On February 11, 2022, the Institute hosted a scientific session dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of an outstanding scientist, organizer of research of the aurorae borealis in Yakutia, participant of the Great Patriotic War, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Vladimir Parfenyevich Samsonov (03.01.1922 – 08.26.1989).

The main report was delivered by the Deputy director of the SHICRA SB RAS, a student of Vladimir Parfentievich Samsonov, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Semyon Viktorovich Nikolashkin.

Vladimir Parfenyevich was born on January 3, 1922 in the village of Alexandrovka in the Nyurbinsky district of the YASSR as the eldest child in the family of Parfeny Nikitich and Nadezhda Evmenyevna Samsonov, later famous, honored teachers, authors of textbooks and textbooks on Russian and Yakut languages.

After successfully graduating from high school in the city of Yakutsk in September 1940, he was drafted into the army, which he served in the Trans-Baikal Military District. When the war began, Vladimir graduated from the courses of junior lieutenants of artillery and arrived at the Volkhov Front in August 1942. In 1943, he became the commander of a mortar company, which was in the first echelon in all offensive operations of the Leningrad Front. During the fighting, he was wounded several times, and in the area of Narva Heights on February 25, 1944, he received a fourth, this time seriously wounded, because of which in January 1945 he was commissioned and discharged into the reserve with the rank of captain. For these battles, Vladimir Parfenevich was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad“.

In 1956, Vladimir Samsonov began working at the cosmic ray station, headed by Yuri Georgievich Shafer. Here, for the first time, he began to study the aurora borealis, a natural phenomenon that has not yet been completely explored in the north. It was at this time that the International Geophysical Year began, which brought together scientists from all over the world in research in the field of Earth physics, near-Earth space and solar–terrestrial relations. As part of the International Geophysical Year, Vladimir Parfenevich and his teacher, Professor Alexander Ignatievich Lebedinsky of Moscow State University, managed to organize in the Far North of Siberia and the Far East an essentially All-Union network of stations for photographic observations of the aurora. He and a group of his students worked to exhaustion in the most difficult conditions of the Arctic, installing scientific equipment and training the station staff. Thus, a network of stations for patrol observation of the aurora borealis was organized on the mainland of the republic and adjacent islands of the Arctic Ocean.

Vladimir Samsonov studied the distribution of the auroras, especially its fine structure with high spatial and temporal resolution. As a result of his research, he came to the conclusion about the existence of a bisonal and spotted structure of the distribution of auroras within the auroral oval. These results formed the basis of his PhD thesis, defended in 1971 at the Institute of Space Research of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

From 1968 to 1977, Vladimir Parfenevich was the scientific secretary of the Institute, from 1978 to 1988 — Deputy Director for Scientific Affairs, headed the Department of Aeronomy, a major area of scientific research at the Institute. In parallel, he combined the position of head of the Laboratory of Auroras and the glow of the night sky. The meridional chain of geophysical research, which was successfully implemented at the SHICRA SB RAS, continues to operate to this day. As part of this chain, laboratory staff conducted photographic and photometric studies of the aurora borealis from Kotelny Island to Yakutsk, and even at the Vostok station in Antarctica. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the SHICRA SB RAS in 1987-1997, Adviser to the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Physico–Mathematical Sciences Hermogen Filippovich Krymsky shared his memories of Vladimir Parfenevich.

“Once in Tiksi, an employee of the observatory was unfairly accused and arrested, and Vladimir Parfenevich managed to get these unfair charges against the employee dropped and to be released. Vladimir Parfenevich was in pretty good health, he never took sick leave. It turns out that he gave an order to the body not to get sick – and he did not get sick,“ said Hermogen Filippovich and stressed that Vladimir Parfenyevich Samsonov and Yuri Georgievich Shafer left behind a wonderful institute that they created and the glory of which they provided. Vladimir Parfenyevich‘s nephew, Alexander Alexandrovich Samsonov, the son of his own younger brother, People‘s Artist of the YASSR, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Alexander Parfenyevich Samsonov, shared his uncle‘s unique front-line memories. He stressed that Vladimir Parfenevich, when he was in Moscow, searched the archives for information about his fellow soldiers, found many of them and specially traveled to Moscow, Leningrad, Volgograd to meet with fellow soldiers.

Vladimir Ilyich Kozlov, a leading researcher at the SHICRA SB RAS, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, said that when he started working in the early 1970s, Vladimir Parfenevich was the scientific secretary of the institute. Vladimir Ilyich emphasized that of that generation of veterans who worked at the institute, Vladimir Parfenyevich was the kindest: “We were Komsomol members and when any problems and questions arose, we first of all wanted to turn to Vladimir Parfenyevich. And he solved any of our issues.“

Georgy Afanasievich Makarov, a leading researcher at the Institute, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and Igor Borisovich Ievenko, a senior researcher at the Institute, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, also shared their warm memories of Vladimir Parfenievich. Vladimir Samsonov‘s family and friends took part in the scientific session. “I convey to the staff of the SHICRA my gratitude for their warm memory of Dad. He would be glad and proud of them, young scientists who devoted themselves to the study of the new and unknown, discover unexplored facets of the universe — space and Earth, contribute to the progress and prosperity of our country. This is exactly what Dad dreamed of during the war — to explore, to create for the benefit of the people and the Motherland,“ said Vladimir Parfenevich’s daughter Elena Vladimirovna. She is a doctor, lives and works in Moscow. “I listened to the memories with great attention. I didn‘t know much about my grandfather‘s work due to my age,“ said Ekaterina Sergeevna Samsonova, Vladimir Parfenevich‘s granddaughter. The bizonality and spotty distribution of the auroras, which were studied by Vladimir Samsonov, were later partially confirmed as a result of satellite measurements, when it became possible to obtain snapshots. The main hypothesis of these properties is the inhomogeneity of the electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability of the underlying surface (bedrock) through which the geomagnetic field lines and corresponding currents pass. Until the end of his life, Vladimir Parfenevich was searching for an answer to the bizonal thin structure of the auroral oval. It was only after his death that some theories and new knowledge about the structure of the oval of the aurora appeared. Maria Efremova, press service of the FITC “YANC SB RAS“ Photo from the archive of the SHICRA named after Yu.G. Schafer FITZ “YANC SB RAS“