Polar Camera Student Job Description

The Polar Camera is a pair of CCD-based allsky imagers used for imaging faint visible- wavelength light emissions from the middle and upper atmosphere, at altitudes from 85 to 300 km. The imagers are located at Eureka, NWT (80 N, 274 E) in the high Arctic, and operate almost continually through the winter night between October and March. They acquire images of high latitude auroras, ionospheric density enhancements known as "polar patches", and nightglow emissions from the hydroxyl radical (OH) and atomic oxygen. The digital images are saved to disk, and archived daily on magnetic tapes, which are mailed to the University of Saskatchewan for processing and analysis.

A large (~100 GB) database of four winters of image data has been acquired, and various studies using the data are planned or in progress. Student assistance is required in reducing the raw data to physical units, cataloguing and archiving the processed data, and carrying out the analysis required to complete the various studies. Data analysis is done in a Windows environment using a commercial software product called Interactive Data Language (IDL). Familiarity with this language is not necessary, but prior experience in programming is a requirement, with experience in either, or both of, FORTRAN or C being an asset. The student will learn on the job, acquiring the IDL knowledge and skills necessary to carry out the duties of the job.

Information and scientific data in various forms will be accessed from the World Wide Web and the Internet in general, so the student will need a working knowledge of Internet access in the Windows environment.

In addition, the student will have the opportunity to gain and apply knowledge of optical instruments and calibration, and auroral and upper atmospheric physics.

The major emphasis of the summer's work, once the necessary knowledge has been acquired and the past winter's data have been processed and archived, will be to pursue to completion a number of scientific studies already begun. The student may expect to contribute to at least one scientific paper, which should be submitted before the end of the summer.