Studying Space Weather with Citizen Science

Nathaniel A. Frissell, HamSCI

Nationally, Internationally, and Now in Northeast Pennsylvania Nathaniel A. Frissell HamSCI, the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation, is a project that enables amateur (ham) radio operators to work together with the professional space science community to advance both space science/weather and the amateur radio hobby. Global amateur radio communications pass through the electrified portion of the upper atmosphere known as the ionosphere and are therefore highly sensitive to space weather disturbances. With over 3 million licensed amateurs worldwide, the ham radio community is an ideal group to work with for developing and deploying instrumentation and designing and carrying out space weather experiments. Since its founding in 2015 with support from the NSF, NASA, and ARDC, HamSCI has led multiple national and international research projects to study space weather impacts of solar flares, solar eclipses, geomagnetic storms, auroral activity, and traveling ionospheric disturbances. HamSCI is now being led by the Department of Physics and Engineering at the University of Scranton and is working to increase engagement of the Northeast Pennsylvania region in the fields of Space Science, Space Weather, Space Engineering, and Space Exploration.