Citizen Scientists Are Helping Map the Aurora Like Never Before

The aurora borealis that assume place on St. Patrick ’s daywas striking , but away from being thestrongest geomagnetic stormin a X , there ’s another reason it was special . It was the first clock time that chiliad of citizen scientists squeeze about the aurora to assist space weather scientists construct a detailed global map of the event .

“ Aurorasaurus ” is a project launched this class by an interdisciplinary squad of space scientists , computer scientist and science pedagogue , and supported by the National Science Foundation’sINSPIRE program . It ’s one of the very first citizen science efforts focalize on the northern lights . During the St. Patrick ’s day tempest , Aurorasaurus gathered over 35,000 dayspring - relate tweets and reports via the labor ’s website , iOS and Android apps . The undertaking assembled sightings , placed them on a function , and used the information to share over 361 notifications alarm citizen when the aurora might be visible in their area .

Here ’s a clock time - reverting showing how the number of report sighting change throughout the day on March 17th as auroral activity top out and diminished :

The image above and the two below were submit by citizen scientists through Aurorasaurus . The project is ongoing — the researchers desire to continue collecting information through its new platform as “ ground truth ” for better auroral models .

So even if you did n’t get to see this peculiar storm , hop on over toAurorasaurus , and with a little luck maybe you ’ll catch the next one . [ NASA Earth Observatory ]

image via NASA Earth Observatory

Dji Drone