Please excuse the slight delay in posting this while we underwent tech updates on our blog. While our favorite quirky purple arc has been observed for millennia, we want to celebrate one highlight in its relationship with humanity. STEVE (“Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement”) is a purplish arc with stripy green ray features that runs… Read More »Celebrating STEVE and You!
Originally posted to NASA’s The Sun Spot blog NASA’s citizen science projects are collaborations between scientists and interested members of the public. Through these collaborations, volunteers known as citizen scientists have helped make thousands of important scientific discoveries. Aurorasaurus is one such project that tracks auroras around the world in real time via reports on… Read More »Like an Outdoor Nightclub: Q&A on Pulsating Auroras
Guest post by Aurorasaurus Ambassador Hugo Sanchez One of the things we love about the Aurorasaurus community is the wealth and variety of experience in aurora chasing. Each chaser has unique expertise to share, and while with so many locations around the world no aurora chasing guide is one size fits all, each provides useful… Read More »Chasing the Northern Lights!
My backstory with the Aurora and Aurorasaurus The moment I saw my first aurora is forever ingrained in my memory. The Halloween Storms of 2003 left the night skies above my Minnesota house dancing with green and purple lights, and seeing them at four years old as I walked down my neighborhood street, trick-or-treating with… Read More »Sharing the story: Aurorasaurus Intern Vince
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
Guest post: Laura Brandt joins the Aurorasaurus team as Project Manager and reflects on her first experience viewing the aurora in Iceland.
Jordan, an 8th grade student from Calgary, recently won the Rideau Park Science Fair with her poster on the new STEVE phenomena. Jordan tells Aurorasaurus more about her project and interest in aurora in this Q&A article. Read through to the end for some questions she asked Dr. Liz MacDonald, Aurorasaurus founder, also!
Andøya Space Center, Andenes, Norway January 22, 2018 In January of 2018, I traveled to Andøya Space Center in Andenes, Norway, to attend a four day rocket field school. My name is Hannah Gulick, and I am a sophomore at the University of Iowa studying astronomy, physics, and creative writing. I went as one of… Read More »The Ultimate Undergraduate Field School Researching Auroras and Rockets in Norway
Liz got to meet up with the Alberta Aurora Chasers, see aurora on her first two nights in Canada (including her first sighting of STEVE!), and have daytime fun too. Read all about it!
Aurora only occur in particular areas of the world and are highly unpredictable which are some of the reasons why many people feel fortunate to see them at all. And, for the majority of known human history, you could only experience the beauty and mystique of aurora in person. Not anymore! Recently, the first virtual… Read More »Check out Virtual Reality Aurora!