NASA has launched a groundbreaking citizen science initiative called the Space Umbrella project, urging smartphone users worldwide to contribute to mapping Earth’s protective magnetic shield, known as the magnetosphere.
Project Details
The magnetosphere acts like a giant umbrella, deflecting charged particles from the solar wind that streams from the Sun toward Earth. NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, operational since 2015, collects data on how solar wind interacts with this shield, sometimes explosively through magnetic reconnection. Volunteers use computers, tablets, or smartphones to classify MMS data images, identifying boundary crossings where interactions peak—no expertise required, just a quick tutorial.
These interactions spark auroras but also trigger solar storms that threaten GPS, communications, satellites, and astronauts. Public help builds the largest human-validated catalog of such events, advancing space weather predictions and universal plasma physics insights. Over 1,000 volunteers have already classified more than half the database.
How to Join
Visit the Space Umbrella page on Zooniverse or NASA’s citizen science site, complete the 10-minute tutorial, and start classifying. Accessible to all via https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/vickitoyedens/space-umbrella
