Recording optical flashes in the night atmosphere from CCD photometer

We present preliminary observational results of short-period variations in the night sky airglow at middle latitudes. Observations were performed by using a CCD-based photometer over 2016 December to 2017 March. The main objective of our study is to determine a possibility of using a CCD camera to record fast optical flashes, and check a capability to separate signals from satellites, meteors, ground lightning discharges, etc. We describe automatic algorithms to select a frame with a flash and to identify the flash type. Based on the primary database of flashes, a preliminary statistical analysis of the results of observations was performed.