Summary

This short introduction can in no way provide a complete overview of the field. Hopefully, it has at least provided a set of references for further studies and a rudimentary background to the desire to build ALIS as a multi-station imaging network capable of absolute spectroscopic measurements of column emission rates within the field-of-view of a traditional all-sky camera, as well as the capability to image a common volume, thus enabling triangulation and auroral tomography.

For further reading related to low-light optical instrumentation for auroral measurements see, for example, Høymork [2000], and references therein. Galperin [2001] presents an interesting discussion regarding the multiple scales of auroral phenomena. Such considerations are important for selecting a suitable baseline and field-of-view of a multi-station imaging system. An extensive review of instruments and networks for optical auroral studies was presented by Pellinen and Kaila [1991]. This was about the same time as work on ALIS commenced and therefore their work is recommended as an additional introduction, as well as an illustration of the power of coordinated studies with many instruments, regardless of whether they are ground-based or space-borne.

This work is organised in seven chapters and four appendices. A reader only interested in the scientific results from ALIS might wish to skip directly to Chapter 6, however, please consider quickly browsing through Chapters 2-4 for an introduction to the possibilities and limitations of the instrument. Technical details, related work and future plans are deferred to the appendices.