Building on the experience gained with design and operation of the Fairchild CCD
camera, a second ASI was constructed this time under contract to the National
Research Council of Canada.
Funding for operations is currently provided by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
This all-sky imager is a ground-based instrument which was designed and
built at the U of C and is based in Gillam, Manitoba. This unmanned
instrument is housed in its own environmentally controlled container
and takes 170 degree field of view images of the sky once
a second, or can be run at 4 frames per second with a 4 second gap
between each set. The CCD was larger than in the older camera, 255 x 255
pixel elements, each of which are 16 bits deep.
It has an adjustable filter wheel which allows it to take
images of the aurora at 3 different visible wavelengths:
427.8 nm nitrogen emission {Blue-Green},
557.7 nm oxygen emission {Green}, and
630.0 nm oxygen emission {Red}).
All-sky imager on site near Gillam, Manitoba.
ISR Photo Archives: K. Berg
High resolution auroral image taken on
April 30, 1994 at 05:06:07 UT using the 557.7 nm filter.
The yellow grid represents the projection of geomagnetic
lattitude and longitude lines up to auroral alitudes (110 km).
An animated sequence of ASI auroral data can be seen here.
Data is fed to the National Research Council in Ottawa via a satellite data link
for analysis, archiving and distribution. This imager is part of a collection
of ground-based instruments scattered across Canada which make up the
CANOPUS Data Analysis Network.
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Last Updated Feb. 13/97 - Greg Enno