STUDIES OF AURORAL HYDROGEN EMISSIONS IN WEST-CENTRAL CANADA: I. TIME AND GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATIONS

Abstract

An account is given of some relations, between the appearance of the hydrogen lines and the other features of auroral spectra found, from the study of I.G.Y. patrol spectra and from high time resolution spectra obtained during the winter of 1959–1960. At Saskatoon it was found that quiet, weak auroral arcs characterized by strong hydrogen emission occur in the evening at the southern fringe of auroral activity while brighter forms with weak hydrogen emissions occurred simultaneously to the north. The north–south–north progression of the hydrogen emissions found by Rees, Belon, and Romick in Alaska was observed from Saskatoon. The observations show that there is a wide zone of hydrogen emission which is always present and which becomes brighter and is displaced to the south during periods of magnetic disturbance. Quiet arcs showing relatively strong hydrogen emission are characteristic, in the evening, of the southern edge of this zone.