Citizen science project set up to track northern lights
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029437
New Scientist : The aurora borealis, or northern lights, is a natural light display usually seen only at high latitudes, primarily in the Arctic. Auroras are produced when Earth’s magnetic field is disturbed by the solar wind, which causes electrons and protons in the atmosphere to get excited and emit light of different colors. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration makes predictions of where the best light displays will occur. This year, however, the displays have been particularly spectacular and visible much farther south than predicted by NOAA. To try to provide more accurate predictions, a citizen science project called Aurorasaurus has been set up to combine sightings by the public with data from NOAA.
