Citizen Science Approaches for Global Astronomical Events

The occurrence of a global astronomical event (such as the total solar eclipse, TSE, in 2017; the passage of comet, or asteroid; support for a spacecraft mission) requires extensive support over a variety of fields, especially coordinating with amateur astronomer and potential citizen scientists partnerships with professional observers. The established four phases of a successful pro-am collaborations, based on early PACA Project campaigns and with the inclusion of amateur astronomers, educators, students, outreach coordinators and astronomy journalists, are now expanded to include citizen science and STEAM projects/results. Several important results that emerged from the successful pro-am campaigns are: (i) provide a forum for discussions between the communities to help strategize the observing campaign for maximum benefit; (ii) identify potential challenges on the data archival and its crowdsourcing and (v) provide opportunities/new approaches for citizen science projects and STEAM-related activities. I will present examples from various PACA Project campaigns, including campaigns of comets(ISON, Siding Spring, Rosessta; planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Mars), sun and satellites, with emphasis on planetary atmospheres. Specifically, two current and exciting approaches will be highlighted: (i) geospatial mapping or GIS-related analysis of multispectral observations as applied to amateur observations in support of NASA/Juno mission to Jupiter; observations of Mars; and observations of Saturn and its ring system, following the end of NASA/ESA Cassini mission in 2017. A second approach involves a synoptic monitoring of variability of planetary atmospheres using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). PCA lends itself to data/observations that are correlated such as the interaction of discrete structures on Jupiter; identification of craters and their characterization on Mars and storms on Saturn. With the advent of big data science (either acquired or created), we need to develop and utilize advanced data mining techniques, including the collection, collation of data and its analysis. I will explore various new approaches and highlight new approaches to citizen science.