Daily Auroral Reports, Southeastern Canada and Northeastern US, 1848-1853

NSSDC ID:SPIO-00374
Old NSSDC ID: GE-11B

DATA AVAILABILITY NOTE: 
Only four selected example pages are available here online. The rest have
not been scanned by NSSDC, due to shortage of resources. If you are interested
in obtaining this data set, please contact NSSDC so that we may discuss the
methods for obtaining copies.

DATA SET BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
This hardcopy data set consists of ~ 1900 pages (8 - 1/2 x 14 inches) of
visual auroral observations systematically recorded in northeastern U.S. and
adjacent southeastern Canada. For each night (January 1848 - April 1853) log
entries were made at military posts in Canada and volunteer locations in the
U.S., recording local weather conditions and whether or not an aurora was
visible. When an aurora (especially a bright one) was visible, there is often
a description, and many of these give considerable detail. In some cases a
standard sky chart is included, with details marked.

Only the Canadian military observations were duly recorded every night.
Principal reporting stations are Montreal, Kingston, London, Toronto, and
Quebec. When Canadian entries show an aurora, often there are also reports
from neighboring regions of the U.S. When Canadian entries show no aurora,
there usually is no U.S. entry. The Canadian entries cover each day of the
time span except that April through July of 1850 are missing.

Background information on these observations has been published (S.M.
Silverman, "Joseph Henry and John Henry Lefroy -- A common 19th century
vision of auroral research, "EOS, Tran. Am. Geophys. U., 70, no. 15, pp.
227-240, April 11, 1989 -- entered in NSSDC's Technical Reference File as
B47619).