The optical mesosphere thermosphere imagers (OMTIs) for network measurements of aurora and airglow

The Optical Mesosphere Thermosphere Imagers (OMTIs) currently consist of eight all-sky cooled-CCD imagers and several interferometers and spectrometers. They are making routine observations of aurora and airglow in Japan, Australia, Indonesia, and Canada. Here we show recent results of OMTIs particularly from the two Canadian stations at Resolute Bay (RSB) and Athabasca (ATH). At RSB, we observe polar-cap plasma patches almost always during southward IMF periods. From two-dimensional cross-correlation analyses, we determine velocity vectors of the patches, which indicates the ionospheric convection vector, showing high correlation with the IMF-By and -Bz variations. At ATH, we often observe isolated proton arcs and Stable Auroral Red (SAR) arcs, which are located equatorward of the auroral oval. The appearance of the isolated proton arcs is highly correlated with the Pc 1 geomagnetic pulsations measured simultaneously at ATH, suggesting interactions between the electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves and protons in the vicinity of the plasmapause and the ring current. Similar interactions without waves are also suggested for the SAR arcs, which appear after the substorm expansion phase even without geomagnetic storms. These observations show promising capability to monitor magnetospheric processes from the ground stations, which would contribute to the future satellite projects, such as THEMIS, ERG, and Scope/Xscale.