A recent All-sky camera photo of the northern lights or aurora, a natural light display in the sky, predominantly seen in the high latitude regions. Courtesy/NMC
NMC News:
The New Mexico Consortium (NMC) is launching a new citizen science platform today called Aurorasaurus that allows the public to track auroras in real-time using their smartphones and the project website.
The public can help researchers track auroras on their desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Courtesy/NMC
This NSF funded project provides data to help space scientists understand the mechanics behind the beautiful green and red light phenomenon in the sky.
Auroras, also known as the northern lights, are a natural light display in the sky caused by charged particles from near Earth space exciting neutral particles in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Space scientists still lack an understanding of many specific mechanics of auroras, such as what causes their intricate shapes and how to accurately predict the strength of activity driven by the Sun.
To answer these scientific mysteries, the Aurorasaurus project team is recruiting the general public to track auroras via social media, providing scientists an abundant source of valuable data points during this upcoming year. This upcoming year is a solar maximum year—a period that occurs every 11 years when the sun is extremely active—and is expected to have an increased number of auroras. This is the first solar maximum with social media.
“We can watch the Sun much more accurately than we can predict its effects on Earth 93 million miles away. Our goal is to collect new data from citizen scientists and crowdsourcing to allow actionable, up to the minute understanding of auroral activity,” said Dr. Elizabeth MacDonald, NMC Research Scientist and Aurorasaurus founder.
Citizen scientists can report and verify any aurora sightings using the Aurorasaurus iOS and Android apps or the project website, www.Aurorasaurus.org. The public can register via Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ to receive email and location based notifications and points on the Aurorasaurus leaderboard. Aurorasaurus also features a map showing real time aurora sightings, the weather, as well as the ability to check solar wind power. A space weather blog with news features, general information about recent auroral events, and a forum allowing users to ask questions to space scientists is another first.
The Aurorasaurus Scientist Network features 10 scientists and is expanding. Social media can be a powerful tool.
“Using citizen science and real time data, this website can operate at scale, and change the way we provide information about solar storms, which will allow a more accurate “nowcast” of the visibility of the Northern Lights for the public,” Dr. MacDonald said.
This fascinating and powerful website is easy to understand. Register on the website to receive notifications of when the aurora is seen near you. Don’t forget to download our app for your smartphone (iOS or Android). This website is available due to funding by the Integrated NSF Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education (INSPIRE) program.
For more information, email aurorasaurus.info@gmail.com.
About the New Mexico Consortium
The New Mexico Consortium (NMC) is an innovative effort to engage universities and industry in scientific research in the nation’s interest and to increase the role of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in science, education and economic development. This non-profit corporation formed by the three New Mexico research universities focuses on facilitating collaborations at the Laboratory interface.
The NMC leverages capabilities at LANL, universities and industry and provides agile and accountable operations to execute joint initiatives. The NMC develops and manages self-sustaining research facilities to support these joint initiatives. Through the NMC, the universities and LANL have developed more effective models to advance our nations interests and increase the impact of scientific research on the local and national economy.
