All-sky-camera format for radar auroral studies

Installation of a phased-array antenna on a UHF radar located at Homer, Alaska, makes possible a variety of data presentations for studying the radar aurora. In this paper a data handling procedure is described that permits rather direct comparison of radar auroral developments with optical auroral displays. The procedure involves coordinate transformation of digitized radar data to produce a display resembling an all-sky-camera photograph from a selected location beneath the radar's field of view in the E layer. Presented are five representative case studies of auroral developments as displayed in the radar all-sky-camera format and simultaneously recorded by means of optical all-sky cameras located in central Alaska (Fort Yukon and Chatanika). (auth)