GBDC - Auroral Oval Indicators


Generate Auroral Oval Indicator Plots
Three new auroral activity indicators are being created. Each indicator uses a ring of magnetometer stations, roughly following a line of geomagnetic latitude. The value of an indicator is determined in a similar manner to the existing AL index: specifically, an indicator is derived by superimposing the horizontal component of the magnetometer traces from the participating stations, and taking the lower envelope. In addition to this, the longitude of the particular station whose reading provides the indicator value at any time is also recorded.

The intended contributing stations are shown on the following sensitive map of the northern hemisphere. The colours for the stations indicate on which oval the station lies.

and the rings show lines of geomagnetic latitude. If you click on the map you will get the details of the station closest to the point at which you clicked. There is also a table of all the stations.

Imagemap of Auroral Ovals


The indicators will be produced with whatever data there is available; we will not wait until all contributing stations have supplied their data before calculating the indicator values, thus there should be enough data to get preliminary values within 3 to 4 weeks. As more data arrives the indicators will be recalculated, but final values might not be available until 6 to 12 months after the event.

You can now generate indicator plots with the currently available data.


GBDC | Instruments

04-SEP-2008 Sarah James
Station 690 Station 727 Station 775 Station 663 Station 850 Station 784,977 Station 947 Station 789,620 Station 860 Station 556 Station 837,838 Station 539 Station 614 Station 617 Station 568 Station 570 Station 573 Station 578 Station 1099 Station 640,679 Station 718 Station 1194 Station 592,593 Station 988 Station 927