1 instruments, methods and networks ... · arctic and antarctic regions in last decades. in this...

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Instruments, methods and networks of optical auroral and abnormal atmospheric phenomena (AAP) observations in arctic

Sergey Chernouss Polar Geophysical Institute, Apatity, Murmansr region, Russia

Yuly Platov Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, the Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation

Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract. The report devoted mostly to the Russian instrumental optical observations, which were carried out in

Arctic and Antarctic regions in last decades. In this report, we describe typical equipment for observations of aurora

and airglow during dark and twilight time, including the hyper-spectral camera designed together with Norwegian sci-

entists in frame of the joint NORUSKA project. Glowing of the exhaust products of rockets and man-made aurora are

also under consideration. We discuss their common features, appearance, visual outline, general properties and physi-

cal mechanisms. Routine ground-based all-sky cameras, spectrographs and, later Low-light TV and CCD all-sky cam-

eras were used many years to collect data for natural and artificial “auroral” phenomena. A number of interesting

pictures have been collected by amateurs and analyzed as unusual atmospheric phenomena. Polar Geophysical Insti-

tute (PGI) was a leading organization on investigation of optical aurora and because of that had a plenty of observa-

tion points in which abnormal atmospheric phenomena can observed too.

INTRODUCTION Since PGI has been leading USSR institute in optical

auroral observation it also was responsible for observation of so-called “Abnormal Atmospheric and Space Phenomena” (AAP) in the polar regions of Russia (1) in frame of the pro-grams “Setka” and“Galactica” (1,2) carried out in the last century. PGI have got an archive of International Data Cen-tre B-2 with thousands meters of films with aurora and at-mospheric optical phenomena at numerical stations in Arctic and Antarctic. The report describes construction and parame-ters of the automatic all-sky camera C-180, which used in a patrol way during the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958) at more than 30 Russian stations (3). The “Auroral oval was discovered with the cameras network data by Russian scientists (4-6) Numeric measurements of aurora heights by triangle methods were produced with obtained data. Spectral all-sky cameras C-180-S were installed at 6 Russian stations and successfully used for aurora spectrum observation. These observations were continued up to “perestroika” by several PGI devices installed in Barents region. Observations of the AAP by these cameras carried out automatically in the same time. They had allowed collect information on anthropogenic pollution of the near Earth space and to definite a lot of AAP. Optical phenomena were always under routine monitoring by the auroral all-sky cameras from Northern Scandinavia and Russia during last decades. There are Finland “Mira-cle” network, Sweden network “ALIS” and Norwegian sta-tions in Spitsbergen, Tromso and Andoya (7) A number of observations of such effects carried out in the northern Russia at the Kola Peninsula. Data of the observations published mostly in Russian and they are hardly available for interna-tional science community due to this fact. Atmospheric ground-based and space-based observations allow us to see in the sky a lot of natural and man-made objects now. The different interpretations are referred to as the Abnormal At-mospheric and Space Phenomena (AAP), Unidentified Aero-space Phenomena – UAP(8), Unidentified Flying Objects UFO (1,2) , but we prefare to use the tradition Russian scien-tific abbreviature AAP.(1) in this paper.

1. APPLICATION OF AURORAL OBSERVA-TIONS DATA TO STUDY AAP

Each person can ask us “Why we must use the data of auroral observations for study of the “Abnormal Atmospheric Phenomena (AAP)”? The answer will be because of:

1. Methods of optical object observations in the upper at-mosphere are rather similar,

2. Existing networks of auroral observations can success-fully used for the AAP study.

3. Technical and scientific experiments in Space create a new AAP visible by auroral devices

4. Some auroral forms interpretation as AAP by eyewit-ness could be wrong.

5. Knowledge of auroral signatures permits us to distin-guish and explain the AAP.

Firstly, we should to know everything about aurora and their signatures in the sky to distinguish

AAP from the well known natural optical events in the near Earth Space (7, 9–13). Scientist, who shows, that aurora nature is self-luminosity of an atmospheric matter yet in 1753 (14) was Russian Michail Lomonosov. Before even such great European scientists as Galileo Galilei (1616.) and Rene Des-cartes (1618) misbelieved that the aurora is the Sun light, which scattered and mirroring by paricles in space (12). Lo-monosov had presented even engraving of his observation, in which the Ursa Major was visible through ihe aurora (Fig.1). It was evidence that the aurora is itself luminous of the at-mosphere, rather than reflected, refracted or scattered light from remote source (15). In fact, Lomonosov using method of simultaneous observations of stars through aurora solved this problem of auroral nature about one hundred years before Angstrom, who rediscovered that by observation of auroral spectrum by visual spectroscope in 1867 (16).

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Figure 1. Aurora. "Ursa Major " is visible through aurora (engraving of Lomonosov )

Aurora is a luminous glow of the upper atmosphere, which is caused by energetic particles that enter to the at-mosphere from geospace environment, the magnetosphere (Fig.2 LHS). These energetic particles are mostly electrons, but protons also make aurora This definition differentiates aurora from other forms of airglow, and from sky brightness that is due to reflected or scattered sunlight in most cases. Airglow features that have other than particles energy sources are not the aurora. For example, lightening and all associated optical emissions like sprites should not be consid-ered aurora, even if they have spectrum consisted of the same lines and bands as aurora.. The electrons travel along mag-netic field lines and penetrate into the upper atmosphere. Owing to the chance of meeting with an atom or molecule, a collision takes place. The atom or molecule takes some of the energy of the energetic particle and stores it as internal ener-gy while the electron goes on with a reduced speed. The pro-cess of storing energy in a molecule or atom is called "excit-ing" the atom. An excited atom or molecule can return to the non-excited state (ground state) by sending off a photon, i.e. by making light. Primary precipitating particles energization process draws its energy from the interaction of the Earth's magnetosphere with the solar wind.The outstanding

achievement of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) was the discovery of an auroral oval, a location of the aurora over an Earth's surface at any given time.(Fig.2 RHS). It is possible to link the various physical phenomena in the Earth's magnetosphere and atmosphere with the observed optical phenomena on the earth's surface. You can imagine the Earth's atmosphere at high altitude as a huge size TV screen, where a bizarre forms of aurora can be seen and dis-play intrusion of particles from the Sun, acceleration, colli-sions with atoms and molecules of air, struggle of the parti-cles with the Earth's magnetic field,.Danish teacherTromholt who devoted his life to study aurora, propose that the glow ring hanging over the Earth, which scrolls under the ring yet in the nineteen century (11). But just scientists from Russia Khorosheva, Feldshtein and Starkov (4-6) proven the asym-metry of the ring, the position of which was not determined by geographic but magnetic poles and make visual presenta-tion of the magnetosphere assimmetry. They established the oval continuity and find its mathematical interpretation.. This was done on the basis of the network continuously operating about one hundred cameras C-180 with the field of view from horizon to horizon. Successful was the word "oval", which clearly expresses the real geometry of the instantaneous posi-tion of the ring lights. This one of the most important discov-eries in physics of near Earth space entered the history of geophysics as the Feldstein auroral oval (5).

Figure 2. Example of the aurora photo of S.Chernouss (LHS) and the auroral oval (RHS) discovered during IGY by the Russian scientists.

Other feature is a colour of aurora and their spectrum (Fig.3). Sun continuous spectrum presented a difference be-tween nature of the black body spectrum (in the upper part of Fig.3) and spectrum of aurora. Spectrum of aurora consists of spectral bands and lines of exited atoms and molecules. There are mainly atomic oxygen, molecular nitrogen, ionized nitrogen and hydrogen atoms although other minor species exist too. Thus, colour of aurora depends on the matter, which exited. Fig.3 shows a green, red and blue aurora, in which the [OI] emission 557.7 nm and 630.0 nm, and N2+ emission 427.8 nm excited by particles (electrons) precipitated from the magnetosphere to the ionosphere. When an excited atom or molecule returns to the ground state, it sends out a photon with a specific energy. This energy depends on the type of atom and on the level of excitement, and we perceive the en-ergy of a photon as color. The upper atmosphere consists of air just like the air we breathe. At very high altitudes there is atomic oxygen in addition to normal air, which is made up of molecular nitrogen and molecular oxygen. The energetic elec-trons in aurora are strong enough to occasionally split the

molecules of the air into nitrogen and oxygen atoms. The photons that come out of aurora have therefore the signature colors of nitrogen and oxygen molecules and atoms. Oxygen atoms, for example, strongly emit photons in two typical col-ors: green and red. The red is a brownish red that is at the limit of what the human eye can see, and although the red auroral emission is often very bright, we can see it

Figure 3. Spectrum of the Sun (upper part) and spectrum of the aurora

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Aurora take many different visual forms. The most dis-tinctive and brightest are the curtain-like auroral arcs and bands. These are the ‘discrete’ auroras, which are at times bright as full moon illuminated clouds. The “diffuse” aurora, is less in intensity and sometimes close to the limit of visibil-ity. The aurora can distinguished from moonlit clouds by the fact that stars can be seen undiminished through the glow. Diffuse auroras are often composed of patches whose bright-ness exhibits regular or near-regular pulsations (17, 18). The pulsation period can be typically about several seconds, so is

not always obvious. A typical auroral display consists of the-se forms appearing throughout the night. Occasionally there are bizarre forms of aurora, whose are similar different well-known things (Fig.4), For example, author could see in these pictures: a - bird, b - dragon, c - corona, d - integrals and e - running horse. Other person could see other things, for ex-ample, an - eagle, b - tornado, c - explosion, d - music sign, and e - swimming duck. Why similar pictures made by light in the sky and refined by human brain could not be adopt as UFO?

Figure. 4. Bizarre forms of aurora (Photos S.Chernouss and V.Zhiganov)

There were proposed and realized some experiment to create artificial aurora. One of them is a creation of artificial-cloud in the atmosphere to look for impact of fields and winds on release of matter into the upper atmosphere. Barium cloud, observed during the release of free barium atoms from the board of sounding rockets creates ion clouds in the iono-sphere and interplanetary space used to study nature of the aurora and the geophysical properties of the medium in the upper atmosphere. Fig.5 shows results of the Ba cloud evolu-tion after the release in the launch of sounding rocket at ESRANGE near Swedish town Kiruna (19). Eye witness can see this bright spot. Imagine that suddenly a bright spot of light appears somewhere at dawn beyond the forest or moun-

tain. It starts to expand and change the color forming a circle or sphere. From this ball suddenly appears sky rocketing beam of red color as shown in Fig, 5d. Experimenters know that this picture is due to the ionization of artificial cloud at a high altitude. But what will think about this phenomenon occasional visual witness? Certainly, he will connect this phenomenon with the advent of alien spacecraft from outer space or with something similar things. The author, for ex-ample, had seen the result of an experiment on Ba emission appearance and ionization in the upper atmosphere, as shown in Figure 5 d, on the cover one of the famous books about UFO.

Figure 5. Ba cloud release into the upper atmosphere – LHS, and its mental image – RHS (Picture of Arcady Danilin).

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2. IMAGERS IN AURORAL RESEARCH During IGY (1957-58) Russian instrumental auroral ob-

servations took place on 34 stations which are organized: 2 pack ice near North Pole 28 on the territory of the USSR, 3 in the Antarctic and one in the Barentsburg. All these stations equipped with cameras C-180° for automatic survey the all sky (Fig.6 a,b). Cameras C-180 (Fig 6) photographed sky image in diameter 20 mm on a perforated 35 mm film. Their effective aperture was 1 / 1.5, and the equivalent focus is 7.65 mm. C-180 optical system consists of a convex mirror with a diameter of 450 mm with beam-entry hole in the center and of the concave mirror of 200 mm diameter disposed over the convex lens with a focal length of 52 mm. Auroral light re-flected from the bottom convex mirror and falls on the upper concave mirror, which carries the image of aurora to a film camera. .Movie camera with "Jupiter 3" lens for registration of auroral images is below the convex mirror. The sensitivity of the film was about 400 ASA. Command unit was in the

room. The command unit dialed program interval between exposures and exposure time is on the dashboard as well as the alternation of different exposures. Angular grid and a clock face fix on each photographic frame at the beginning of the exposure. Standard gray scale imprinted to the film by the laboratory sensitometer and films collect in cassettes. The inner temperature of camera C-180 stabilized. Similar all-sky camera with 35 mm film camera was done especially for active experiments in Space by W. Stoffregen in Sweden (19). The film camera in PGI existed up to XXI century as a main instrument for making images of aurora but sensors of the camera changed by rather fast way. The film as registered device exchanged to analogue TV Super Orthicon Camera LI–805, which sensitivity was in five orders higher than the film one. It was working in the Institute about 10 years and then was change for Super Vidicon LI–702 (SIT – Silicon Intensified Target)

a b

Figure 6 a) Camera C-180 in Arctic and discoverer of the oval Genrich Starkov b) Camera C-180

and Super Vidicon LI-704 with image intensifier (Intensi-fier-SIT). The reason for that was that Super Vidicons are more simple in operation, more stable and have smaller sizes. It was created also two channel camera with field of view 180º and 28º for study a large scale auroras and AAP and their fine structure. Unfortunately this instrument used only for auroral observation because absence of automatic guide for small field of view channel. The technological revolution has led not only to a change of photo-detectors, but also to improved optics in general. We use portable lenses instead of reflection ones, electronically controlled filter, two-dimensional photo-detectors as CCD- charge couple devices (20). in mod-ern cameras.

3. SPECTRAL EQUIPMENT FOR AURORAL OB-SERVATIONS

3.1. FIRST SPECTRAL OBSERVATIONS OF AU-RORA IN ARCTIC

It is well known that spectrum of aurora study starts from Sweden scientist Anders Angrtrom observations in 1867 (16). He was done that by a visual spectroscop in the south of Sweden. First well documented instrumental observations of auroral spectra in Arctic were obtained by Russian scientist Josef Sykora (21, 22) in 1899 during the great bilateral Arc-of-Meridian expedition, which was patronized by the Swedish Royal Family and the Russian Imperial Family. He had used the best for that time German optics prepared especially for a prism spectrograph. Spectral interval resolved by this spectrograph was about 1 nm. He used photo-plates for reg-istration both auroral image and spectrum. First results of this study were published by the Russian Imperator Acade-my in French (Fig.7)

Figure 7.. Cover page of Sykora publication on meas-urements of aurora in Arctic

3.2 ALL-SKY SPECTRORAPH C-180-S A lot of successful auroral spectral research was done by

Scandinavian (firsrst of all Norwegian) scientists in the first part in XX Century (9-12). but Russian scientists took part in the spectral experiments just during IPY in 1957-1958. Spec-tral auroral observations were restarted by a new all-sky spectrograph C-180-S designed by Libedinsky (3). Patrol spectrographs designed for photographing of monochromatic

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images of the vertical line passing through the magnetic zenith and the place of observation. It is photographed in the visible part of the auroral spectrum in the interval from 390.0 to 650.0 nm.Fig.9 b. .Patrol spectrographs design based on the C-180 camera designed earlier (Fig.8,9)..The only differ-ence is that a diffraction grating 600 lines/mm operating in the first order located in the focal plane in the front of the lens "Jupiter 3", at angle of 67 ° to its optical axis and slit length 125 mm placed in the focal plane of a concave mirror to cut out vertical and image of the celestial sphere, Fig 9 a shows optical diagram of C-180-S. Fig. 9 b shows obtained spec-trum of aurora along the meridian slit.

Figure 8. Cameras C-180 (RHS) and C-180-S in a field position at the Mirniy station in Antarctic

a b

Figure 9 a) Optical diagram of camera b) Example of the auroral spectrum: angle of elevation from the North to South horizon is in vertical axis; wavelength is in the horizontal axis

3. MODERN POSSIBILITIES FOR AURORA AND AAP OBSERVATIONS

Modern optical study of the aurora in PGI continues at Apatity station and Lovozero observatory (Kola Peninsula) and at Barentsburg station (Spitsbergen) by a new equip-ment. There are all-sky camera and spectrographs used CCD detectors and hyperspectral camera designed in a Norwegian-Russian project “NORUSKA” [20].

4.1 ALL-SKY CDD CAMERA “SPICA” The SPICA (Fig.10) includes F-145B camera based on

SONY CCD matrix ICX285and advanced operational soft-ware produced in PGI. The MAO-08 is a large aperture lens of F/value=0.8,field of view 180 degrees, spectral range 430...750 nm, high resolution ~ 70-100 1/mm and the possibil-ity to use an interference filter. It has quantum efficiency up to 0.67 at 600 nm and more than 0.35 in 400-760 nm range. The 16 bits images ensure a wide dynamic range while ma-trix size of 1388x1038 pixels allows pixel summation to im-prove sensitivity. The narrow-band interference filters for the main auroral emissions at wavelengths of 427.8 nm, 557.7 nm and 630.0 nm were used to get monochromatic images. The camera installed in the Lovozero observatory of PGI.(68.38 N,35.95 E).

Figure 10.. All-Sky CCD camera “Spica”. Photo and op-tical diagram of lens

4.2 CCD ALL-SKY SPECTRAL CAMERA S-180 A digital CCD all-sky spectrograph (22) was made by

PGI to support activity in auroral research (Fig. 11).The de-vice was tested at the Barentsburg station of PGI (78.06 N, 14.23 E) during the winter season of 2005-2006. The spectro-graph based on a cooled CCD and a transmission grating. The main features of this spectrograph are: wide field of view (~ 180o), wide spectral range (380-740 nm), a spectral resolu-tion of 0.6 nm, a background level of about 100 R at 1 minute exposure time. Several thousand spectra of nightglow and aurora were recorded during the observation season. It was possible to register both the strong auroral emissions and weak ones. Spectra of aurora including nitrogen and oxygen molecular and atomic emissions, as well as OH emissions of the nightglow. A comparison has been conducted of auroral spectra obtained by the film all-sky spectral camera C-180-S during IGY with spectra obtained at Barentsburg during the last winter seasons. (22)

Table 1. Instrumental parameters of the All-Sky CCD Image Spectrograph S-180 an its photo/

Field-of-view (degrees) 180×0.75 Angular resolution (degrees) 0.25 Spectral range (nm) 380–740, 420–870 Spectral resolution (nm) 0.6 background level for 557.7 nm (R) 100 Dynamic range 65 536 Sampling rate (frame/min) 1 Temperature range −45. .+30oC Power 90–264 V/47–63 Hz

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Figure 11. Optical diagram of the auroral CCD spectral camera S-180.

4.3 TWILIGHT ALL-SKY SINGLE EMISSION IM-AGER

PGI Twilight auroral imager (Fig 12) consists of front all-sky lens with working field of view about 140̊ , band in-terference filter at 557.7 nm and Fabry Perot Interferometer as extremely narrow band –passing filter. The special soft-ware was developed for processing and presentation of the data obtained. Authors (23) have shown some auroral images

obtained both in twilights and daylights conditions. Possible physical tasks of the upper atmosphere optical investigations by described above equipment are under discussion. Especial-ly this kind of measurements are valuable for Low Light Level Objects for example artificial cloud release from a rock-et or for heating experiments in the ionosphere because of possibility to follow artificial objects during twilights and even in daylights during long time.

Figure 12. Diagram of the Twilight camera and its image

4.4 NEW AURORAL HYPERSPECTRAL ALL-SKY CAMERA

New high sensitivity all-sky camera (20) was design by Norwegian, Russian and Ukrainian scientists. Two samples of this camera have been installed in Spitsbergen at the Norwegian Kjell Henriksen observatory and at Russan sta-tion Barentsburg. They able to register practically simulta-neous images of aurora in about 30 spectral bands, but regis-

ter only 6 main auroral emissions now, A prototype auroral hyperspectral all-sky camera has been constructed that uses electro-optical tunable filters to image the night sky as a function wavelength in the visible region of auroral spectrum with no moving mechanical parts. The core optical system includes a new high power all-sky lens with F-number equal to f/1.1.(Fig.13)

Figure 13. Lens mechanics and optical diagram of the NORUSCA II all-sky lens: 1- focusing mechanism and collimator lenses, 2 - filter box - chamber, 3 - camera lens, and 4 - camera head.

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The camera is capable of detecting a few kR aurora at an exposure time of only 100 ms. The spectral range of the filter covers the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum from 400 – 720 nm. The bandwidth is 7 nm at center wavelength 550 nm. The filter switches from one wavelength to another in just 50 ms. The transmission factors are ~ 10, 40 and 45%at wavelengths 430, 560 and 630 nm, respectively. A new all-sky camera is presented with hyperspectral capability in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum (430 – 720 nm) of 7 nm at center wavelength 550 nm. A novel high throughput C-mount all-sky lens named NORUSCA II is presented (Table 2. Fig. 13, 14) that matches the size and design of the LCTF.

Table 2. Technical characteristics of the NORUSCA II all-sky lens

NORUSCA II-E fish-eye lens specifications Spectral range 430 – 750 nm Paraxial focal length 3.5 mm F-number f/1.1 Number of lens elements 12 Field of view 180 є (circular) Resolution 80-100 lp/m Filter diameter 35 mm Angle of incident on filter < ±7 є Dimensions Ø110 × 320 mm Camera lens mount C-mount

Figure.14. Two NORUSCA II 1st Generation all-sky cameras (A) and (B). (1) Front element of all-sky lens, (2) 24 x

4 inch2 mount plate, (3) collimator lens tube, (4) lens mount,

(5) ring holders, (6) LCTF filter box, (7) camera lens, and (8)

EMCCD detector. Instrumental volume is ~ 65 x18 x 16 cm3.

Total mass is 8.9 kg.

The main advantage of the system is that it requires no moving mechanical parts to select the desired center wave-length within its spectral range. The camera uses only 50 ms to swap between 1 of 41 available center wavelengths. The major disadvantage of the system is the low transmission of the LCTF, especially in the blue part of the spectrum.

4.5 MULTISCALE AURORA IMAGING NETWORK Routine observations of the aurora are conducted in Apa-

tity (24) by a set of five cameras: (i) all-sky TV cameraWatec WAT-902K (1/200CCD) with Fujinon lens YV2.2×1.4ASA2; (ii) two monochromatic cameras Guppy F-044B NIR (1/200CCD) with Fujinon HF25HA-1B (1:1.4/25mm) lens for 18_ field of view and glass filter 558 nm; (iii) two color cam-eras

Guppy F-044C NIR (1/200CCD) with Fujinon DF6HA-1B (1:1.2/6 mm) lens for 67_ field of view. The observational

complex is aimed at investigating spatial structure of the aurora,

its scaling properties, and vertical distribution in therayed forms. The cameras were installed on the main building of the Apatity division of the Polar Geophysical Institute and at the Apatity stratospheric range (Fig.15). The distance be-tween these sites is nearly 4 km, so the identical monochro-matic cameras can be used as a stereoscopic system. All cameras are accessible and operated remotely via Internet. The main aim of such observations is fine structure of the aurora. but some other night-sky events like meteors, satel-lites etc are also observed. The information about routine observations contains of technical details about equipments used, time tables of past and current observations, overview of observed events (auroral keograms), and links to sites. for individual instruments When it is possible, the site gives information about occasional events.

Figure15. Schema of current realtime observations for winter 2011-2012, Apatity, Murmansk region, Russia

(67o34'N, 33o24'E)

5. SOME EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF AAP OB-SERVATIONS

A part of such observations were a sub-product of the rocket launches from the Plesetsk rocket range and White Sea naval range area. From other side the opportunity to see bright luminosity clouds caused by the exhaust products or active experiments in space have frequently resulted in sensa-tional messages in the mass media about an appearance of an Unidentified Flying Object, (UFO). For example, so called the “Petrozavodsk Miracle”(1,2,25-28) was under numerous discussions in Russian, European and USA mass-media as a real UFO event. In reality it was a result of Russian “Cosmos-955” launch from the Plesetsk range early morning of September 20, 1977.(Fig.16). Launches of rockets from Russian rocket ranges and numerous geophysical experi-ments in USA, Europe and Russia are accompanied by in-jections of different chemical components, such as Al, Ba, Be, Li, Na, Sr, Mg, Be, LiH, LiClO4 and (AlH3)3 into the upper atmosphere. They can be registered by ground-based equip-ment and could be distinguished from AAP or UFO (if they exist) by spectral methods, scales and temporal and space development of the events, The partial results of such phe-nomena study are given in (24-27) and physical mechanisms of their development in the works (28-32). The development of rocket and space technology and intensive study of near Earth space optical phenomena associated with the technical impact on the environment became increasingly observed. With some degree of conventionality, one can divide several basic types: rocket engines torches and plumes, observed

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Figure 16. September 20, 1977: Photo series collected by Archangelsk, Loparskaya and Sodankylä all-sky cameras after the Cosmos 955 rocket launch from the Plesetsk rocket range. The exhaust products glow seen by numerous observers over

Petrozavodsk, Karelia At 0404-0408 MSK (Moscow Standard Time). It named in mass media as an unidentified flying object (UFO) “Petrozavodsk Miracle” in 1977

during the launches of missiles and maneuvers of space-craft; Observations of the spacecraft motion across the sky in result of the reflection of sunlight by these constructions; the gas and dust clouds formed at rocket engines operation; arti-ficial formations in the upper atmosphere created during active rocket experiments; shock waves generated by rocket engines in the upper atmosphere; the phenomenon observed at reentry of spacecraft in dense layers of the atmosphere. The main physical mechanism of development of the majori-ty of these phenomena is scattering of sunlight on inhomoge-neities of the light propagation medium .Generally, the brightness of these phenomena is relatively small and they can be observed mostly in twilight conditions.. The most im-pressive are the observations of dust clouds, formed by the combustion products of rocket engines. These formations can exist for quite a long time (up to several hours), have fairly regular geometric shape, and their characteristic size may reach several hundred kilometers. Unusual of such phenome-na, lack of their natural analogues, "the unpredictability of the time and place of their observations often lead to the fact that they are perceived by observers as something abnormal UFOs. We present heresome examples of phenomena that are perceived by independent observers as UFOs, but then

the events were explained as the effects of space experiments. For example, "Petrozavodsk miracle" was perceived as a "jellyfish", flying over Petrozavodsk and, moreover, there were existed witnesses who saw it over Lenin Prospect, the main street of the city. Reconstruction the event photos made from three points by all-sky cameras (Fig.16) showed that observed plume and trace of the rocket took place hundreds kilometers from the Petrozavodsk in the Archangelsk region. Other in-terest event is the object similar to a ‘flying saucer”.

5.1 SOLID PROPELLANT EXHAUST PRODUCT LUMINESCENCE

There are optical phenomena, connected only with launches of solid propellant rockets.(28-33) These events are determined by features of solid-propellant engines and the composition of fuel component. First one is the development of large-scale dynamic structures like a “ring” or a "bagel" (Fig.17). Characteristic details of the picture show that the diameter of the cloud is ~300 km. The whole area of the phe-nomenon development is illuminated by Sun. The shut-down process of solid rocket motors in the upper atmosphere is often accompanied by large-scale

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Figure 17. (a,b,c,d). Evolution of the “ring” cloud after rocket launch. Pictures were obtained by all-sky camera in the Arch-angelsk (64.54 N, 40.54 E) with time resolution of one minute.

dynamic structures that are reminiscent of "bagel". This process is associated with rapid depressurization of the com-bustion chamber, resulting in almost instantaneous release into the atmosphere of large quantities of various components of fuel and combustion products. The “ring” or “bagel” ap-pear owing to spread of the injected cloud of dispersed parti-cles

The other phenomenon (Fig.18 a,b,c) is the turquoise (blue-green) luminescence of the atmosphere observed during

twilight conditions in the region of missile flight. Sometimes it is observed as a compact luminous formation along the rocket trajectory, sometimes as diffuse rocket trace undergoes to local altitude winds in the atmosphere. Green blue colour of the cloud appears due to resonance scattering of the Solar light by AlO molecules, which are formed during interaction of exhaust products with the atmosphere.

Figure.18 (a,b,c). Photos (S.Chernouss) of a diffuse trail with a turquoise glow which remained after the passage of solid-propellant rocket.

These rare and very fine phenomena are not seen in the natural processes of the nature and as a rule produce indeli-ble impression on observers

5.2 NORWEGIAN SPIRAL An unexpected fairy show was occurred suddenly over the

Arctic December 9, 2009 early in the morning. A spiral glow appeared in the night sky above the polar provinces of Nor-

way, Sweden and Finland,. The lively discussion of the likely nature of the spectacle, observed people in Scandinavia was in this day.. Norwegian media were overcrowded breathtak-ing images of eyewitnesses. Various hypotheses to explain the phenomenon were suggested. from the invasion of aliens to serious explanation (28,-33).

Figure 19. Evolution of the Norwegian spiral , amateurs photos © Jan-Petter Jørgensen at Skjervoy; all equally scaled by the background Kvanangstinder mountains a} Spiral clouds, flash and turquoise cloud b) void or black hole and turquoise

cloud c) turquoise cloud

The real explanation for the observed effects was more prosaic. ITAR-TASS in the press-service information and the Defense Ministry confirmed that on Dec. 9, 2009 at 06:45 UT (09:45 Moscow time) from an underwater position submarine TK-208 “Dmitry Donskoy ", which was in the White Sea was made a test launch of a new Russian ballistic sea-based mis-sile “Bulava”. The test was unsuccessful. Following exami-nation of the telemetry data revealed that the first two stages of the rocket worked in normal mode, but at a subsequent, third phase of the flight path there was a technical failure. Unfortunately the launch of the “Bulava” took place in the late morning hours in the north-west of Russia and it was not possible to observe this effect at the Russian territory (Murmansk region and Karelia) because in the launch time at enough bright sky the launch effects were not seen, but they were clearly seen by residents of Scandinavia; The spiral structure of the gas-dust cloud formed during the second stage operation of the “Bulava” booster engine dues to a

sudden rocket “somersault”, i.e. an unexpected rocket rotation (Fig.. 19a), which was not only around its longitudinal axis, but also in the plane almost perpendicular to the line of flight. An important aspect of the events surrounding this "Bulava" launch is the emergence of hundreds of amateur pictures and movies with the phenomenon real time comments, which could be very useful for a scientific analysis of the "Norway Spiral."situation/ In fact, it was a statement of the fact that mass amateur instrumental observations owing to new tech-nologies achieve high quality and can give a great support for science development. It seems particularly important for the Earth aerospace sciences, because it allows you to com-pare and use the many images simultaneously taken from different places. Example of such work was done in the paper () devoted to the "Bulava” launch of December 9, 2009 in Arctic. A lot of similar amateur data allowed scientists to closely approach to the mysteries of the famous Ural Bolid of February 15, 2013

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CONCLUDING REMARKS 1. Experimental optical data obtained during the aurora

study in monitoring mode on a network of stations in the Arctic and Antarctic are suitable for the study of abnormal atmospheric and space phenomena. Thousands of meters of black and white film with an all-sky camera images are stored in the International Data Center WDC B2 at the Po-lar Geophysical Institute at Apatity, Murmansk region, Rus-sia and available for a wide use.

2. There are presented descriptions of special optical equipment used in the PGI before and is used now for auro-ral observations and other natural and man-made light ef-fects.

3. The possible optical features, parameters and character-istics, allowing to detect aurora and to distinguish them from other phenomena and objects are under consideration.

4. Brief information presents on the results of scientific studies of auroras and anthropogenic impacts, causing the glow in the upper atmosphere, especially during starts and maneuvers of space rocketry.

5. Attention is drawn to the fact. that in the conditions when the parameters and characteristics of the optical

equipment for usual consumer approach to the same param-eters of the special equipment, the role of visual witness of optical phenomenon replaced by the role of witness, armed precision instruments. If we have a plenty of eyewitness pho-tographers, this helps to the spontaneous creation of a wide network of self-organized observation for definite phenome-non (Norway Spiral 2009 or Chelyabinsk Bolid 2013). Scien-tists could only dream of that a few years ago, but now the data obtained by such observers used in priority scientific papers.

Thus, ground based observations of aurora and abnormal atmospheric and space phenomena in the Arctic is extremely useful and can be successfully continued in order to solve scientific and applied problems. In particular, applied signifi-cance of this work is to show capabilities of ground-based instruments to estimate or even measure the external or manmade impacts on the polar atmosphere and ionosphere.

Akcnowlegements Author thanks to RFBR grant #17-45-510341.r_a for partial support of this work and B.Kozelov,, A,Roldugin and F, Sigernes for help in this work preparation.

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