Citizen Science and Aurora: How Amateur Observers Have Shaped Space Weather Research

The discovery of STEVE — one of the most significant aurora-adjacent phenomena identified in recent decades — didn't begin in a research laboratory. It began with aurora photographers sharing images in online communities and asking why a particular mauve ribbon kept appearing in their shots. That story illustrates something important about aurora science: the sky is too large and the phenomena too varied for professional researchers alone to track, and citizen observers have made genuinely meaningful contributions to space weather research as a result.

What Aurora Citizen Science Is

Aurora citizen science is the practice of non-professional observers contributing real-time sightings, photographs, and reports to scientific databases that researchers use to validate models, track rare phenomena, and improve forecast accuracy. Unlike many citizen science projects where contributions are passive data collection, aurora citizen science often involves active visual observation and photography — skills that aurora travelers and photographers already develop in the course of pursuing the northern lights for their own reasons.

The primary platform for aurora citizen science is Aurorasaurus, a project developed with support from NASA and the National Science Foundation that aggregates aurora sightings from both social media monitoring and direct user reports. Observers log their location, the time, and what they saw — including structured forms, colors, and any unusual phenomena. These reports are used to validate and refine the aurora viewline in real time and to track rare events like STEVE and the picket fence across large geographic areas.

How Citizen Science Has Shaped Aurora Research

The STEVE story is the clearest example of citizen science impact on aurora research. The Alberta Aurora Chasers — a Canadian community of aurora photographers — accumulated enough consistent photographic documentation of the mauve ribbon to bring it to the attention of University of Calgary researchers. Analysis of satellite data alongside the citizen reports confirmed that STEVE was a previously undescribed phenomenon, and the subsequent peer-reviewed research opened an entirely new area of space weather investigation. Citizen photographers didn't just observe STEVE; their systematic documentation was the research trigger.

Beyond STEVE, citizen science contributions have improved the accuracy of real-time viewline estimates. When Aurorasaurus aggregates reports of aurora sightings from across a continent during a major geomagnetic storm, the resulting data refines model-based viewline predictions with ground-truth confirmation — producing a more accurate picture of actual visibility extent than the OVATION model alone provides. Reports of unusual aurora forms, timing anomalies, and unexpected visibility at low latitudes feed back into research that improves future forecasting. For more on the solar activity that drives these events, see our overview of solar cycles and the northern lights.

What Citizen Science Means for Aurora Travelers

For travelers, citizen science participation adds a layer of engagement to aurora watching that extends beyond the experience itself. Logging a sighting on Aurorasaurus during or after an active night takes a few minutes and contributes data that researchers actually use. During major storm events, the density of reports from across the continent helps scientists understand the spatial extent of the event in ways that satellite data alone cannot capture.

Citizen science platforms also function as real-time information sources during active events. During a significant storm, Aurorasaurus aggregates reports from observers across the northern hemisphere, giving travelers a crowdsourced sense of how widespread and active the event is — useful context for deciding how long to stay outside or whether conditions are still developing. Our Northern Lights Tour in Fairbanks encourages guests to document and share their observations — both for their own records and as contributions to the broader aurora-watching community.

What Citizen Science Means for Photographers

For aurora photographers, citizen science participation creates a direct connection between the images they're already taking and scientific research. Submitting unusual aurora photographs — particularly anything that doesn't match conventional aurora borealis forms, or any possible STEVE or picket fence sightings — to Aurorasaurus or directly to research groups gives those images scientific context beyond their aesthetic value.

The citizen science community also functions as a practical information network. Active aurora photography communities — particularly groups in Facebook, Reddit, and dedicated forums — share real-time sighting reports, alert each other to developing activity, and discuss unusual phenomena as they appear. For photographers who aren't able to be in the field every night, these networks provide near-continuous coverage of aurora activity across the auroral zone, with photographic documentation that helps calibrate what a given night's conditions looked like from the ground.

Return to the full Northern Lights Glossary to continue through the Forecasting and Observation Tools section.