THEMIS Ground Based Observatories

A network of 20 Ground-Based Observatories (GBOs) plays a crucial role in the 5 satellite Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) NASA mission. Each GBO will provide white-light all-sky auroral images at a 5 second cadence and geomagnetic field vectors at a minimum of 1 Hz. These data will be used in conjunction with the spacecraft observations to study the initial onset and development of the substorm process. There will be 16 GBOs in Canada and 4 in Alaska, providing more than 8 hours of local time coverage. Each site will be connected to the internet with a fallback link provided by the Iridium network. Summary data from the GBO field sites will be available in real-time and full resolution data will physically retrieved every few months. Nearly half the sites are already operational, with the remainder to be installed during the summer 2006 field season. This talk will be a review of the GBO project progress including topics such as design, construction, communications, operations and data management.