All-Sky Optical Imager data, Arrival Heights, Scott Base, Antarctica

The All-Sky Optical Imager collects data annually and operates in concurrence with American collaborators. The camera consists of a fish-eye lens that provides an image that is separated into two wavelengths, 630nm and the other at 428.7nm that are focused onto an image intensifier tube and the output is scanned by a CCD TV camera. The solar wind particles are ionised particles expelled from the surface of the sun (composed of electrons and protons, the constituents of hydrogen and an extremely small number of heavier ions).

Solar reactions produce solar winds which in turn depend on particle density and velocity, changing with the activity of the sun at the time of ejection. The solar wind continually varies in speed, density and direction when interacting with the Earth. Direct collisions of incoming particles with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere produce optical radiation (light) at wavelengths that identify the reaction.