Auroral Observations, Ancient and Modern

Most of our NSSDC access paths to data set information rely on the connection between the data set and a specific spacecraft or ground-based station. However, this method breaks down when there is no related spacecraft and when the most natural way to locate the data set is by its topic, rather than by the platform from which it was taken. Such data sets are archived in our so-called NSSDC Supplemental Data (NSD) file, with no connection to a spacecraft. The auroral data sets listed here are in the NSD file, and this page constitutes an index to make these supplemental data sets visible online to potential users via the WWW.

The referenced NSSDC Newsletter article discusses the old auroral observations provided to the NSSDC archive by Samuel J. Silverman in 1998. The article mentions four data sets, which are discussed in order below as Datasets #1 through #4, although Datasets #3 and #4 have now been entered into the archive together as a single dataset. All of these datasets are available for distribution, although not yet available online.

• Dataset #1 is currently available only as paper copies of the hand-written log pages. We can make digitally-scanned copies but have not done so yet, except for one image used as a sample.
  
• The other datasets are available as digital files in ASCII (and in some cases also in DBASE3+, which can be handled by MS EXCEL), and they can be transferred by anonymous FTP, or even in e-mail for some very short files.

Brief descriptions of all four of these auroral datasets are available by following the hyperlinks below, after this introduction, and additional links are provided to samples of the digital datasets, so that the user can get a sense of what the data files look like.

Our charge and service policy is available, but if you want digital images of the handwritten paper logs of Dataset #1 (NSSDC ID: GE-11B), we would need to discuss the details and schedule of the situation.

Dataset #1 (GE-11B): Daily Auroral Observations in SE Canada and Adjacent NE United States, 1848-1853

Dataset #2 (GE-11C): New England Auroral Observations 1720 - 1948

Selected Examples from GE-11C.

Dataset #3 (part of GE-11D): World Auroral Observations, Preliminary for 666 BCE - 1951, plus Final for 666 BCE - 1499

Selected Examples from GE-11D: Prior to 1500

Dataset #4 (part of GE-11D): Greenland, Iceland, Faroes Auroral Observations

Selected Examples from GE-11D: Greenland, Iceland, Faroes Auroral Observations

There are also additional miscellaneous files pertaining to these specific data sets and to other more general topics.

If you want to order some or all of these data sets, or if you have further questions, please contact: H. Kent Hills, Telephone: 301-286-9431. National Space Science Data Center, Mail Code 632, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA.

NASA Official: Dr. Joseph H. King, Head, NSSDC
Last Updated: July 02, 2002, NEP.