 Let's move up into the atmosphere, way up to where the auroras dance across our skies. In order to track the appearance of auroras across the globe, NASA supports a citizen science project called AuroraSaurus, where volunteers submit reports and photographs through a mobile app and website. With all of this data from users around the planet, researchers are able to learn more about this mysterious and dazzling phenomenon. I'm joined by NASA scientist Dr. Elizabeth McDonald and citizen scientist Donna Locke. Thank you so much for joining us. Hi, thank you for including me. Hi, thanks. Of course. So, Elizabeth, why is it an important area of research to have these citizen scientists contribute regarding auroras? Yeah, so auroras affect our technologies on Earth and in the sky, in satellites, and they move really quickly. And it's important to get an understanding of what they're doing, even when they're really quiet or really large. And citizen scientists can really help with that. Amazing. So, Donna, you are a citizen scientist with this project. Can you kind of walk us through what contributing looks like? Sure. What AuroraSaurus wants is our observations from the ground, wherever we are. So we are their boots in the ground, eyes to the sky. And it starts with me watching the forecast for the aurora and the solar activity, listening to the chatter on Twitter and our Facebook groups. And when the conditions are right and the sky is clear, I head out with my camera. And I will take pictures of the aurora. And after that, I will report by going online to AuroraSaurus or on their app. But we would give them our observations and upload a photo of what we saw on the ground. Wow. And Elizabeth, how does that help you with your research? Well, knowing exactly what time it was and where the person was when they saw the aurora allows us to put all of those different images together along with our traditional observations and understand the phenomena in more depth. What kind of discoveries have citizen scientists made with this project? So one big one is something called Steve, which is actually an aurora that can be seen further away from the poles than the usual aurora. So overhead over Southern Canada and the Northern US. And it's very unusual. It kind of looks like an airplane condensation trail. But with a photograph, you can pick up these amazing colors as well. And by studying it further with satellite data and other data from the ground, we've discovered it's really like a flow driven aurora. It's an east to west flow that is lighting up the sky and doing some amazing kind of new unusual aurora, auroral activity that's still being studied now. Wow. That is amazing. So I've only seen auroras in videos and images. What is it like to see it firsthand? From my latitude in Southern Manitoba, it just looks like a white light, maybe with a green tint to it. When it's active, then sometimes I can see the pink fringe along the bottom. And sometimes I can also see the red that goes high above. But most of the time, it's only about 30 degrees above the horizon where I am. Once in a while, it will go overhead. And it starts with just a low band. If we get to a substorm, then it will start dancing for about 30 seconds to about 20 minutes. And that's the very exciting part that we want to photograph. And after that is a very subtle pulsating, pulsating aurora that is difficult to actually see with the eyes, but the camera can really capture it beautifully. That is just amazing. And so we only have a couple seconds left. But do you have a couple pieces of advice for people that want to get involved? I would say please join us because it's a very exciting thing to be involved with, to be able to report and share what I see. I'm not a scientist. I don't have a great camera. I'm not a professional, but I can be involved in something that's really important. And right now in this time of social distancing, we're looking for something to do outside. And we can do this on our own. We don't need to worry about social distancing. And we can link arms with everyone across the globe to be a part of something very exciting like this. Yeah, virtually we can get together. And also it's really a great bridge between the public and the scientific community. And it spurs a lot of great communication and questions about what we're seeing. So yeah, we encourage people to join us. Be patient. The sun, we have to wait for the sun and the sky to be clear. And that can take a while, but you can join our community and learn more in the meantime. So everyone is welcome. Awesome. Thank you both so much. Thank you.