Hi! Laura here. Over the past two years, I’ve been learning about the world of heliophysics—the science of the Sun and its relationship with the planets, which includes the auroras. Aurora science gets very abstract very quickly, so as someone without a science background I’ve found it helpful to build models of some of the… Read More »HelioCrafts: Aurora Color Earrings
by Laura Brandt (with lots of help from Dr. Liz!) Since joining Aurorasaurus, I have learned a lot about auroras and the ways aurora chasers and scientists describe them. I’ve been taking notes and want to share my list of key terms—by a newbie, for newbies, and reviewed by a subject matter expert—as a big… Read More »PANTS ON: A Newbie’s Guide to Aurora Terms
Laura here! I am an aurora enthusiast, but new to the science side. Fortunately, the Aurorasaurus blog and website are full of great resources that I’ll be sharing out as I cultivate my knowledge. One of these is the Space Weather Data page, a graph that shows the strength of solar wind power. In short,… Read More »Laura Learns Aurora: I’ve Got the Power!
Guest blog post. Dr. Minna Palmroth is Professor of Computational Space Physics and the Director of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space at the University of Helsinki, Finland. On June 15, 2020, Dr. Palmroth gave a presentation to the Aurorasaurus Ambassadors about the discovery of dune aurora, viewable on our YouTube… Read More »The discovery of the auroral dunes: How one thing led to another
In 2020, Aurorasaurus partnered with NASA’s STEAM Innovation Lab and NASA’s Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission (MMS) to design and create the world’s first 3D printed magnetosphere model. We have just released the beta version (1.0) and are excited for educators, Makers, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and the general public to beta test it on printers and… Read More »The Earth’s Magnetosphere—3D Printed!
by Aurorasaurus and Friends Last month we received a letter with some GREAT questions from a class of Manitoba 4th graders! Below we have compiled some answers, along with details and resources for teachers and caregivers to help students dive in further. For some questions, we asked our science and museum colleagues. Scientists know a lot… Read More »Asking Questions—Like Scientists!
Amateur Radio for Students and the General Public By Laura Brandt (museum educator), Connie Atkisson (teacher), and Liz MacDonald (scientist) Last fall, Dr. Liz and Laura got their Technician (entry-level) ham radio licenses as part of auditing a class for teachers, grad students, and undergrads on The Physics of Ham Radio taught by Rice University… Read More »Ham it Up—On the Air!
Laura here! I am an aurora enthusiast, but new to the science side. Fortunately, the Aurorasaurus blog and website are full of great resources that I’ll be sharing out as I cultivate my knowledge. You’re bundled up in warmth and ready to aurora-watch, and you hear the Kp index is 6. Is that a good… Read More »Laura Learns Aurora: Kp Index
Guest post by Jeremy Kuzub Attending AGU 20? Jeremy will be presenting Keogramist as a poster in The MacGyver Session: The Place for Novel, Exciting, Self-Made, Hacked, or Improved Sensors and Software Solutions to Understand Space Weather eLightning on December 15, 2020 at 6:00 AKT/7:00 PT/8:00 MT/9:00 CT/10:00 ET/15:00 UTC. There will be a Q&A element, so bring any questions… Read More »Eyes on the Aurora, Part 3: Exploring Over a Thousand Nights of Aurora on Your Phone
The plucky subauroral phenomenon STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) has struck again! Teamwork between citizen scientists and scientists Joshua Semeter, Michael Hunnekuhl, Elizabeth MacDonald, Michael Hirsch, Neil Zeller, Alexei Chernenkoff, and Jun Wang, has led to new information and new mysteries about features in STEVE’s dapper green picket fence structure. The team’s work—which includes… Read More »Aurora-Chasing Citizen Scientists Help Discover A New Feature of STEVE