This directory contains data sets that report auroral observations of pre-computer times, 
taken from a variety of sources, and covering a wide span of time, from 666 BCE to 
the 1950s. The data set full titles, short directory titles, their NSSDC IDs (new
and old), and their very brief descriptions are as follows:

1. Silverman catalog of ancient auroral observations, 666BCE to 1951.
     cat_ancient_auroral_obs_666bce_1951;
     SPIO-00376; 
     GE-11D;

This data set is a collection of files provided by Sam M. Silverman. They contain reports
of auroral observations from antiquity to modern but pre-computer times, i.e., from 666 BCE
to 1951. There are also separate reports from Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroes, for the 
years 1840-1967. 

Additional miscellaneous files provide documentary information pertaining to these specific 
data files, plus a variety of notes and a bibliography. Among the documentary information 
are lists of locations of the Asian and Greco-Roman sites, with coordinates, and in many 
cases with alternate location names.

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2. Complete 7/16/02.
   Auroral Notations from "Climatological Data of the United States". 
     auroral_notes_us_climat_data;
     SPIO-00373;
     GE-11E;

This data set contains auroral notations abstracted by Sam Silverman from the Climatological
Data of the United States, for the years 1914-1948. Additional related digital files and 
digitally-reproduced paper documents are also included.

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3. Complete 7/16/02.
   Auroral Notations from "Canadian Monthly Weather Review".
     auroral_notes_canadian_monthly_weather_review;
     SPIO-00377;
     GE-11F;

This data set contains auroral notations from "Canadian Monthly Weather Review" for 1880 - 1928,
abstracted by Sam Silverman under NASA Contract NASW-00022. 

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4. Complete 7/26/02.
   New England Auroral Observations 1720 - 1948.
     new_england_auroral_obs_1720_1948;
     SPIO-00375;
     GE-11C;

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5. Complete 7/17/02.
   Daily Aauroral Reports, Southeastern Canada and Northeastern US, 1848-1853
     daily_auroral_repts_se_canada_ne_us_1848_1853;
     SPIO-00374; 
     GE-11B;

The full data set consists of hardcopy of handwritten logs kept by a network of observers. 
Example scanned images are available here, but for only four pages, out of ~1900 pages. 

If you are interested in using these data, please contact NSSDC to discuss methods of 
obtaining the data. Initially, due to constrained resources, NSSDC is not making scanned 
copies of all of the log pages. 

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Additional information is available via the web page at and following
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/auroral/auroral.html
with the title "Auroral Observations, Ancient and Modern".


Updated 9/07/05  HKH