petroglyphs is probably
best illustrated by his statement, "the remarkable height of some
petroglyphs has misled authors of good repute as well as savages.
Petroglyphs frequently appear on the face of rocks at heights and under
conditions which seemed to render their production impossible without the
appliances of advanced civilization, a large outlay, and the exercise of
unusual skill." Hence, like Humboldt, Mallory perhaps unconsciously
subscribes to the idea that petroglyphs are other than primitive
ritualistic scratchings [43].

X. PETROGLYPH DATA

The data shown in this paper were taken from a data bank containing
several tens of thousands of digital petroglyph photographs, many with
their GPS longitude/latitude positions and orientation with respect to the
most probable field-of-view. 

In the American Southwest and Northwest, data was acquired by two teams of
physicists, geophysicists, Bureau of Land Management employees, students,
and petroglyph site stewards. Permission was obtained from both the U.S.
Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Defense to photograph
petroglyph sites not accessible since 1943. 

In situ investigations allowing direct digital recordings of the
petroglyphs, notations of terrain and fields of view as well as global
position satellite measurements were carried out in New Mexico, Texas,
California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Washington,
and British Columbia, Canada. 

Data from other known petroglyph-rich sites in the Midwestern and
Northeastern U. S. was also included as was data from Loring and Loring,
Thiel, Schaafsma, and Younkin [47][50]. 

The methodology included determining the most probable field-of-view, the
position occupied, terrain or local obstacles, and degree of shelter most
probably available to the artist. Special attention was given in this
regard to work-intensive, deeply carved or precisely drawn petroglyphs
(some, after carving, were then polished and painted). Other items of note
were landslides, primarily of massive boulders partially covering
petroglyph panels; panels whose faces had been partially cleaved by the
elements, and boulders whose petroglyphs had been split by the cracking
and separation of the rock itself. Access to sites of habitation and
overall accessibility or inaccessibility to the petroglyphs completed the
survey. 

World-wide, most of the digital petroglyph data was acquired from the
following places or countries and from regions adjoining them: Africa,
Argentina, Arizona, Armenia, Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan Bolivia,
Borneo, Brazil, California, Canada, Canary Islands, Central America,
Central Asia, Chile, China, Colorado, Columbia Dominican Republic, Easter
Island, Ecuador, Egypt, England, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Gibraltar,
Greece, Guiana, Hawaii, Idaho, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel,
Italy, Kashmir, Korea, Malta, Mexico, Macedonia, Malta, Minnesota,
Mississippi Valley, Morocco, Namibia, Nevada, New Caledonia, New Guinea,
New Mexico, Nicaragua, Norway, Okinawa, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pakistan,
Panama, Paraguay, Pennsylvania, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Siberia,
South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tahiti, Tibet, United
Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Utah, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Washington State, and
Yemen. 

Most of this data was contributed by individuals residing in or having
collections of material from these regions [51], [52]. 

Finally, the data was cataloged according to morphology and plotted on 3-D
computer renditions of scanned topographical maps. The results of this
survey, entail the most probable field-of-view of the artist for differing
petroglyph types and map the skewness inherent in the drawing. The data
show that petroglyphs have a preferred orientation on a world wide basis
and on morphology type, indicating that they are reproductions of plasma
phenomena in space. These results will be presented in another report.

XI. DATA CARRIED IN PETROGLYPHS

Petroglyphs are images created on rock by means of carving or "pecking"
the outer surface to expose the surface underneath. Most rock surfaces,
independent of the chemical composition, are covered by a thin layer
called a patina or varnish. This patina is created naturally by the rocks
exposure to the elements. Rain, snow, sunlight, and extragalactic
radiation such as gamma rays interact on the surface with salts and
minerals, and even the crystalline structure of the rock, creating a thin
outer darkening of the rock, a natural coating of clay minerals, manganese
and iron oxides. 

Prehistoric man would chisel or peck away the patina and expose the
original stone surface to create the petroglyph image. Rock panels that
derived from volcanic basalt flows are favored ...

PERATT: CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF A HIGH-CURRENT, Z-PINCH
AURORA 1199

Fig. 13. Petroglyph panel, Arizona, USA.

... for petroglyph recordings. However, carvings in other materials were
also used. A frequent way of recording was the use of "scratch
petroglyphs" where scratches with a sharp stone were used to create
patterns [50]. 

Pictographs that in this report are placed in the same category as
petroglyphs, are made using paint instead of carving into the rock. Other
objects from antiquity: statuettes, pottery, and structures are also
placed in this category. Delineation will be presented in a following
paper. 

While single petroglyphs may be found, petroglyphs are most often found
grouped in selected sites by the hundreds or thousands (Fig. 13).
Sometimes the same rock facing has been over written two or three times.
The appearance of such sites is one of random disarray of crudely drawn
animals, people, unrecognizable anthromorphs, and abstract patterns or
symbology. (A "rich cache" of petroglyphs consists of many hundreds or
thousands of figures.) 

Petroglyphs may be found in readily accessible places or in highly
precipitous locations; in the open or within crevices. Generally, the
discovery of one petroglyph results in the rapid spotting of dozens or
hundreds more. This paper will suggest a rationale for petroglyphs being
carved in difficult or specialized locations when equally satisfactory
rocks in more readily accessible locations are in the vicinity; for
example, the line-of-sight to the Earth's magnetic poles and highly
conducting regions on the Earth's surface. These are the criteria of an
intense aurora today: its appearance at the magnetic poles and the
subsequent electrical damage to conduction paths such as the Alaskan oil
pipeline [6]. 

A common image among petroglyphs is lightning-like discharge figures.

XII. ASSOCIATION OF PETROGLYPHS WITH AN INTENSE AURORA

The study of the aurora has been one of gathering as much information as
possible about the influx of particles from space and its effect on
Earth's space, plasma environment, and upper atmosphere. As such, the
aurora is a stimulus to improved laboratory work on many different
processes important to plasma physics. However the purpose of this paper
is neither of these, but rather an attempt to explain how in man's
prehistory recordings of high-energy-density phenomena (some not
experimentally ...

Fig. 14. Anthromorphic or man-like style of petroglyph named a "squatter."
The illustrations shown are those of the rarer "double-dot" squatters;
those having two dots on either side of the midsection. Left to right, top
to bottom: Northern Arizona, Armenia, Guiana, New Mexico, Spain, Tucson
Arizona, Tyrolian Alps, Italy, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

Fig. 15. Heteromac style petroglyphs (small sampling).

... recorded until the last few years), could have been carved on rock in
an accurate, systematic, and apparently temporally reliable fashion.

Eighty-four distinct high-energy-density Z-pinch categories have been
identified in petroglyphs, nearly all of which belong to the archaic [50]
class. Only a small percentage of these petroglyphs, or parts of
petroglyph patterns, do not fall into any of these categories. 

Fig. 14 shows ten examples of a single category of petro glyph found
worldwide: an anthromorphic man with a dot on either side of the
midsection. The anthromorphic man, with or without the side dots, called a
"squatter" by rock art collectors, is recorded everywhere. 

On large rock panels such as Fig. 13, overlaid petroglyphs are often
heteromacs: figures with yet smaller figures attached, inside, or nearby.
As the displayed figures in the sky evolved, perhaps over a decade, other
overlays were added to represent the changes. Thus, association of
petroglyph morphologies allows an epoch of electrical discharge evolution
to be extracted from the carvings. 

A very small sampling of petroglyphs drawn in the heteromac format is
shown in Fig. 15.

A. Direct Comparison of Plasma Phenomena With Various Petroglyph
Morphologies

Fig. 16 is a comparison of petroglyph images to both exper imental and
computational recordings of a plasma pinch. The frames on the left are
radiographs of the pinch, the middle frame is a high-fidelity computer
simulation of a plasma pinch, while the images on the right are a
selection of petroglyphs typical of this morphology. 

In the visible, the central plasmoid stack or parts of it would be
observable dependent upon both the location of the observer...

1200 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 6, DECEMBER
2003

Fig. 16. Pinch instability characteristics of a plasma column. (Left)
Plasma light photographs, early time. (Middle) Graphical solution of the
Chandasekhar- Fermi equations. (Right) Petroglyphs. The patterns are found
world-wide.

Fig. 17. Conceptual geometry of a stack of nine plasmoids produced in a
high-current plasma column. (Left) Experimental and conceptual data of a
stack of toroids along the pinched plasma column. (Right) Petroglyphs
depicting stacked toroids. Note that the double row of dots numbers nine,
the exact number of toroids generally produced in a plasma pinch.

... and the duration and location of a current pulse propagating along the
column. Because of the time required to produce certain classes of
morphologies of petroglyphs and also the precipitousness of location, we
conclude that petroglyphs were produced during daylight conditions,
perhaps twilight or dawn. This then allows an estimate of the luminance
necessary to see auroral plasma phenomena.

1) Spheroids: The petroglyphs in Fig. 16 accurately portray the outer
spheroid isophotes, some including the central visible core (the central
plasma core is not mapped in the simulation). Generally, one, two, or
three plasmoids were visible at a time but as many as eight are common. It
is also not unusual to find a truncation or modification of the top-most
spheroid.

2) Inner Toroids and Surrounding Features: A more impressive sight than
the outer spheroid shell would have been the intense optical radiation
from the inner plasma toroids shown in Fig. 17. 

The petroglyphs to the right Fig. 17 are typical of those commonly found
in a stack of circles. One of the petroglyphs has captured the optical
radiation from all nine toroids. ...

Fig. 18. Eye and nose masks. (Left) Isophotes from a portion of the
graphical solution of the Chandrasekhar- Fermi equations. (Right) Eye mask
and prominent nose petroglyphs.

Fig. 19. Face masks as collected from various locations on Earth. The
figure at the top left is a portion of the graphical solution of the
Chandrasekhar- Fermi equations.

Fig. 20. Separatrix magnetic field merging crisscrosses. (Left) Portion of
the graphical solution of the Chandrasekhar- Fermi equations. (Right)
Assortment of petroglyph criss-crosses.

... The middle isophotes reveal more detail. A totally unexpected feature
appeared when the isophotes were artificially colored: "nose" and
"eyebrow" features. These features are shown in Fig. 18, the so-called
petroglyph "eye masks" and Fig. 19, the "face masks."

3) The Separatrix "X" Points: An appreciable number of petroglyphs have
captured the separatrix pattern between plasmoids with rather high
fidelity (Fig. 20). (The "script-like" X separatrix should not be confused
with the well-defined, circle enclosed, square-cross petroglyph.) ...

PERATT: CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF A HIGH-CURRENT, Z-PINCH
AURORA 1201

Fig. 21. Separatrix Patterns as collected from various locations on Earth.
The figure at the upper left is a portion of the graphical solution of the
Chandrasekhar- Fermi equations.

... The complete patterns containing the X-type separatrix are shown in
Fig. 21 as numerically generated from the Chandrasekhar- Fermi equations
for a plasma column. The diversity of cultures preserving common rock art
themes is apparent in the separatrix patterns.

XIII. EVOLUTION OF A COLUMNAR STACK OF PLASMA TOROIDS

In rock-art terminology, the experimental images shown on the right side
of Fig. 9 would be classified as a "caterpillar" and a "ladder." These are
reproduced again in Fig. 22. The sequences shown correspond to the
rise-time portion of a long current pulse, that it, increasing electrical
current.

A. "Caterpillars" and "Ladders"

Fig. 22 shows the experimentally reproduced conceptual geometry. The inner
toroids have been flattened while the upper most toroid has folded inward,
like the closing of a petal of a flower, into an oblong shaped object. The
second uppermost toroid is also starting to fold upward. The increasing
current has also started the warping of the flattened toroids as well as
forming a cone shaped toroid. Fig. 22(c) and (d) show the X-ray
radiographs of the experimental plasma. The analogous petroglyph
recordings, the well-known caterpillar and ladder are shown to the far
right. ...

Fig. 22. (a) and (b) Conceptual geometries of a stack of multimegaampere
current conducting plasma toroids. The current is increasing from left to
tight, causing the toroids to both flatten out in the center and start to
warp and fold at the ends as shown in (b). (c) Initial plasma sinusoidal
pinch perturbation. (d) TPSO 136 2 late-time 16-MA current induced plasma
ladder. The corresponding petroglyphs analogies are shown to the far
right.

Fig. 23. Collection of caterpillar category petroglyphs.

... Figs. 23-25 are a collection of caterpillar and ladder category
petroglyphs found worldwide. It is meaningful that caterpillars and
ladders are found in association. 

Where the toroid stack consists of both spheroidal and flattened toroids,
the optical radiation is brightest where the plasma is densest, i.e.,
closest to the edges of the toroids. This leads to a less well-known but
still common petroglyph known as a ...

1202 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 6, DECEMBER
2003

Fig. 24. (Left) Laser shadowgrams of plasma instabilities. (a) Stack of
flattened toroids. (b) Later time shadowgram. The tips of the flattened
toroids have started to curl in and form vortices. (Right) Collection of
ladder category petroglyphs.

Fig. 25. Collection of ladder category petroglyphs (continued).

... "pipette" (Fig. 26). The pipettes shown in Fig. 26 all have
symmetrical pairs of "eyes." However, many petroglyphs simply show the
outline of a pipette without any indication of hot spots or "eyes."

Experimental and petroglyph representations of these nonlinear column
instability morphologies described in Fig. 10 are shown in Fig. 27. 

The petroglyph carvers have managed to capture all of the phases of the
Z-pinch instability seen in the laboratory. These phases include the
ladder and enclosed ellipsoidal top-most toroids. Some show the eyes of
the bottom spheroidal toroids yet to be affected by the currents of the
neighboring toroids. ...

Fig. 26. (Left) Morphology and radiation properties of a stack of toroids
beginning to undergo intense pressures from neighboring toroids. (Right)
Pipette petroglyphs.

Fig. 27. (Left) Conceptual geometry and experimental laser shadowgraph of
an intense current-conducting toroidal stack.

... Perhaps the most important feature depicted in the petroglyphs shown
in Fig. 27 is the curling of the edges of the flattened toroids. This
feature is exact enough so that a time-motion representation of the
curling can be made and directly compared to its experimental counterpart.
The curling or folding progression thus provides time information when the
petroglyphs are scaled to laboratory data. [The time scaling will be given
in an other paper].

B. Vortices

With increasing current the tips of the "ladder rungs" begin to curl and
form a vortex. With yet a stronger current, the toroids themselves roll up
as shown in Fig. 28. 

Fig. 28 provides the first direct evidence of the exactness to which
petroglyphs were carved in spite of cultural influences in interpretation.
The ladder rungs (stacked medium current toroids) are shown to fold and
bend as do the laboratory photographs. Subtle changes in the petroglyphs
corresponding to the plasma instability morphologies have been reproduced
with precise accuracy, even including, in proper order, the admixture of
toroid types....

PERATT: CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF A HIGH-CURRENT, Z-PINCH
AURORA 1203

Fig. 28. (Left) Laser back-illuminated plasma pinch. The photograph has
been digitally stratified to bring out the curling of the edges of the
bottom, flattened toroids. The cathode is at the top. (Right) Sample
collection of petroglyphs showing the transition from the ladder phase of
the instability to toroid vortices. (Left to right, top to bottom). The
examples shown have been collected from several parts of the world.

Fig. 29. (Left) Vortex formation in sub and multimegaampere pinched plasma
columns. (Right) Petroglyphs.

... In all cases, the top-most toroid, the terminus in an electrical
discharge, is indeed at the top of the petroglyphs and shows the
transition of the pincher type shape associated with the so-called
scorpion petroglyphs into a folded petal as the top toroids fold up and
close on themselves. Likewise, the slight upward bend of a flattened
toroid at the middle of the column, its eventual curling at the end of the
toroid, and the nearly-square vortex folding into knots has been
accurately portrayed. The accuracy of these MHD instabilities suggests
that an appreciable amount of time of a particular morphology was visible
to the petroglyph carvers.

C. Intense Current Vortex Deformation

Further along the current rise, the vortices morph into a variety of
cupular or cone shapes. Fig. 29 shows experimental and petroglyph
recordings of this phenomena. The downwardly shaped cup figures, or
"mushrooms," are a common theme in petroglyphs. The frames on the left are
radiographs or radiograph-derived data while those on the right are
petroglyphs.

XIV. UNIVERSALITY OF THE BASIC PLASMA INSTABILITY

If an intense aurora were the source for unusual bright objects seen in
the nighttime sky, these objects would have been observed worldwide. What
would be observed depends on a number of physical properties of the
auroral funnel, Fig. 4, and the current-carrying magnetosphere tail. These
include the intensity of the current producing the instability, the
intensity and ...

Fig. 30. Commonality of
the most often depicted petroglyph, the squatter human or anthromorph.

... duration of sporadic current pulses within the auroral plasma column,
and the orientation of a column undergoing nonazimuthally symmetric
motions.

While the previous figures have suggested that the phenomena was
universally seen, what could be observed would depend on the observer's
location on Earth and whether or not the entire column was visible or
illuminated, or some portion of it, as in auroral displays today.

Fig. 30 is a collection of one of the common petroglyphs encountered in
the field: the squatter. It is usually interpreted as a human figure or
anthromorph with squatting-like legs and either upturned or down-turned,
or mixed, arms. It is unfortunate that this one morphology has been
interpreted in modern times as representing a human or an anthromorph. As
such it is widely ignored in favor of more exotic and realistic
petroglyphs forms. Perhaps for this reason, petroglyphs have been viewed
as dumb history.

In reality, the forms shown in Fig. 30 mimic closely phenomena associated
with the highest energy releases known, some of whose instability shapes
were not known even a few years ago. Fig. 30 also shows that this basic
shape was recorded independently of cultural bias or embellishment found
on other petroglyphs.

The anthromorphs shown in Fig. 30 have several variations: the basic
squatter depicted; the squatter with a bar or belly at the midsection; the
squatter with either one or two dots on either side of the midsection; the
squatter with two dots around the anthromorphic head, often drawn as
extended ears; and the extension of the basic shape to reptiles, etc. The
extremities may be upturned, down-turned, mixed; sometimes shown with
three digit fingers or toes.

There is perhaps no way of estimating how often this figure occurs;
carved, pecked, or scratched on rock. It may have existed in inestimable
numbers. The remainder of this section investigates the variations
associated with the basic shape and why this is the basic instability
shape. ...

1204 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 6, DECEMBER
2003

Fig. 31. (Left) Plasma instability profiles for a pulse illuminated
section of a plasma column. Laser shadowgrams. (Right) Experimental
and simulation derived geometries for extreme plasma currents in a
plasma column. The illumination is strongest where the plasma is
dense, that is, along the edges of the figures below and the
cross-section of the center toroid.

Fig. 32. (Left) Configuration and cross-sectional views of the intense
current discharge. (Right) Petroglyphs. All are from the Western U.S.
except the lower right figure that is from the United Arab Emirates.

A. Azimuthal Current Ring Structure Formation

.... In addition to the auroral plasma column instabilities, an other
well-known instability type occurs for intense currents having a slower
rise-time. Because of the azimuthal currents and strong interactive
forces, the flattened toroids merge to re duce the number of apparent
toroids. The enclosed ellipsoidal top-most structure is present, but the
central toroids combine to form a single azimuthal current carrying
toroid. The geometry for this configuration is shown in Fig. 31.

In this case, the instability consists of a top electrode consisting of a
few toroids that have folded and closed to produce a central bulb, an
upward (or downward) cup, a central plasma toroid, and a bottom, usually
downward turned toroidal cup.

Since it is an electrode, the cup torus at either end can take on a number
of shapes. Usually the top electrode shows a variety of patterns. The
patterns can be lightning-like, ellipsoidal, triangular (that can resemble
the shape of a bird), a lightning bolt or multiple filament current
terminations.

Fig. 32 shows a number of petroglyphs found globally that share this
peculiar geometry. Another variation on the azimuthal current ring
structure formation is petroglyphs that have sym- ...

Fig. 33. (Left) Configuration and cross-sectional views of the intense
current discharge as viewed obliquely to the plasma column. At times, two
or more toroids are seen in line-of-sight emission. (Right) Petroglyphs.

... metrical dot-like enhanced ear lobes or symmetrical dots at the lower
extremity of the interpreted figure.

The top image in Fig. 32 is the instability cross section. The bottom
picture has been superposed with elements of the plasma instability. At
the top of this figure, two toroids can be made out enclosing the central
bulb. At midsection a toroid such as that shown in Fig. 32, but slightly
warped, is seen. Beneath this is a highly flattened and warped toroid
followed by the usual conical or cup bottom terminus as at the bottom of
Fig. 31.

When viewed obliquely, the toroid is obvious and petroglyphs depicting the
left side of Fig. 32 are omnipresent (Fig. 33). Note that the brightest
plasma is at the edges except for the toroid, where denser and brighter
plasma is innermost. At times, as the sporadic current pulse travels along
the plasma column, one, two, or more toroids are seen in line-of-sight
emission.

Fig. 34 shows yet another representation of this same class of petroglyph.

A different perspective of this same instability is shown on the left side
of Fig. 35. In this case, the instability is shown at a somewhat later
time when the central toroids have merged into the oblate shape at the
center (the central feature can be accurately represented by a toroid; a
flattened toroid, either tubular or warped; an ellipsoid, or no apparent
toroid at all).

The visibility of the backside of the top cup is echoed in the petroglyphs
that show the same shape around the central plasma bulb. Some show the
central orb as either fully or partially enclosed.

B. Aurora Luminance

The luminance of a bright aurora today can be of the order of 5 10 exp -2
lm per sterradian per meter square at 310 MA. However, a 16-MA current
laboratory Z-pinch (Fig. 22), when scaled to a catastrophic aurora, could
be expected to produce instabilities whose luminance varied in proportion
to the current within the pinched column. For this case, the luminance
might increase to 5 lm per sterradian per meter square, saturating the
individual instability features as sporadic current pulses propagate along
the column.

For these luminances, the plasma instability configurations shown in Fig.
33 would take on a new appearance such as depicted in Fig. 36. The plasma
cups shown on the left of Fig. 36 ...

PERATT: CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF A HIGH-CURRENT, Z-PINCH
AURORA 1205

Fig. 34. (Bottom) Plasma pinch instability. When multikiloamperes or
megaamperes of current flow though the plasma column, the flattened
toroids both flatten and warp. (Top) Petroglyphs representative of the
warping phenomena, for example, in the "belly" of the "squatter" men
shown.

Fig. 35. (Left) View of the intense current discharge as viewed obliquely
to the plasma column. (Right) Figures clearly depict the cup top-most
terminus.

... represent the top-most terminus of a column such as shown in Fig. 32.
It is of interest to note that some of the petroglyphs on the right of
Fig. 36 show an equivalence of a plasma trifurcation at the bottom of the
figures.

C. Kokopelli

No description of petroglyphs would be complete without the mention of
Kokopelli, the flute-playing figure that has inspired surprisingly,
far-ranging folk-stories. With little cultural embellishments to the
image, these are found world-wide. Fig. 37 shows a collection of Kokopelli
figures. At the top are two examples taken from a plasma discharge. These
figures are respectively, early and late time photographs of the
discharge. Whether or not the subjective interpretation of these ....

Fig. 36. (Left) Bright plasma instabilities, top to bottom, increasing
luminance. (Right) Petroglyphs. Some show the entire body including the
trifurcated base.

Fig. 37. Kokopelli. Examples from plasma discharges and world-wide
interpretations on rock.

... shapes would result in the small sample of petroglyphs shown below is
left to the reader.

XV. INSTABILITIES IN THE UPPER PLASMA SHEET AND THEIR CORRELATION TO
PETROGLYPHS

The polar cap and magnetospheric cusp regions are roughly conical in shape
as the inflowing solar wind flows down. Fig. 2 shows the overall geometry.
Like all plasma, the surface properties are both cellular and filamentary,
e.g., as shown in Fig. 4, displaying an almost diamond-pattern in the
upper cone. The two figures below the plasma photographs are petroglyphs
displaying essentially the same morphology as the plasma. Some ....

1206 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 6, DECEMBER
2003

Fig. 38. (Top) Conical inflow of a current conducting plasma column. The
flow is from top to bottom. Three important features are already
observable: two arm-like shapes at the top of the inflow; striations in
the body of the column; and the beginning of a plasma feature at
top-center. These experimental photographs pertain to a 5-MV 3-MA plasma.
(Bottom) Petroglyphs.

... petroglyphs have even captured closely the diamond and filamentary
patterns. This will be presented in another paper.

The similarity between petroglyphs and a converging plasma region is shown
in Fig. 38. Three important features are observable: two arm-like shapes
at the top of the inflow, striations in the body of the column, and plasma
feature at top-center. These experimental photographs pertain to a 5-MV,
3-MA plasma.

A. Plasma Cup

Both the cup, a deformed plasma toroid, and the return current are open to
a number of interpretations if related to petroglyphs. These show a marked
dependency on the cultural background of the petroglyph artist. It can be
interpreted as a duck, bird, tri angle, or even a head topped by a folded
back elephant's trunk. At times, if the return current was sufficiently
bright, a snake head or lightning-bolt head could be interpreted.

Fig. 39 shows some examples of both the plasma top-most geometry and some
of the bird-like interpretations. 

Fig. 40 is a very common plasma profile. Dependent upon the oblateness and
the tilt of the structure, it can be interpreted to represent a duck, a
boat, the body of an animal, or an elongated or billed bird (for example
Fig. 39); or even a rabbit.

B. Terminus

It is common for plasma clusters to have protrusions very much resembling
feet, head, or tails of anthromorphs or animals. The protrusions are part
of the termini or filamentary currents running through and from the
plasma. An example of termini from an intense discharge is shown below
(Fig. 41). In this case, ....

Fig. 39. Experimental data and petroglyphs. (Left) Plasma pinch
instabilities. (Right) Petroglyphs relating to birds atop posts and on the
heads of man-like figures. The plasma pinch photo at the bottom has been
digitally stratified for clarity. The cathode is at the top.

Fig. 40. Experimental plasma photograph of the upper terminus cup of an
instability column as shown in Fig. 39, left. This shape can be
interpreted to be a duck, a boat, or the body of an animal dependent upon
the culture to which the artist belonged. A small perturbation appears
two-thirds of the way to the right of this figure. At later times this
feature grows into a helical or lightning-like discharge structure.

... two discharge strokes have trifurcated at the bottom conductor such as
a plasma sheet to allow the current conduction path to continue. The
topology closely resembles petroglyphs of animals: mountain sheep or dogs
and foxes in the American Southwest, similar canine species in Australia,
and oxen or oxen-like species in other parts of the world. Good examples
can be found among the previous digital petroglyph images.

XVI. SHOCK PHENOMENA PETROGLYPHS

A large number of petroglyphs can be connected to the impulse shock
instabilities rather than the plasma instabilities. ...

PERATT: CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF A HIGH-CURRENT, Z-PINCH
AURORA 1207

Fig. 41. Example of an electrical discharge that has formed two
filamentary currents each of which trifurcate at the bottom to allow the
conduction of the current carried in the filaments.

Fig. 42. (Top) Supersonic shocked interface experimental data. (Bottom)
Collection of horn profiles from petroglyphs of presumed big-horn-sheep in
the Western U.S.

Fig. 42 shows supersonic shocked interface experimental data while at the
bottom of the figure are shown a collection of horn profiles from
petroglyphs of presumed big horn sheep in the Western U.S.

Another example of a shock initiated hydrodynamic instability is shown in
Fig. 43. On the left is an experimental photograph at late time while on
the right is a multiple-row mushroom-like petroglyph category depiction.

We now turn to another class of petroglyph, those associated with the
upward view on an intense aurora as depicted in Fig. 4.

Fig. 43. (Left) Experimental photographs of the mushrooms created in a
highly nonlinear plasma column and concomitant shock waves that could
occur in auroral plasmas during usual magnetic storms. (Right) Petroglyph.

XVII. PETROGLYPHS ASSOCIATED WITH THE CIRCULAR AURORA PLASMA

Sections IIXVI were concerned with the Z-pinch instabilities that occur
along the plasma column as seen in the lower center, right side of Fig. 4.
We now turn to images that would be seen in an upward view of the intense
aurora (left-side, Fig. 4). These are studied using high-energy-density
experiments and objects from antiquity.

A. Megaampere Particle Beams: 56- and 28-Fold Symmetry

A solid beam of charged particles tends to form hollow cylinders that may
then filament into individual currents [9]. When observed from below, the
pattern consists of circles, circular rings of bright spots, and intense
electrical discharge streamers connecting the inner structure to the outer
structure.

Fig. 45 shows a 0.6-mm-thick titanium witness plate that has been placed
15 cm in front of a 100 kG, submegaampere charged particle beam.
Initially, the particle beam was cylindrical but after traveling the 15 cm
has filamented.

The wavelength of filamentation depends on the cylindrical thickness of a
hollow beam [9]. In Fig. 45, the beam thickness is 157 micro-m while the
beam radius is 11 mm. In the subgigampere range, the maximum number of
self-pinched filaments allowed before the cylindrical magnetic field will
no longer split into "islands" for the parameters above has been found to
be 56 [53].

Modeling of 56 parallel electrical currents in two and three dimensions
was carried out with a large-scale MHD code [54]. These results verify
that individual current filaments were maintained by their azimuthal self
magnetic fields, a property lost by increasing the number of electrical
current filaments.

The scaling is constant for a given hollow beam thickness, from
microampere beams to multimegaampere beams and beam diameters of
millimeters to thousands of kilometers [9], that is, the same
filamentation and vortices apply to auroral plasmas.

Because the electrical current-carrying filaments are parallel, they
attract via the Biot-Savart force law, in pairs but sometimes three [8].
This reduces the 56 filaments over time to 28 filaments, hence the 56 and
28 fold symmetry patterns.

In actuality, during the pairing, any number of filaments less than 56 may
be recorded as pairing is not synchronized to occur uniformly. However,
there are "temporarily stable" (longer state durations) at 42, 35, 28, 14,
7, and 4 filaments. Each pair formation is a vortex that becomes
increasing complex, as do the instabilities in today's auroras as they
decrease in number by merger.

1208 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 6, DECEMBER
2003

Fig. 44. (Top) Initial instability structure in a thin layer with a
density ten times that of the ambient medium surrounding it. A
perturbation has been induced in the numerical calculation by shocking the
layer at the center with a wave of Mach number 1.2. (Bottom) One sample of
this often recorded petroglyph.

Fig. 45. Steel witness plate with filament hole locations. The hole
locations have been digitally enhanced. While the nearly cylindrical beam
has a periodicity of 56 holes around the circle, not all of the holes are
discernible on the witness plate. Trueness of the ring increases with
magnetic field strength. Also recorded on the plate are microcircles of
holes within the main ring (e.g, at 8:30, about 1/5 the diameter of the
major hole ring) and some beam sheath etching outside the main circle.

B. Records From Antiquity With 56- and 28-Fold Symmetry

The number of 56 and 28 fold symmetry objects from an tiquity is manifest.
These range from concentrical petroglyphs around the world to geoglyphs
(stone-rings), megaliths, and other constructs. The most renowned of the
56 fold symmetric megaliths is Stonehenge.

Stonehenge is a unique structure; a megalithic ruin (51.22 N, 0.167 W)
located west of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire, U.K. [55][63].

It is concentric is shape having two outer banks of earth, approximately
100 m in diameter, circular, with gaps. Adjacent the surrounding banks are
circular and half-circular ditches, each with a radius of 56 m and each
having a three-concentric pattern. Within the banks are the Aubrey Holes;
now-filled marker holes equally spaced at 56 points around a great circle
that cut across the small concentric ditches.

Geometrically inward, the next named feature, are the "Y" holes, 30 in
number. These are nearly symmetrically located on a concentrical circle.
The next concentrical circle is made up of "Z" holes. Noteworthy of both
the "Y" and "Z" holes, in contrast to the other parts of the megalith, is
that they are not cylindrically symmetric. Both have a bulge at
approximately the same azimuthal position where there is a displacement
outwards between neighboring holes. The "Z" hole circle has a large
displacement. There are 30 holes on this circle, 28 of which are readily
visible.

The next concentric is the Sarsen Circle, 33 m in diameter, originally
comprised of 30 upright sandstone blocks standing on average 4 m above the
ground. They originally supported Sarsen lintels forming a continuous
circle around the top.

Inside the Sarsen circle is the Bluestone Circle. (The term "bluestone"
refers to various types of mostly igneous rocks including dolerites,
rhyolites, and volcanic ash. It also includes some sandstones. In color
they are actually gray-red. The Bluestones at Stonehenge are believed to
have originated from various outcrops in the Preseli Hills in southwest
Wales. How they were transported to the site at Stonehenge has been the
subject of much speculation).

The "bluestones" are on average 1.25 m wide and 0.75 m deep. These pillars
stand 1.8 m high and originally numbered 35, periodically placed between
the outer sarsen circle and the next concentric, a "horseshoe" of Sarsen
Trilithons. The Trilithons are ten upright stones arranged as five free
standing pairs each with a single horizontal lintel. They were erected
within the Sarsen Circle in the form of a horseshoe with the open side
facing northeast toward the main entrance of the monument. They were
arranged symmetrically and graded in ...

PERATT: CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF A HIGH-CURRENT, Z-PINCH
AURORA 1209

... height; the tallest is in the central position. The Trilithons are the
most impressive feature of the monument, the heaviest of which weighs
nearly 45 tons.

Inside the Trilithon horseshoe is another horseshoe of blue stone pillars.
An "Alter" stone in front of the center Trilithons completes the main
structure of Stonehenge.

Additional stones mark the way to the "Avenue" or "Cursus," a 2.8-km-long
earthwork in the shape of a "tail" running linearly outwards from the
horseshoes for 500 m then curving southeast.

The dating of the construction of Stonehenge by English Heritage [64] from
14 samples, primarily antlers, is 3020- 2910 BC for the surrounding ditch
and Aubrey holes to 2270-1930 BC for the Bluestone Horseshoe. The Z Holes
are estimated at 2850-2480 BC, the same date as given the Sarsen Circle.
The concentric nature of the main monument and the inadequacy of the
recording of many of the relationships which exist, leads to a shortage of
direct stratigraphic relationships [61].

C. "Old" Concentric Petroglyphs and Pictographs With 56 and 28-Fold
Symmetry

The "old concentrics" are among the most ancient of petroglyphs and
pictographs. The carvings have long since reverted to the coloration of
the rock patina onto which they were embedded. The paintings have leached
into the rock, greatly dulling their appearance.

As examples of 56-fold symmetric concentrics, we shall take three
representative examples. The first is one of the opening plates of
"Pictographs and Petroglyphs of The Oregon Country," by Loring and Loring
[47]. In particular, plate III, a photograph of their Site 34, 4 O'Clock
Rapids on the East Rim, Klickitat County, Washington (45 42.776 N, 120
20.970 W, 92 m) (this petroglyph is one that the Lorings described as
"outstanding and appeared to be very old." The Lorings, from 1964 to 1968,
took many photographs and rubbings of the deeply carved petroglyphs
flooded by the J. Day Dam in April 1968).

The second example is a pictograph downstream of 4 O'Clock Rapids at J.
Day bar, the Loring's site 29 (45 44 N, 120 41 W).

The third example is from northern Arizona (35 N, 109 W), 1450 km SE of
the Columbia River Basin.

In Fig. 46 are overlays of these three petroglyphs on a reconstruction
image of Stonehenge [65]. Each petroglyph shows slightly different detail.
The top left petroglyph has apparently captured a later time image of the
aurora as some of the outer dots are starting to undergo a diocotron
instability rotational pairing as was also recorded on the witness plate
in Fig. 45.

Both of the top overlays have recorded the inter-filament electrical
streamers between the inner dot circles (electrical currents in forward
synchrotron radiation light emission). The bottom-left petroglyph has
recorded the streamers between the two outer dots. (The 4 O'Clock Rapids
petroglyph is about 60 cm in diameter while Stonehenge is approximately
100 m in diameter).

However, an anomaly exists as illustrated in Fig. 46, top left. Loring's
reproduction shows a ring of outer dots that are not seen in the
photograph. Moreover, other photographs of this petroglyph before
flooding, show no indication of an outer ring of dots. Mid-twentieth
century chalk enhancement photographs also do not provide evidence for the
existence of an outer ring of dots.

Through image analysis, we have recovered an outer ring of dots precisely
where the Lorings found them. Three of the underside outer holes were
protected and still deep. Thus, like Stonehenge, it would appear as if the
outer holes were constructed much earlier than the inner holes, time
enough for the outer holes to be very nearly worn away (another
possibility is that the central features were re-worked over time). 

While many such images have been found, we shall cite the next five. The
fifth is found 1479 km to the southeast. Two images nearly directly north
are found 7466 and 7817 km away, respectively. Another image is 10 715 km
to the west and slightly south (no inner structure). The last of the five
cited is 8926 km to the northeast.

Fig. 47, top-left, depicts a 56-ray pictograph from the Windjana site at
the Wanalirri rock art caves in north-west Kimberley, Western Australia
(17.6 S, 126.5 W) [66]. (The thicker rays at the upper-left are part of a
partially over-drawn larger pictograph, see the following). The image at
the top-right is the Arizona petroglyph shown in Fig. 46.

As drawn, the Windjana has shortened lower streamers and the concentric is
elliptical (a "rod" is also drawn to the center of this pictograph). Image
analysis allows the two to overlay precisely, to the extent that it is
difficult to discern differences in the rays between the two, but only if
the Windjana is digitally tilted at an angle of 45.3 . This is shown at
the bottom of Fig. 47. The gray-white "embossed" figure is the Arizona
petroglyph while the Australian pictograph is the "flat" black overlay.
This comparison technique was forced by the nearly exact overlay of the
rays of the two, making it difficult to distinguish one from the other.

The apparent number of rays in the Arizona petroglyph is 47, but 56 when
the thick ray at 4:00 is separated into three rays, and the thick rays at
9:30, 10:30, and 12:30 are each separated into two.

The need to tilt the Australian pictograph for an exact fit, when
projected into space, suggests that the length/size of the intense aurora
greatly exceeds that observed today.

Painted over the upper left of the 56-ray Windjana are rays from a second
larger Windjana image. This image too has a periodic 56-ray pattern.
However, 30% of the rays were never drawn at the bottom of the image. That
this is a "younger" image, in addition to it being painted on top of the
"older" image is that the tips of the rays apparently have well developed
curls or vortices painted as "blobs." The missing bottom most rays also
suggest that this is a horizon image.

Other 56-fold images are found as far as 15 000 km away so that different
angles of observation should allow the location of the incoming plasma to
be determined. For example, Fig. 48 shows "site-34-rings" overlaid on the
three petroglyph/pictograph examples and Stonehenge. The site-34-rings
were generated from the 4 O'Clock Columbia River petroglyph, then overlaid
on the other images. A slight skewness of this petroglyph is apparent
toward the lower-right corner as seen in the blind-rings. This indicates a
small obliqueness of observation as seen from the Columbia River.

1210 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 6, DECEMBER
2003

Fig. 46. Overlays of petroglyphs and a pictograph (gray) with a
reconstruction image of Stonehenge (white). (Top Left) 4 O'Clock Rapids
petroglyph on the Columbia River in the state of Washington. (Top Right)
J. D. Bar pictograph, Columbia River. (Bottom Left) Northern Arizona
petroglyph. The 4 O'Clock Rapids petroglyph is about 60 cm in diameter
while Stonehenge is approximately 100 m in diameter.

... Newer concentrics and spirals, easily discerned on rock, generally are
less precisely drawn but do include embellishments found in electrical
discharges at later time. The evolution of these morphologies will be
discussed in another paper.

XVIII. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

A discovery that the basic petroglyph morphologies are the same as those
recorded in extremely high-energy-density discharges has opened up a means
to unravel the origin of these apparently crude, misdrawn, and jumbled
figures found in uncounted numbers around the Earth.

Drawn in heteromac style (Fig. 12), these ancient patterns could mimic and
replicate high-energy phenomena that would be recorded on a nonerasable
plasma display screen. Many petroglyphs, apparently recorded several
millennia ago, have a plasma discharge or instability counterpart, some on
a one-to-one or overlay basis. More striking is that the images recorded
on rock are the only images found in extreme energy density experiments;
no other morphology types or patterns are observed [46], [67].

The instability is that associated with an intense current-carrying column
of plasma which undergoes both sausage and helix deformations. Such a
current would be produced if the solar flux from the Sun were to increase
one or two magnitudes or if another source of plasma were to enter the
solar system.

This paper has followed the evolution of a Z-pinch from the initiation of
instabilities in a column conducting mild currents (Fig. 16) to the
helical and sausage instabilities as the current increases (Figs. 6 and 7)
to extremely intense current instabilities (Fig. 36). While the morphing
of the instability is a continuous...

PERATT: CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF A HIGH-CURRENT, Z-PINCH
AURORA 1211

Fig. 47. (Top Left) Windjana pictograph, Australia. (Top Right)
Petroglyph, Northern Arizona. (Bottom) Overlay of the Australia and
Arizona figures. The gray-white "embossed" figure is the Northern Arizona
petroglyph while the Australian pictograph is the "flat" black overlay.
The Windjana "ellipse" is fitted to the outer concentric of the Northern
Arizona petroglyph.

... process to peak current, we have found it convenient to delineate the
instability profile into 84 categories (not all are shown in this paper).
The sausage and helical MHD (magnetic-fluid) instabilities occur in the
inner cylinder of plasma, pinched by its own azimuthal (surrounding)
magnetic fields produced by the intense current it carries. The evolution
of this instability is well known in a linear regime that includes the
pinching of the column into a stack of spheroid plasmas, usually nine in
number, that contain azimuthal current toroids, the original pinch
magnetic fields. The electrons with the plasma toroids are relativistic,
producing beams of synchrotron radiation observable in the visible. (Hot
plasmas emit radiation across the visible and radio spectrum. However, the
emission often does not always have a thermal origin).

Collisional processes also produce visible light within the column whose
luminosity varies with the current intensity and sporadic current pulses.
The luminosity and the observer's position in relation to the column
determine how much of the instability is seen.

In familiar terms the linear instability consists of stacks of spheroids,
stacks of toroids (Fig. 10), stacks of double radiation bright spots
within the toroids, eye-masks, pronounced nose features accompanying the
eyes (Fig. 18), and complex X-shaped (separatrix) patterns (the patterns
are not shown in this paper).

With increasing current, the instabilities enter the nonlinear and chaotic
regime. The effect is a rapid inward motion of the pinch regions so as to
form a stack of toroids. These are connected by a central bar running
vertically through them. The extreme pressures cause the toroids to
flatten and produce a single rod ladder configuration of disks. The next
phase of the evolution is the warping and flattening of the disks, which
ultimately start to roll-up at the edges producing cup-like, then mushroom
instability shapes. The uppermost or anode cups converge and fold to
produce a bulb at the very top of the column surrounded by cups in various
stages of folding.

Generally, there is a mixture of toroid types throughout the column:
tubular, flat, disk, cone, distorted, and cup shapes. Sometimes a single
tubular or flat or distorted toroid is left at the center while the
bottom-most or cathode consists of a cup that has turned down toward its
terminus that may be sheet plasma. The single rod, in all cases, is
present at the center of the stack, from top to bottom.

The anode end of the stack is the most interesting, producing various cup
shapes and allowing lightning-like discharges to its terminus, although
discharges are also observed from the cathode end and sometimes between
the toroids or outwards from the toroids for appreciable distances. These
are the signatures of high-voltage discharges as are trifurcated bolts
found at the ends of any conductor (Fig. 41).

Plasma flowing in along converging magnetic fields produces a well-defined
Y shape (Fig. 38). Inflowing plasma, as in an intense aurora (Fig. 4), is
marked by a head of circular rings and radial rays (Figs. 4 and 43) and
one or two spiral discharge channels along the length of the aurora.
Beneath the head, the plasma column shows a number of patterns consisting
of horizontal and helical filaments, diamond or separatrix patterns, for
example, square vortex patterns as-well-as the previously shown
instability shapes.

When a shock wave produced by sporadic current pulses impacts the plasma
morphologies mentioned above, these morphologies are altered in striking
ways by hydrodynamic instabilities (Fig. 11). Arms become wings and cups
become altered by the same instability patterns. These instabilities
eventually grow into three-fold pattern such as shown in Fig. 43.

Experimentally, plasmas scale at least 14 orders of magnitude [9] and
hypothesized to scale at least 27 orders of magnitude [34] (that is, the
instabilities and the growth rates associated with microampere currents
are the same, when scaled, to those found in several multimegaampere
currents measured in-situ in the solar system).

In association with petroglyphs, this indicates that the relative time
scales for the MHD instabilities carved in rock follow a known
experimental sequence to the extent that time motion sequence of
petroglyphs patterns can be generated and put alongside the time motion
recordings of plasma instabilities. Absolute times cannot, however, be
ascertained in this way.

When scaled to an intense aurora whose dimensions may exceed 50 000 km for
the outer cusp region, a relative time sequence can be unfolded. For
example, the nuances captured in the bottom right images of Fig. 28 can be
explained. The inward rise on axis along with the upward folding of the
outer edges of the carved lines and transition to edge curling, a
phenomena recorded in intense electrical discharge radiographs, could not
have been known to prehistoric man unless he witnessed the same event in
the sky. Scaling to the plasma dimensions suggests that each of the
patterns shown in Fig. 28 could have occurred repeatedly over months or a
decade.

The known plasma and shockwave instability types, when scaled from
experimental to space plasma dimensions, suggests an intense auroral event
lasting at least a few centuries. The newer concentrics, especially those
with inner patterns (not shown) and the unwinding spirals provide
information about the final cessation of intense incoming plasma flux. On
the other ...

1212 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 6, DECEMBER
2003

Fig. 48. (Top Left) "Site-34-rings," the mean average radius of a circle
as determined by image-object weighting from the 4 O'Clock Rapids
petroglyph on the Columbia River. These 4 O'Clock Rapids (Loring Site 34)
rings have been overlaid on the other three images. (Top Right) J. Day Bar
pictograph. (Bottom Left) Northern Arizona petroglyph. (Bottom Right)
Stonehenge reconstruction image (white dots).

... hand, the ancient concentrics and spirals, the remains of some having
been cut and carved 8 cm deep in granite, suggests that intense auroral
events were a common occurrence for at least a few centuries if not
millennia. The patterns are representative of a long-term period of
typically quiescent aurora.

The methodology used in analyzing petroglyphs and their comparison to
extremely high energy density plasmas was based on creating a digital
database of several tens of thousands of petroglyphs from around the
world. Where possible the following information was included in the
database:

 information about the nature of the physical properties,
 type of rock used,
 facing direction,
 most probable field-of-view,
 longitude,
 latitude,
 altitude,
 and other petroglyphs in association.

Again where possible, the location and facing of the petroglyphs were
plotted on 3-D topographic maps in a search for a preferred field-of-view
and thus the height and location of the aurora. This analysis is on going
but initial results suggest three epochs where in a flurry of activity
petroglyphs were recorded worldwide. The number of millennia or centuries
involved remains unknown.

The discovery of buried horizontal petroglyphs in New Mexico and Australia
[51], above which the carbon from campfires was found, suggests that the
epochs occurred within a time period of 10 000 BC to 2000 BC. This
corresponds well with recent plasma extraction dating methods by Rowe and
Steelman for pictographs having the same patterns as the petroglyphs in
this paper [68].

Two important classes of petroglyphs, spirals and concentric horseshoes,
are not discussed in this paper. These map the Birkeland currents as
depicted in Fig. 4 and provide quantitative information on the electrical
parameters. These, including solar wind-magnetosphere interactions, are
being studied with TRISTAN [8], [24], [69] and will be presented
elsewhere.

PERATT: CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF A HIGH-CURRENT, Z-PINCH
AURORA 1213

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author would like to thank those who contributed data to this paper,
in particular:  A. Acheson, M. Acheson, K. Anderson, M. Armstrong, H. Arp
(MPI, Garching), A. Bodin (LANL), E. J. Bond, D. Cardona, E. Cochrane, F.
Costanzo, L. Crumpler (NASA), Z. Dahlen, H. Davis (LANL), A. de Grazia, A.
J. Dessler (U. Ariz.), T. E. Eastman (NASA Goddard), J. Goodman, P.
Hedlund, G. Heiken (Geo, LANL), H. Johnson, K. Kintner (LANL), J. Lawson
(NAVAIR, NAWCWD), B. G. Low, A. S. McEwen, M. Medrano (PNM), F. Minshall
(USNPS), M. Minshall, M. Mitchell, K. Moss, J. Nelson (BLM), A. Neuber, S.
Parsons, C. M. Pedersen, G. G. Peratt (U. Ariz.), M. G. Peratt (USC), G.
Pfeufer (LANL), C. J. Ransom, M. W. Rowe (Texas A&M), T. Scheber (LANL),
G. Schwartz (U. Ariz.), A. Scott, D. E. Scott (U. Mass), D. Scudder
(LANL), J. Shlacter (LANL), P. Shoaf (NAVAIR, NAWCWD), R. M. Smith (JPL),
C. Snell (LANL), D. Talbott, T. Thomsen, W. Thornhill, H. Tresman, I.
Tresman, M. A. van der Sluijs, T. Van Flandern (NRL), T. Voss, W. S-Y.
Wang (U. Hong Kong), R. Webb, B. Whitley (Ariz. Petro. Steward), P.
Whitley (Ariz. Petro. Steward), and E. Younkin (Maturango Museum). He
would also like to thank J. McGovern, George town, South Australia; A. B.
Mainwaring, S. Mainwaring, and J. A. Sabloff for their continued support,
suggestions, and editing of this manuscript; and the Navajo Nation and the
Cochiti, San Juan, Santa Clara, Jemez, Santo Domingo and San Ildefonso
Pueblos in Northern New Mexico.

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Anthony L. Peratt (S'60M'63SM'85F'99) received the B.S.E.E. degree
from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, in 1964, and the
M.S.E.E. degree and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from
the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, 1967 and
1971, respectively. From 1972 to 1979, he was a Staff Member with the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA. From 1975 to
1977, he was a Guest Physicist with the Max Planck Institut für
Plasmaphysik, Garching, Germany. From 1981 to the present, he as beeen
with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM. In 1985, he
was a Guest Scientist with the Alfvén Laboratory, Royal Institute of
Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. From 1995 to 1999, he was with the
Applied Theoretical Physics Division, Physics Division, Associate
Laboratory Directorate for Ex perimental Programs, and he was a
Scientific Advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy. He authored
Physics of the Plasma Universe (Berlin,Germany: Springer-Verlag,
1992), and was an Editor on Plasma Astrophysics and Cosmology
(Norwell, MA: Kluwer, 1995) and Advanced Topics in Space and
Astrophysical Plasmas (Norwell, MA: Kluwer, 1997). He has served as
session organizer for space plasmas at the IEEE International
Confernce on Plasma Science from 19871989. His research interests
include numerical and experimental contributions to high-energy
density plasmas and intense particle beams, inertial confinement
fusion, explosively-driven pulsed power generators, lasers,
intense-power-microwave sources, particles, high-energy density
phenomena, new concepts in space propulsion and high-performance
computing, plasma cosmogony, and cosmology. Dr. Peratt was the Guest
Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE Special Issues on
Space Plasmas in 1986, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2000, and 2003. He was the
organizer of the IEEE International Workshops on Space Plasmas in
1989, 1991, 1993, 19951998, and 2003. He has been an Associate Editor
with the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE sinc 1989. He was an
Elected member of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS)
Ex ecutive Committee (ExCom) from 1987 to 1989 and from 1995 to 1997.
He was the General Chairman of the IEEE International Conference on
Plasma Science, Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1994. He was the IEEE NPSS
ExCom Vice Chairman and was elected to the IEEE NPSS Administrative
Committee, both in 1997. He received the U.S. Department of Energy
Distinguished Performance Award in both 1987 and 1999, the IEEE
Distinguished Lecturer Award in 1993, and was a Norwegian Academy of
Science and Letters, University of Oslo Physics Depart ment, and Norsk
Hydro Kristian Birkeland Lecturer in 1995. He is a member of the
American Physical Society, American Astronomical Society, and Eta
Kappa Nu.