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A New Auroral Record

Photo courtesy of Dave Fritts

Northern Lights---Geophysical Institute scientists are tracking auroral displays from earth, sky and space in a renewed effort to understand the shimmering phenomenon.

Hundreds of shimmering auroral displays were recorded this winter by the unblinking eye of an all-sky camera inside a new automated observing station near Eagle, a small Alaskan village on the south bank of the Yukon River about six miles west of the Alaska-Canada border.

For six months, all visible auroras within an 870-mile field-of-view of the remote station were captured by the fisheye lens of a computer-controlled video camera. The resulting video footage composes the most complete continuous long-term data set of the aurora ever made.

The only other uninterrupted record of nightly auroral activity was taped during a relatively short three-month period 26 years ago, and has been used by scientists for basic auroral research since.

The new footage is expected to reveal patterns of auroral movement and other information previously unavailable to researchers.

Institute Professor of Geophysics Tom Hallinan, who spearheaded the drive to open the remote station, said the footage already is being analyzed by scientists in the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Los Alamos scientists, who cosponsored the project, plan to compare the footage to data obtained from a satellite in synchronous orbit hovering over the equator.

Solar particles following magnetic field lines that pass through that satellite's path reach the earth about half way between Delta and Eagle, where the particles create auroras over Interior Alaska.

By comparing data obtained on the same night from ground and space, scientists can measure the particles creating a particular auroral display along with the resulting light that emits from it, Hallinan said.

Collecting data from the automated station in Eagle also has served as a "dry run" for researchers planning to participate in NASA's Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer satellite program next year, a mission designed to gather comprehensive information about the aurora from space, ground, and air. The FAST satellite, which is scheduled for launch into polar orbit this summer, will send information about the aurora from space directly to Poker Flat Research Range, where scientists will collect auroral information from at least five automated ground observing stations in the Arctic.

NASA also plans to charter a plane equipped with all-sky cameras to fly directly under the aurora while the FAST satellite flies directly over the display. Hallinan and institute Professor of Geophysics Hans Nielsen are scheduled to film auroras aboard several of the research flights over Alaska.

Hallinan hopes to keep the 8-by-12 foot trailer housing the all-sky camera in Eagle operational through the summer. The automatic station also contains instruments deployed by institute professors of physics Roger Smith and John Olson. Smith is measuring high-altitude winds and temperatures, and Olson measures variances in the earth's magnetic fields.

The scientists also supply local schools with data students can use in the classroom. For example, Eagle high-school student Michelle Hinckley is using data from the station to figure out the connection between magnetic disturbance and auroral currents for a science fair project. "She's quite enthusiastic," Smith said.