System of Imaging Photometers for Upper Atmospheric Phenomena Study in the Arctic Region

• Published in: Atmosphere
• Main Authors: Pavel Klimov, Sergei Sharakin, Alexander Belov, Boris Kozelov, Alexei Murashov, Roman Saraev, Daniil Trofimov, Alexei Roldugin, Vladimir Lubchich
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2022
• Subjects: pulsating aurora; imaging photometer; upper atmosphere; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13101572; https://doaj.org/article/3770b71b21da4e009aa88227c9d634fc

A Pulsating Aurora Imaging Photometers Stereoscopic System (PAIPS) is suggested and described in the paper. The system is based on two lens telescopes with a matrix of multianode photomultiplier tubes as photodetectors placed in two high latitude observatories of the Polar Geophysical Institute. Telescopes provide simultaneous observations of a large volume of the atmosphere at altitudes in the range 50–100 km with high temporal resolution (up to 2.5 <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi mathvariant="sans-serif">μ</mi></semantics></math> s) and a spatial resolution of about 2 km. This is a novel system for pulsating aurora study aimed to determine the energies of precipitating electrons responsible for the pulsating aurora occurrence. The system can be used for other atmospheric phenomena studies: meteors, transient luminous events, etc. One telescope has been operating since September 2021 and has measured a variety of optical phenomena.