ANGEO Annales Geophysicae ANGEO Ann. Geophys. 1432-0576 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/angeo-31-1543-2013 Stereoscopic determination of all-sky altitude map of aurora using two ground-based Nikon DSLR cameras Kataoka R. 1 2 Miyoshi Y. 3 Shigematsu K. 3 Hampton D. 4 Mori Y. 5 Kubo T. 6 Yamashita A. 6 Tanaka M. 7 Takahei T. 8 Nakai T. 9 Miyahara H. 10 Shiokawa K. 3 National Institute of Polar Research, 10-3, Midoricho, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-8518, Japan Interactive Research Center of Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8601, Japan Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 903 Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7320, USA Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shizuoka University, 3-5-1 Johoku, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8561, Japan Department of Precision Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan Department of Mechanical and Control Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan Orihalcon Technologies, Inc., Japan Hydrospheric Atmospheric Research Center, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8601, Japan Musashino Art University, 1-736 Ogawa-cho, Kodaira City, Tokyo 187-8505, Japan 06 09 2013 31 9 1543 1548 Copyright: © 2013 R. Kataoka et al. 2013 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/31/1543/2013/angeo-31-1543-2013.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/31/1543/2013/angeo-31-1543-2013.pdf

A new stereoscopic measurement technique is developed to obtain an all-sky altitude map of aurora using two ground-based digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. Two identical full-color all-sky cameras were set with an 8 km separation across the Chatanika area in Alaska (Poker Flat Research Range and Aurora Borealis Lodge) to find localized emission height with the maximum correlation of the apparent patterns in the localized pixels applying a method of the geographical coordinate transform. It is found that a typical ray structure of discrete aurora shows the broad altitude distribution above 100 km, while a typical patchy structure of pulsating aurora shows the narrow altitude distribution of less than 100 km. Because of its portability and low cost of the DSLR camera systems, the new technique may open a unique opportunity not only for scientists but also for night-sky photographers to complementarily attend the aurora science to potentially form a dense observation network.

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