Physics of auroral phenomena : proceedings of the 34th Annual seminar, Apatity, 01 - 04 March, 2011 / [ed.: A. G. Yahnin, A. A. Mochalov]. - Апатиты : Издательство Кольского научного центра РАН, 2011. - 231 с. : ил.

"Physics ofAuroral Phenomena", Proc. XXXJVAnnual Seminar, Apatity, pp. 129-1322011 Polar © Kola Science Centre, Russian Academy of Science, 2011 GeoPhysical Institute M U L T I -SC A L E AURO RA L O BSERVAT ION S IN APAT ITY : W IN TER 20 10 -20 11 B.V. Kozelov, S.V. Pilgaev, L.P. Borovkov, V.E. Yurov {Polar Geophysical Institute, Apatity, Murmansk region, 184209, Russia ) Abstract. Routine observations of auroral structures are provided in Apatity by set of five cameras: (i) all-sky TV camera Watec LCL-902 (1/2” CCD) with Fujinon lens YV2.2xl.4A-SA2; (ii) two monochromatic cameras Guppy F-044B NIR (1/2”CCD) with Fujinon HF25HA-1B (l:1.4/25mm) lens for 15° field of view and glass filter ~558 nm; (iii) two color cameras Guppy F-044C NIR (1/2”CCD) with Fujinon DF6HA-1B (l:1.2/6mm) lens for 60° field of view. The observational complex is mainly aimed to study of spatial structure of aurora, scaling in auroral structures, and vertical distribution in rayed structures. The cameras were installed at the main building of Apatity division of PGI and at Apatity stratospheric range. The distance between these points is 3850 m, so the identical monochromatic cameras can be used as a stereoscopic system. All cameras are accessible and operated remotely via Internet. For 2010-2011 winter season the equipments were upgraded by special blocks of GPS­ time triggering, temperature control and motorized pan­ tilt rotation mounts. The report presents the equipments details, overview of observed events and web-site with access to available data previews. 1. Introduction of view directed to magnetic zenith where the smallest scales can be better resolved. The aspect angle distortion (the perspective effect) is an additional problem which appears before investigators of the auroral structure. There are two ways to take it into account: (i) incorporate it to the statistical model of the data analysis (see, for example, [Kozelov and Golovchanskaya, 2010]), and (ii) to exclude it by tomography reconstruction [Gustavsson, 1998]. In the last case the simultaneous observations from spatially separated points are needed. Here we present a low-cost observational system which realizes the requirements mentioned above. The complex was started in 2008 from one digital camera shared by prof. Torsten Aslaksen (Universitu of Tromso, Tromso, Norway) for winter 2008-2009. After that season we recognized a possibility of the auroral observations by the low-cost digital cameras and started to build the system. The report presents the equipments details actual for the 2010-2011 winter season, examples of observations and web-sites addresses to access to the data previews. The aurora is one of the most spectacular events in Nature. While the main physical processes lead to the auroral luminosity are known, there is no theory to explain whole variety of auroral structures. Moreover, there is no conventional conclusion about such important for plasma physics characteristic of aurora as a minimum (or typical) width of auroral arcs and filaments [Maggs and Davis, 1968; Borovsky, 1991; Sandahl et a l, 2011]. Many authors concluded that the results strongly depended on instrumentation details: field of view and sensitivity of auroral camera, filters, distortions, ets. [Knudsen et al, 2001; Dahlgren et al, 2008] Last years the new ideas of turbulence and self­ organized criticality originally developed for description of the plasma complexity were applied for explanation of the auroral structures [Uritsky et al, 2002; Kozelov, 2003; Kozelov et a l, 2004; Kozelov and Rypdal, 2007]. These approaches based on statistical distribution and to obtain them we need to utilize information about auroral luminosity in wide range of spatial scales. The only way to obtain this information is simultaneous observations by cameras with different field of view. So in addition to traditional all-sky cameras we need to provide the observations by cameras with narrow field Fig. 1. Location of the cameras during 2010-2011 winter season. 1. all-sky camera 2. Guppy F-044B,~15° (glass Slier-558 m). motorizedpan-tiltmou +GPS synchronization + weather station +GPS synchronization; 2. Equipments A schema of the observational system is shown in Fig. 1. Four cameras were operated automatically during dark time independently on weather conditions. The main characteristics of the cameras are summarized in Table 1. The cameras were installed at the main building of Apatity division of PGI and at Apatity stratospheric range. More information about the cameras available at vendor’s web-sites http://www.alliedvisiontec.com and http://www. wateccameras.com . PGI building Apatity range 129