Citizen science, as its name implies, is scientific research carried out by non-expert citizens, often supervised by scientists. Though many kinds of citizen science that exist across the physical and social science disciplines, there exist many projects related especially to space science. You don’t require a science degree or even any prior knowledge in a lot of cases, just a curious mind, and a desire for scientific discovery would be sufficient. For these purposes, the Solar Stormwatch project is launched, a citizen science project where volunteers recognize and trace CMEs in remote-sensing images of space. Here we will discuss some interesting facts about the Solar Stormwatch II project.
About Solar Stormwatch II
Solar Stormwatch II is a citizen science project launched by zooninverse that uses data from the NASA STEREO mission to track eruptions of material from the solar atmosphere as they develop through the inner solar system. Scientists are seeking curious volunteers who may help them spot eruptions on the Sun and trace them across space to Earth. Your contribution may give astronauts an early warning if deadly solar radiation is headed their way. And you could make a new scientific breakthrough.
Solar Stormwatch isn’t just about analyzing data. You may talk to other members on their forum, sign up for their space weather forecast from Twitter, and read about the latest developments on their blog. You can also observe how solar storms affect Earth at their Flickr group Aurora chasers, featuring beautiful images of aurora.
Moreover, computers are not good at classifying the solar storms from the image background, so they are seeking your help again!
How to participate in Solar Stormwatch II?
In Solar Stormwatch II, you don’t need to be a science expert to be a splendid solar storm watcher. However, if you’d like to understand more about what you’re looking at, you may explore their stunning and interactive zoomable diagrams to figure out about the Sun and the STEREO spacecraft monitoring it and can also check the profiles of all the scientists involved in the project.
You just have to visit Solar StormWatch, create your own profile, and enjoy helping! So far, over 6,000 volunteers have taken part in Solar Stormwatch II, resulting in nearly 178,967 classifications. However, they still require more passionate volunteers to complete the datasets. If you are keen to join the effort, please visit www.solarstormwatch.com and help complete the dataset!
Enroll yourself now!
Collaboration in citizen science includes scientists and researchers working with the public. Passionate volunteers, amateur scientists, students, and educators may collaborate and promote new ideas to improve our understanding of the world. With the citizen’s cooperation, Solar Stormwatch will allow solar scientists to better understand these potentially dangerous storms and help to determine their arrival time on Earth.
At a time when science struggles for dominance over opinion, experts are increasingly requesting help from amateur enthusiasts to collect and examine data. There’s growth in both acceptance and cooperation in citizen science.
