General citizen science and humanities

[Randi]

Hello!

My name is Maria Santos and I serve as the Communications Lead for NASA’s Citizen Science Program. I am happy to share that NASA’s Citizen Science Program will be featured on this week’s NASA Science Live show. The episode, which premieres tomorrow, Wednesday, December 16th will highlight a few of NASA’s Citizen Science projects. This is really special because it gives viewers an opportunity to JOIN IN, to not only learn about great scientific collaborations between NASA scientists and volunteers, but also learn about ways they can get involved with NASA science.

We hope that this episode can enhance awareness of NASA’s Citizen Science projects, as well as increase participation in these projects. I hope you are able to join us and watch, and encourage everyone you know to also tune in!

NASA Science Live: You Too Can Do NASA Science
Date: Wednesday, Dec. 16
Time: 3:00 – 3:30pm ET
Description: No matter who you are or where you are, YOU can participate in the science done at NASA and make new discoveries alongside NASA scientists. Watch #NASAScience Live Wednesday, Dec. 16 at 3:00 p.m. ET to hear from people around the globe about how they’re doing NASA science and learn how you too can get involved with NASA’s citizen science projects and @DoNASAScience. The 30-minute episode will highlight 4 projects, but to learn about all of the opportunities to get involved in NASA Science, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience

YouTube: https://youtube.com/embed/TURJhJB9F-Y
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NASA/posts/10158813958586772
Periscope: Will not be available until show time. Will air on @NASA Periscope
NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/live

The episode covers 4 citizen science projects:

Disk Detective
Science: Astrophysics (Universe)
Description: Somewhere out there, new planets are forming. Planets form from vast clouds of gas, dust, and chunks of rock---clouds in the shape of disks, with baby stars in the center. You can help astronomers find where planets are forming by searching for stars that are surrounded by these disks.

NeMO-Net
Science: Earth Science
Description: Coral reefs are one of the most important systems in the ocean. Help us assess the health of coral reefs around the world! NeMO-Net is a game where players help NASA classify coral reefs by painting 3D and 2D images of coral. Each classification you make will help researchers better understand how coral reefs are changing, and ultimately, find a way to save these amazing underwater worlds.

International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC)
Science: Solar System
Description: Help us search for asteroids and comets! By analyzing high-quality NASA data, teams of citizen scientists around the world help scientists make original astronomical discoveries.

Aurorasaurus
Science: Heliophysics (Sun)
Description: Help scientists track auroras around the world! Aurora sighting reports serve as valuable data for scientists to analyze and incorporate into space weather models. This can help with predicting geomagnetic storms that lead to auroras and other space weather threats.

Don’t forget to follow NASA Citizen Science @DoNASAScience on Facebook and Twitter!

Thank you!
Maria

[Caro]

Anybody interested?
Collective Wisdom: the Volunteer Voice.

[Hanibal94]

I replied. One of the things I listed under "What makes a crowdsourcing project great?" was "A friendly and welcoming community of volunteers"

[Michael]

Right on!!!

[Randi]

And you can only have that in a real forum

[AvastMH]

Given that it's the Arts I hope that you directed them to the Dockside Gallery, Chris

And you are right about the forum. A decent forum is the backbone of a good project.

[Randi]

For the birds....

Two projects from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

• https://nestwatch.org/

  NestWatch is a nationwide monitoring program designed to track status and trends in the reproductive biology of birds, including when nesting occurs, number of eggs laid, how many eggs hatch, and how many hatchlings survive. Our database is intended to be used to study the current condition of breeding bird populations and how they may be changing over time as a result of climate change, habitat degradation and loss, expansion of urban areas, and the introduction of non-native plants and animals.

• https://feederwatch.org/

  Project FeederWatch turns your love of feeding birds into scientific discoveries. FeederWatch is a November-April survey of birds that visit backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. You don’t even need a feeder! All you need is an area with plantings, habitat, water or food that attracts birds. The schedule is completely flexible. Count your birds for as long as you like on days of your choosing, then enter your counts online.

[Randi]

WHAT IS WALRUS FROM SPACE:

• Walrus are facing the reality of the climate crisis and we need to know more about how they are affected.
• WWF and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are asking the public to become ‘walrus detectives’ and help contribute to conservation science by spending as little as thirty minutes searching for walrus in thousands of satellite images taken from space.
• The project aims to carry out a census of Atlantic and Laptev walrus populations over five years, which will help scientists to spot changes over time.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND WALRUS:

• The climate crisis is having a significant impact on the Arctic, with this polar region warming almost three times faster than the global average.
• Walrus rely on sea ice, but the warming world is melting the ice from beneath them.
• Resting on land (as opposed to sea ice) may force walrus to swim further and expend more energy to reach their food (which is also being impacted by the climate crisis) and reduces the region that they can search. 
• The Arctic Ocean is becoming more acidic as it absorbs carbon dioxide. This makes it difficult for animals like bivalve molluscs (clams), sea snails and crabs – the main prey of walrus – to build their shells. 
• Walrus can also be disturbed by shipping traffic and industrial development as the Arctic becomes more accessible to such activities when sea ice is lost.
• As the Arctic is a vast and changing place we simply don’t know enough yet about how many walrus there are, the trends in their population and how the climate crisis is affecting them.

Learn more and/or Sign up

---

From the Washington Post:
Where’s walrus? Scientists seek public ‘detectives’ to spot giant animals from space.

[AvastMH]

It was mentioned on the BBC news this am. They have 600,000 pictures and reckon to need 500,000+ people to help mark them. If it's anything like PenguinWatch those pictures should take a weekend to knock off. Got to say that the aerial pictures of penguin nest sites did rather stump the usual crowd, and especially any less experienced volunteers. I would hope that the walrus would be easier.
Good luck to the walrus - I'll certainly drop in to give it a go.
It's got a fun introduction video

[Randi]

Dear NASA/Zooniverse Citizen Scientists,

We wanted to let you all know about a new NASA citizen science project: Mountain Rain or Snow

Have you ever noticed snow falling when the air temperature is above freezing? Your eyes aren’t deceiving you! Temperatures near freezing can bring rain or snow, posing a real challenge for water managers who need to know how much precipitation falls as what type. More accurately predicting rain vs. snow is important for understanding our snowpack and year-round water availability.

You can be part of the team that is solving this problem by sending real-time observations of winter weather. Together, we are improving our understanding of the rain-snow transition temperature, which is used in weather forecasts and hydrologic models. Normally, we use weather stations to observe air temperature and precipitation, with computer models or mathematical relationships indicating whether it is raining or snowing. However, there are inconsistencies with the current models. With help from weather spotters, Mountain Rain or Snow recorded evidence of snow consistently falling at above-freezing temperatures in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Anyone can submit an observation at any time via your smartphone, laptop, desktop, tablet, or any other device with a browser by visiting https://rainorsnow.app/surveys. Please check out the project website for more information!

[Hanibal94]

Got the following from a family member:

> Dear EvolDir Community,
>
> A research team from the CNRS (France), UMBC (USA), and the University
> of Bristol (UK), is conducting a study of visual pattern preferences in
> humans, with the broader goal of understanding the evolution of animal
> signal design. We would very much appreciate your participation in our
> online study! We need a large sample size, and we hope that you also
> ask your friends and family to participate. The task is visual—it will
> take less than 15 minutes, and your anonymity is secured. We thank you
> in advance for advancing evolutionary science! Results will be published
> and shared with the community.
>
> Please follow the link to participate:
> http://isemsurvey.mbb.univ-montp2.fr/pattern/
>
> (Participation must be completed on a computer screen — it is not
> designed for a smartphone or tablet.)
>
> Thank you again! (And thanks to those who have already played!)
>
> Tamra Mendelson
> Yseult Hejja-Brichard
> Julien Renoult
> Michel Raymond
> Innes Cuthill

[Michael]

[AvastMH]

That's cool Chris. Do you think that we might be welcome to have a go then, please?

[Hanibal94]

I checked with Randi and Caro, and they said yes, so go ahead

[AvastMH]

Thanks Chris, Randi, and Caro,
Sadly the first image failed to load and it declared that the experiment was finished
Oh well...

[Randi]

Hi NASA/Zooniverse Citizen Scientists --

You expressed interesting in hearing about NASA citizen science efforts, so we're excited to tell you about a new project that launched yesterday: Spritacular

A flash of lightning, and then – something else. High above the storm, a crimson figure blinks in and out of existence. If you saw it, you are a lucky witness of a sprite, one of the least-understood electrical phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

NASA’s newest citizen science project, Spritacular (pronounced sprite-tacular), invites you to advance the study of sprites and other Transient Luminous Events, or TLEs. TLEs include a range of electrical phenomena that occur above thunderstorms and produce brief flashes of light.

If you believe you have captured a photo of a sprite or other TLEs, you can create an account and then submit your photos and photo details (time and location of the photo) to Spritacular -- visit https://spritacular.org.

There is much we don’t know about TLEs:

• How often do sprites occur? Why do they take the shapes they do?
• What conditions in the upper atmosphere trigger sprite initiation?
• How do sprites affect Earth’s global electric circuit, and what is their contribution to the energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere?
• How are sprites connected with gravity waves, which send wind-driven ripples of energy through our upper atmosphere?

Spritacular needs your help building an image database that will help answer these fundamental questions.

For more NASA citizen science projects, go to https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and follow @DoNASAScience on Twitter!