Аскаплоты советских станций за 1978 год : (оперативно-информационный материал) / Акад. наук СССР, Кол. фил. им. С. М. Кирова, Поляр. геофиз. ин-т. – Апатиты : Кольский филиал АН СССР, 1981.

9 ASCAPLOTS DESCRIPTION. Introduction. The present issue contains auroral observational data obtained by all-sky cameras at eleven Soviet stations during 1978, seven are located in Arctic and four - in Antarctic. The list of the stations is enumerated in Table 1. The third column presents conventional designation of the stations that» was adopted during IMI and IMS /1,2/. Those stations that didn't operate during IMI obtained theix- designa tion compiled the same way as those adopted,from the ordinal number and three main Latin letters making the name of stations. Corrected geomagnetic coordinates calculated from Gustaffson's data and geogra phical coordinates are given in the 4th and in the 5th columns /3/. The sixth column presents local geomagnetic midnight in UT for the given station. The last column but one contains the institutions running the observations, the last column - the surname of observer-in-chief. According to Moscow IAGA Assembly resolution of 1958, it is de sirable when using askafilms to refer or to give the observer-in-chief's name who ob tained these askafilms. Auroral data are presented by ascaplots as it was adopted at Moscow IAGA Assem bly in 1958. The methods of ascaplotting were offered by V.Stoffregen who was the editor of two volumes of 1957-1958 and of 1958-1959 based on the data from the world network of stations /1,2/. The years following separate publications with the asca plots of the Alaska and Canadian stations network appeared occasionally. The Lopars- kaya station ascaplots for the period of 1970-1980 are published in "Auroral Phenome na" , edited by PGI /4/. The auroral observational data of the Soviet Arctic and Anta rctic stations for 1972-1974 and 1977 are published in /5-8/. Ascaplots help to ob tain operative information about time and place of aurorae observations and of some aurorae parameters. Moreover, identical presentation of different stations data with a sufficiently large amout of observations allows to carry out scientific research. For example, the first model of auroral oval, suggested by Felastein la.I. /9/, was obtained from the ascaplots of the planetary network of stations and published in / 1 , 2 / . Apparatus and the program of observations. The observations at the Soviet sta tions were carried out by all-sky camerae constructed by Prof. A.I.Lebedinsky / 10 /. The optical system of the instrument consists of two spherical mirrors and of a ca mera working automatically and with command apparatus operated by contact chronome ter. The program of observations envisages synchronous each minute filming with 20 sec exposure exagirating to the zero second during the whole dark time when at mospheric precipitation is absent. At aurorae occuring in the zenith and growth of their brightness up to 2 balls and higher, one more 5 sec exposure is turned on.Fil ming began and finished at the solar zenith angle of 90°. In this case the stars of the second stellar magnitude are seen at the sky background. A patrol filming was made each 5 minutes during complete or partial cloudiness and aurorae absence. The observations at the whole stations network were run in universal time. Filming was carried out on the Soviet 35 milimeters KM—4 film. Dynamic bright ness sensitivity range of the Soviet askafilms equals to order of two. Each film has a standard sensitive wedge made by ФСР- 4 sensitometer. All negatives of the sta - tions, enumerated in Table 1, are kept in Auroral 3ubcenter of the World Data Center WDC B2 located in Apatity ( address s Auroral Subcenter, Polar Geophysical Institute, Oola Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences,184200 Apatity,Murmansk Region,USSR )*