Hyperspectral all-sky imaging of auroras

A prototype auroral hyperspectral all-sky camera has been constructed and tested. It uses electro-optical tunable filters to image the night sky as a function of wavelength throughout the visible spectrum with no moving mechanical parts. The core optical system includes a new high power all-sky lens with F-number equal to f/1.1. The camera has been tested at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory (KHO) during the auroral season of 2011/2012. It detects all sub classes of aurora above ~½ of the sub visual 1kR green intensity threshold at an exposure time of only one second. Supervised classification of the hyperspectral data shows promise as a new method to process and identify auroral forms.