| Summary: | This paper describes a hybrid genetic algorithm method for automating the analysis of images taken from the UVI instrument onboard the POLAR satellite. The amount of data represented by this instrument is on the order of a terabyte. Quantitative analyses of these images have been mostly by manual inspection. The described algorithm architecture is based on a metaphor of biological symbiosis. 1. Introduction As seen from the ground, aurora appear in the sky at high latitudes in a variety of dynamic structures, such as arcs, streamers, and curtains. From space, looking downward towards the poles, one would notice that the aurora are organized in a larger structure, an annulus, that typically girds the arctic latitudes of the northern hemisphere in a way reminiscent of a loop of rope stretched on top of a sphere. Aurora are visible bellwethers of the state of the Earth's space environment. Knowledge of the Earth's space environment has proven increasingly crucial in recent decades, in p.
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