First, thank you for being part of the Aurorasaurus community. Every observation you have shared has helped build something remarkable. We’re excited to announce the release of more than a decade of Aurorasaurus citizen science data. To make this resource as useful as possible, Dr. Liz MacDonald and post-bachelor researcher Feras Natsheh have further refined… Read More »A solar cycle of data: Aurorasaurus reports 2014-2025
While the Sun appears constant, in terms of heliophysics the Sun varies naturally and goes through significant daily variations. With solar maximum in the recent past, a common question about auroras is: are they caused by sunspots? As with a lot of aurora science, the answer is somewhat complicated, and includes several phenomena that are… Read More »How are sunspots related to auroras?
What an incredible storm we had November 11-13, 2025! We have been so excited to see the beautiful pictures and thrilling sightings you had from all over the world! We have an amazing community, and we are so grateful for every report. We are also often approached by aurora chasers who ask, “What are you… Read More »A wish list for aurora reports
On October 10-11, 2024, the aurora danced through skies across the globe. The storm was driven by a large, fast coronal mass ejection that had launched directly at the Earth about 38 hours before, and was heralded by a long-duration, very strong X1.8 class solar flare. During both the October and May 10-12 storms, the… Read More »Aurora World Tour—Again!
With special thanks to Dr. Janet Kozyra for her generous contributions to this post. After a big storm sends aurora to lower latitudes—southward in the Northern Hemisphere, and northward in the Southern Hemisphere—questions abound. One of the most common is “I thought the aurora was green. Why does it look red?” Red auroras have been… Read More »Why do auroras at lower latitudes look red?
As loved ones gathered to celebrate the winter holidays, we were thinking about the many relationships between aurora and aurora-like phenomena in the sky. In this post, we introduce the aurora and some of the amazing phenomena related to it, closely or distantly. If you have a photo and wonder which phenomena might be present… Read More »An Aurora Family Reunion
Space weather—the everchanging conditions in space, influenced by the Sun—causes a range of different effects on Earth. These happen in many different timeframes for people, technologies, and societies. One such effect is the aurora: the Northern and Southern Lights. Usually, they occur in high-latitude rings around the North and South Poles called auroral ovals, but… Read More »When Can I See the Aurora?
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 the early morning hours of July 13, a slow-moving coronal mass ejection from the Sun arrived early on its journey to Earth. That afternoon, word spread across social media in Europe, Canada, and the US: there might be aurora tonight. No one knew, however, whether it would last long enough for this part of Earth… Read More »A Frenzy of Sky Phenomena: Reflections on a Once-in-a-Lifetime Chase
Over the past decade, Aurorasaurus has grown from a persistent idea in the mind of Dr. Liz MacDonald to a worldwide initiative that has contributed research and discoveries to aurora science. At its heart, Aurorasaurus is a community effort, only possible through the contributions of thousands of citizen scientists, scientific experts, team members and volunteers.… Read More »It Takes a Community to Raise Aurorasaurus: Gratitude and Retrospective