FMI
Published August 21, 2026 | Version v1
Dataset Open

Visually validated dune aurora observations from Skywarden between 2000 and 2025

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Finnish Meteorological Institute
  • 2. Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, University of Oulu

Description

Dune aurora observations retrieved from the Skywarden database (https://www.taivaanvahti.fi/), comprising at least one photograph where dune aurora has been visually identified by the dataset creators. The dataset is based on the observation reports submitted to Skywarden by 19 May 2026 and corresponding to dune observations made between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2025. The given time ranges during which dune aurora was present are conservative estimates based on the text description and the available images in each observation report. In some cases, time stamps are uncertain (see notes).

This dataset is associated to the manuscript by M. Grandin et al. (2026), "Dune aurora: Survey from a citizen science database". Skywarden is developed and maintained by the Ursa Astronomical Association.

Files

taivaanvahti_dunes_events_verified.csv

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Checksum: md5:2fdd3eb4ddaa10b60a10e7785a1611a7

PID: http://hdl.handle.net/11304/75e65525-61a8-4b8f-bba2-6d47a767ef81
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Additional details

Identifiers

URL
https://etsin.fairdata.fi/dataset/c404f2d7-9228-49d1-9320-682f8c1814ed

Funding

European Commission
LOUARN - Lights in the nightsky and Ozone loss: Unravelling Atmosphere forcing from space with Radar, optics, and Novel citizen science 101161971
Research Council of Finland
Aurora and Neutral Atmosphere interplay: Observations and Novel analysis methods (ANAON) 360433

FMI metadata

Parameter
Parameter name : id
Parameter unit : n/a
Parameter description : Observation ID in Skywarden
Parameter name : user
Parameter unit : n/a
Parameter description : Name of the observer
Parameter name : start_utc
Parameter unit : UTC
Parameter description : Starting time of the aurora observation
Parameter name : dunes_start_utc
Parameter unit : UTC
Parameter description : Starting time of reported dune aurora
Parameter name : dunes_end_utc
Parameter unit : UTC
Parameter description : End time of reported dune aurora
Parameter name : city
Parameter unit : n/a
Parameter description : City (or municipality) where the observation was made
Parameter name : latitude
Parameter unit : degree north
Parameter description : Geographic latitude of the observation
Parameter name : longitude
Parameter unit : degree east
Parameter description : Geographic longitude of the observation
Parameter name : notes
Parameter unit : n/a
Parameter description : Additional notes and comments on the observation
Topic category
http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/metadata-codelist/TopicCategory/climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere

Temporal Coverage

Ranges:

Start date: 2000-01-01
End date: 2025-12-31