Innovative Advances in Understanding Auroral Phenomena by Harnessing the Power of Citizen Science

极光或极光长期以来一直令生活在高纬度或在高纬度旅行的人类着迷。在强烈的地磁扰动期间，在大多数人类居住的中纬度地区可以看到极光。尽管进行了几十年的研究，但在对极光过程的理解方面仍然存在重大差距，对极光的准确预测仍然是一个特别的挑战。该奖项旨在利用业余极光观测者和现代通信技术来提高极光预报的准确性，并提供在极光重大扰动期间中纬度地区极光增强的额外特征。将开发同化数据技术，以便更好地利用业余极光图像，以提高预测能力。准确的极光预报对于建立下一代空间天气模型以及极光旅游业都很重要。该项目将加强公众对科学研究的参与，促进公众对空间天气影响的了解和认识。这项研究由两个部分组成：(1)开发一个最先进的极光模型，该模型可以吸收实时软测量数据(业余报告和成像仪)和现有经验模型，以增进对极光特性的了解；(2)利用高质量的公民科学图像，对中纬度地区的极光增强进行综合研究。这两个项目都有助于更好地了解近地等离子体环境不同部分之间的耦合。该项目将把实时软测量(人类)极光数据与现有的经验模型同化，这些数据在强扰动期间特别丰富，以减少源数据中的不确定性，并与当前的最先进技术相比，提供更好的关于极光椭圆形全球状态的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Auroral lights or aurora have long fascinated humans living or traveling at high latitudes. During strong geomagnetic disturbances aurora can be seen at middle latitudes where most human population lives. Despite decades of research, significant gaps remain in the understanding of auroral processes, with accurate predictions of the aurora remaining a particular challenge. This award seeks to utilize amateur auroral observers and modern communication technologies to improve accuracy of auroral predictions and provide additional characterization of auroral enhancements at middle latitudes during significant auroral disturbances. Assimilative data techniques will be developed to better utilize amateur auroral imagery to improve predictive capabilities. Accurate auroral forecasting is important for building the next generation of space weather models as well as for the auroral tourism industry. This project will enhance public engagement in scientific research and promote public understanding and awareness of space weather effects. Additional characterization of the aurora and related space weather phenomena will provide important feedback to communities that are responsible for protecting critical infrastructure during large geomagnetic disturbances.This study is composed of tw-o parts: (1) the development of a state-of-the-art auroral model that can assimilate real-time soft sensor data (amateur reports and imagers) with existing empirical models to improve knowledge of auroral oval specification and (2) a comprehensive study of middle-latitude auroral enhancements using high-quality citizen-science images. Both projects enable improved understanding of the coupling between different parts of the near-Earth plasma environment. The project will assimilate real-time soft sensor (human) aurora data, that is particularly abundant during strong disturbances, with existing empirical models to reduce uncertainties in the source data and provide improved knowledge of the global state of the auroral oval in comparison to the current state-of-the-art.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.