Аскаплоты советских станций за 1981 год : (оперативно-информационный материал) / Акад. наук СССР, Кол. фил. им. С. М. Кирова, Поляр. геофиз. ин-т. – Апатиты : Кольский филиал АН СССР, 1989.

9 DESCRIPTION OF ASCAPLOTS INTRODUCTION. The present issue contains auroral observational data obtained by- all sky cameras at 10 Soviet stations during 1981 (6 Arctic and 4 Antarctic stations). The stations are listed in Table 1. The third column presents conventional designations of stations according to the Agreement adopted at IGX /1,2/. The stations that did not operate during IGY (the numeral after 115) obtained their designations in the same way by compiling their ordinal numbers and three Latin letters denoting the name of the station. Gepgraphic and corrected geomagnetic coordinates (calculated after /3/) are given in the 4th and 5th columns, respectively. The 6th column presents local geomagnetic midnight in UT for the given station. The last but one column lists the names of the observers-in-chief. According to Moscow IAGA Assembly resolution of 1958 it is desireble, when using askafilms, to refer to or name the person who obtained the askafilms. Auroral data are presented in the form of ascaplots as adopted at Moscow IAGA Assembly in 1958. The technique of ascaploting was suggested by V.Stoffregen who was the editor of two volumes of ascaplot data from the global network of stations for 1957-1958 and 1958-1959 /1,2/. Separate publications with ascaplots of Alaskian and Canadian network of stations appeared occasionally. The ascaplots of Loparskaya station for 1970-1979 are published in "Auroral Phenomena" /4/. Auroral observa tional data of Soviet Arctic and Antarctic stations for 1972-1980 are published in /5/. Ascaplots provide operative information about the time and place of auroral observations and about some auroral parameters. Moreover, identical presentation of data from different stations with a sufficiently large amount of observations allows carrying out scientific research. Instruments and program of observations. Observations at Soviet stations were carried out by all sky cameras designed by Prof. A.I.Lebedinsky /6/, The optical system of the instrument consists of two spherical mirrors and a camera working automatically from a command apparatus operated by a contact chronometer. The program of observations envisaged synchronous per minute filming with 20 s exposure centered to the zero second during the whole dark time when atmo spheric precipitations are absent. For auroras occuring in the zenith or in case of increased auroral brightness up to 2 balls and more an additional 5 s exposure was turned on. Filming started and was over at the solar zenith angle of 99°. In such conditions the stars of the second stellar magnitude are seen at the sky background. A patrol filming with 20 s exposure was taken every 5 minutes during complete or partial cloudiness and auroral absence. OBservations on the whole network of stations were run in Universal time. Filming was carried out on Soviet 35-mm KN-4 film. The sensitivity range of dynamic brightness of Soviet ascafilms equals to the order of two. Each film has a standard sensitive wedge made by a FSR-4 sensitometer. All the negatives of the stations enumerated in Table 1 are stored in the Auroral Subcenter of World Data Center WDC B2 in Apatity (Auroral Subcenter, Polar Geophysical Institute, Apatity Murmansk region, 184200 USSR).