Heliophysics Audified: Resonances in Plasmas (HARP), a Citizen Science Tool for Space Weather

The vast majority of our universe, the region between stars and planets, is dominated by charged particles called plasmas. Plasmas in near-Earth space are mostly invisible, though their dynamic behavior, described as space weather, can pose hazards to astronauts and satellites and have profound implications for society. Despite our daily dependence on space infrastructure for weather, navigation, communications and more, the public is relatively unaware of space weather and the nature of the space environment. To simultaneously address the need for increased awareness and facilitate the analysis of vast amounts of complex satellite data, we have developed a novel web-based tool for Citizen Science: Heliophysics Audified: Resonances in Plasmas (HARP) utilizes audification, a one-to-one conversion of time series information into sound. Platform development was funded by NASA in 2021 to produce a graphical user interface for listening to and viewing THEMIS-ARTEMIS spacecraft electromagnetic field data. Our open-source Python/Unity-driven web application will streamline the sound production pipeline and make event selection more user-friendly, empowering students, educators, musicians, science communicators, and space researchers alike to interact with plasma waves and particle data from Earth orbit. The HARP tool offers simple-to-use waveform/spectrum analysis functions in combination with orbit plots and other environmental cues such as Kp and Dst indices, enabling users to address an open research question: What types of ultra-low-frequency (ULF) resonances occur during space weather events? and even potentially discover new space weather phenomena (the progenitor to HARP, called MUSICS, resulted in high school student publication in a peer-reviewed journal). We will present our progress on the prototype HARP tool interface and functions, and describe upcoming plans for in-person and virtual engagement with various communities: K-12 and college students, library-based teen peer groups, audio engineering professionals, and space researchers. We will also discuss best practices, preliminary lessons learned, and future goals of this project.