A sudden, intense bulge in the auroral oval signals the start of an auroral substorm over North America. The
bulge is easily visible over the northern United States and southern Canada, as a map of the coastal outlines
has been superposed on the image. This image was taken by the Earth Camera at 07:13 UT on May 15, 1996. At
the time, the Polar spacecraft was located at 82.1° latitude, 74.2° longitude, and was at an altitude
of 41,900 km as it approached apogee. In this mode, an image of Earth can be acquired every 53 seconds with
the VIS Earth Camera. Dr. L. A. Frank is the Principal Investigator for the Visible Imaging System; Dr. John.
B. Sigwarth is the Instrument Scientist and Manager.
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