Guest post by Aurorasaurus Ambassador Jeremy Kuzub This article is the second of three about how researchers and citizen scientists record and explore years of auroral activity using all-sky cameras, keograms, and software visualizations. The first post is available here. Looking Up The first step in aurora borealis research is just looking up at the night… Read More »Eyes on the Aurora, Part 2: What is a Keogram?
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
by Kasha Patel Reposted from NASA Earth Observatory Every summer in the Northern Hemisphere, electric blue streaks form high in the atmosphere. These seasonal clouds typically lurk about 80 kilometers (50 miles) overhead in the mesosphere around the Arctic, but every once in a while they form at lower latitudes. In 2019, the clouds showed up in places where… Read More »Another Lively Season of Night-Shining Clouds
Guest post by Vincent Ledvina
Aurora citizen science often involves gazing at the sky outdoors, but there is a lot of learning and citizen science that can be done from home! In this post, we have compiled some resources for families, students, and aurora enthusiasts. Best of all, we are here for you if you have questions on this material—tweet… Read More »Exploring Aurora from Home
In Spring, the Aurorasaurus Reawakens! During Solar Minimum, even Aurorasauruses hibernate a little. But with new funding, Aurorasaurus is coming back with an update! Over the next months, you’ll see updates to our website and tools. This status update is current as of May 1, 2020. Behind the Scenes The mastermind behind this revitalization is… Read More »In Spring, the Aurorasaurus Reawakens!
A summary of a groundbreaking new paper by Dr. Michael Hunnekuhl and Dr. Liz MacDonald, published in Space Weather with open access: “Early Ground-Based Work by Auroral Pioneer Carl Størmer on the High Altitude Detached Subauroral Arcs now known as STEVE.” In 2018, STEVE took the world by (solar) storm. The quirky little subauroral arc… Read More »When Størmer Met STEVE
Each year, Goddard Space Flight Center holds a collegial poster party for scientists and engineers to showcase their ongoing research. One of the award categories is “Best Science as Food.” What better opportunity to try ideas for hands-on education? Aurorasaurus and our colleagues Dr. Anne-Marie Novo-Gradac and Dr. Kevin Novo-Gradac decided to represent the Heliophysics department by coming up… Read More »Nerdy Science Recipes for Your Next Party!
What are those dark spots on the sun? Coronal holes! In this repost, guest blogger Michael Kirk explains what a coronal hole is and tells us about current and upcoming research into the field.
NASA SEES summer intern Anna MacLennan reflects on her experience on the Earth From Space Aerospace Engineering team designing a satellite and creating experiments to study STEVE.