Solar Stormwatch is a real science project that you can take part in, both at www.solarstormwatch.com and here on Flickr.

It’s all about delving into some big solar mysteries…

How do solar storms begin life on the Sun?

How do they travel through space?

What happens when they whoosh past Earth?

Scientists know that solar storms cause aurora, but the detail remains tantalisingly undiscovered. Until now…

Over at www.solarstormwatch.com you can spot solar storms in videos from NASA’s twin STEREO spacecraft. The results build our catalogue of past solar storms, with a date and direction for each one. We’re putting pictures of them in our photostream.

But that’s not all. You can also keep watch for Earth-bound solar storms in the spacecrafts’ near-real-time footage. This makes the Solar Stormwatch forecast: a prediction of incoming events.

Here on Flickr is where we’d like you to join our Aurora chasers group to help tackle the third question: What happens when solar storms whoosh past Earth? There are two ways to take part.

First you can match up solar storms with your pictures of aurora using the storm’s expected arrival date. To contribute to scientific research, just geotag them with their location, and astrotag them with a full GMT date and time.

Secondly, we’d love you to use the Solar Stormwatch forecast to get out there and photograph the effects of incoming solar storms.

About us

Solar Stormwatch is brought to you by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the Zooniverse. Rutherford Appleton Laboratory are part of NASA’s STEREO mission to study the Sun, and photos posted here are with permission from NASA.

About our photos

The pictures in our photostream are taken by NASA’s twin STEREO spacecraft, which carry cameras built by UK scientists. For information on usage rights please visit NASA’s photo guidelines.

All NASA images must be credited ‘NASA’.