Determining the accuracy of crowdsourced tweet verification for auroral research

The Aurorasaurus citizen science project harnesses volunteer crowdsourcing to identify sightings of an aurora (or the "northern/southern lights") posted by citizen scientists on Twitter. Previous studies have demonstrated that aurora sightings can be mined from Twitter but with the caveat that there is a high level of accompanying non-sighting tweets, especially during periods of low auroral activity. Aurorasaurus attempts to mitigate this, and thus increase the quality of its Twitter sighting data, by utilizing volunteers to sift through a pre-filtered list of geo-located tweets to verify real-time aurora sightings. In this study, the current implementation of this crowdsourced verification system, including the process of geo-locating tweets, is described and its accuracy (which, overall, is found to be 68.4%) is determined. The findings suggest that citizen science volunteers are able to accurately filter out unrelated, spam-like, Twitter data but struggle when filtering out somewhat related, yet undesired, data. The citizen scientists particularly struggle with determining the real-time nature of the sightings and care must therefore be taken when relying on crowdsourced identification

Transit Photometry of Recently Discovered Hot Jupiters

The University of North Dakota Space Studies Internet Observatory was used to observe the transits of hot Jupiter exoplanets. Targets for this research were selected from the list of currently confirmed exoplanets using the following criteria: radius > 0.5 Rjup, discovered since 2011, orbiting stars with apparent magnitude > 13. Eleven transits were observed distributed across nine targets with the goal of performing differential photometry for parameter refinement and transit timing variation analysis if data quality allowed. Data quality was ultimately insufficient for robust parameter refinement, but tentative calculations of mid-transit times were made of three of the observed transits. Mid-transit times for WASP-103b and WASP-48b were consistent with predictions and the existing database

Atmospheric transmission spectroscopy of hot Jupiter KELT-10b using synthetic telluric correction software

High-resolution spectroscopic visible data were obtained with the Ultraviolet and Visible Echelle Spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope. Our goal was to analyze the data in an effort to detect the presence of sodium in the atmosphere of hot Jupiter exoplanet KELT-10b, as well as characterize the orbit of the planet via the Rossiter- McLaughlin effect. Eighty spectra were collected during a single transit of KELT-10b. After standard spectroscopic calibration using ESO-Reflex, the synthetic telluric modeling software molecfit was applied to remove terrestrial atmospheric effects, and to refine the wavelength calibration. Sodium is recognized by its characteristic absorption doublet located at 5895.924 and 5889.951 Å, which can be seen in the planet atmosphere transmission spectrum and through excess absorption during the transit. The radial velocity of the host star was analyzed by measuring the average shift of absorption features from spectrum to spectrum. Our results indicate a sodium detection in the planet transmission spectrum with a line contrast of 0.66% and 0.43% ± 0.09% for the sodium DII and DI lines, respectively. Excess absorption measurements agree to within one half combined standard deviation between the planet transmission spectrum (0.143% ± 0.020%, a 7σ detection) and during the time series (0.124% ± 0.034%, a 3.6σ detection) in a band 1.25 Å wide. The wavelength grid corrections provided by molecfit were insufficient to determine radial velocities and measure the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect

The real-time state of the aurora:a research to operations need with a citizen science solution?

A prototype citizen science application called Aurorasaurus has been developed and launched in 2014. The goal of this platform is crowdsourcing observations of the aurora in real-time in order to assess global visibility of the aurora for the public. Users can submit observations, verify relevant social media observations, learn about the aurora, and receive location-based alerts based on verified reports, all in near real-time. The size and distribution of the citizen scientist community around the world has tremendous potential both for documenting the visible manifestations of global space weather impacts as well as providing quality control on the reported sightings. Information with high spatial and temporal resolution of the largest, most dynamic and mysterious space weather events is made possible by this solution, and this data can be integrated with other ground and space based measures of auroral activity. We will present initial results during the large geomagnetic events of 2015 and comparison to other measures of auroral activity. Our findings indicate the prototype application can be a valuable tool for real-time aurora knowledge and should be included in discussions of real-time aurora nowcasting needs. We will discuss those needs and assess the feasibility of available systems for meeting them

Crowd-sourcing, communicating, and improving auroral science at the speed of social media through Aurorasaurus.org

On March 17, 2015, a geomagnetic storm—the largest of the solar cycle to date— hit Earth and gave many sky watchers around the world a beautiful auroral display. People made thousands of aurora-related tweets and direct reports to Aurorasaurus.org, an interdisciplinary citizen science project that tracks auroras worldwide in real-time through social media and the project’s apps and website. Through Aurorasaurus, researchers are converting these crowdsourced observations into valuable data points to help improve models of where aurora can be seen. In this presentation, we will highlight how the team communicates with the public during these global, sporadic events to help drive and retain participation for Aurorasaurus. We will highlight some of the co-produced scientific results and increased media interest following this event. Aurorasaurus uses mobile apps, blogging, and a volunteer scientist network to reach out to aurora enthusiasts to engage in the project. Real-time tweets are voted on by other users to verify their accuracy and are pinned on a map located on aurorasaurus.org to help show the instantaneous, global auroral visibility. Since the project launched in October 2014, hundreds of users have documented the two largest geomagnetic storms of this solar cycle. In some cases, like for the St. Patrick’s Day storm, users even reported seeing aurora in areas different than aurora models suggested. Online analytics indicate these events drive users to our page and many also share images with various interest groups on social media. While citizen scientists provide observations, Aurorasaurus gives back by providing tools to help the public see and understand the aurora. When people verify auroral sightings in a specific area, the project sends out alerts to nearby users of possible auroral visibility. Aurorasaurus team members around the world also help the public understand the intricacies of space weather and aurora science through blog articles, infographics, and quizzes. The project holds public engagement events during large storms via social media “hangouts” where anyone can ask our space weather scientists questions on the recent activity. Focused on long-term engagement, we will discuss our strategies for expanding and retaining this new community and lessons learned

Residential Rain Water Harvesting (Semester Unknown) IPRO 344: ResidentialRainWaterHarvestingIPRO344FinalPresentationSu10

There is evidence that people have been harvesting rainwater since 4000BC. The Roman Empire developed an intricate infrastructure to direct water to be used for irrigation and sanitary purposes. For the most part, modern society has abandoned the practice of harvesting rainwater because water sources have been plentiful and inexpensive. Residents have become accustom to turning on the tap and receiving potable water from their Municipal Authority or a free standing well. Essentially rainwater is undervalued and as such has not been given the priority it deserves. This circumstance is rapidly changing as fresh water is becoming more difficult to acquire. Municipalities are raising the price of water, adding regulations to restrict its use and promoting the rapid growth of investment in „green‟ lifestyle solutions. These actions are increasing public awareness of the need to reduce our “water footprint” and a willingness to invest in conservation systems. In urban settings, two-thirds of the water provided by municipalities goes to residential properties. In a typical single family home, 70 percent of the water used annually is used in toilets and outside the home for lawn irrigation, gardens, washing cars, swimming pools etc. These applications could successfully utilize non-potable water, if a reliable source existed for capturing and recycling it in a convenient and affordable way. This IPRO will develop and test a system targeted at homeowners for rainwater harvest.Deliverable

Residential Rain Water Harvesting (Semester Unknown) IPRO 344: ResidentialRainWaterHarvestingIPRO344FianlReportSu10_redacted

There is evidence that people have been harvesting rainwater since 4000BC. The Roman Empire developed an intricate infrastructure to direct water to be used for irrigation and sanitary purposes. For the most part, modern society has abandoned the practice of harvesting rainwater because water sources have been plentiful and inexpensive. Residents have become accustom to turning on the tap and receiving potable water from their Municipal Authority or a free standing well. Essentially rainwater is undervalued and as such has not been given the priority it deserves. This circumstance is rapidly changing as fresh water is becoming more difficult to acquire. Municipalities are raising the price of water, adding regulations to restrict its use and promoting the rapid growth of investment in „green‟ lifestyle solutions. These actions are increasing public awareness of the need to reduce our “water footprint” and a willingness to invest in conservation systems. In urban settings, two-thirds of the water provided by municipalities goes to residential properties. In a typical single family home, 70 percent of the water used annually is used in toilets and outside the home for lawn irrigation, gardens, washing cars, swimming pools etc. These applications could successfully utilize non-potable water, if a reliable source existed for capturing and recycling it in a convenient and affordable way. This IPRO will develop and test a system targeted at homeowners for rainwater harvest.Deliverable

Residential Rain Water Harvesting (Semester Unknown) IPRO 344: ResidentialRainWaterHarvestingIPRO344MidTermPresentationSu10

There is evidence that people have been harvesting rainwater since 4000BC. The Roman Empire developed an intricate infrastructure to direct water to be used for irrigation and sanitary purposes. For the most part, modern society has abandoned the practice of harvesting rainwater because water sources have been plentiful and inexpensive. Residents have become accustom to turning on the tap and receiving potable water from their Municipal Authority or a free standing well. Essentially rainwater is undervalued and as such has not been given the priority it deserves. This circumstance is rapidly changing as fresh water is becoming more difficult to acquire. Municipalities are raising the price of water, adding regulations to restrict its use and promoting the rapid growth of investment in „green‟ lifestyle solutions. These actions are increasing public awareness of the need to reduce our “water footprint” and a willingness to invest in conservation systems. In urban settings, two-thirds of the water provided by municipalities goes to residential properties. In a typical single family home, 70 percent of the water used annually is used in toilets and outside the home for lawn irrigation, gardens, washing cars, swimming pools etc. These applications could successfully utilize non-potable water, if a reliable source existed for capturing and recycling it in a convenient and affordable way. This IPRO will develop and test a system targeted at homeowners for rainwater harvest.Deliverable