community science Archives

View of a house surrounded by floodwaters, with a piece of wood topped by a small United States flag floating in the foreground.

Engineering with Nature to Face Down Hurricane Hazards

by Krystyna Powell, Safra Altman and James Marshall Shepherd 5 January 202323 February 2023

Natural and engineered, nature-based structures offer promise for storm-related disaster risk reduction and flood mitigation, as long as researchers can adequately monitor and study them.

A headwater stream flows down the side of a rocky and grassy mountainside under a blue sky.

Opinions

Protecting the Mountain Water Towers of Spain’s Sierra Nevada

by Bopaiah A. Biddanda, Manuel Villar-Argaiz and Juan Manuel Medina-Sánchez 16 September 202223 September 2022

Students and community members monitor the health of mountain water reserves, which capture and release water, evening out wet and dry periods downstream.

Side-by-side images show fish-eye-style photographs of a starry evening sky illuminated by different subauroral events. The left image shows a SAR arc, a reddish arc that spans the sky. Beneath the arc the sky transitions from bright green at the horizon to purple and is partially obscured by clouds. The right image shows a STEVE phenomenon. Part of the red SAR arc is still visible but is much fainter and more of a pink color than its original red. The green and purple sky is more muted in color, and more stars and the band of the Milky Way are now visible. In both images, the silhouette of some shrubs is visible.

Research Spotlights

From SAR Arc to STEVE: An Atmospheric Evolution

by Alexandra K. Scammell 6 September 20227 September 2022

A new study reports the first observation of a stable auroral red arc evolving into a strong thermal emission velocity enhancement during a geomagnetic storm.

Two young people riding aboard a boat pick through mud with their hands in search of meteorites.

News

Community Scientists Recover Micrometeorites from Lake Michigan

by Katherine Kornei 15 August 202215 August 2022

A team of scientists, educators, and teenagers discovered the objects, some of which may have been delivered by a fireball that streaked across the sky in 2017.

Geologist Lauren Haygood balances on a plunging anticline during a field trip to the Arbuckle Mountains, Okla.

Features

Lauren Haygood: Normalizing STEM in America’s Heartland

by Saima May Sidik 25 July 202225 July 2022

Community science builds bridges while generating valuable environmental data.

Figure 3 from the paper, showing a photograph of a tree, a satellite image, and a graph showing the impacts of different types of trees on temperature.

Editors' Highlights

Community Scientists Help to Beat the Heat

by Gabriel Filippelli 25 July 202225 July 2022

As cities face health threats from heat and air pollution—both expected to worsen from climate change—researchers pilot a community scientist effort to map air quality and improve urban health.

A water tanker truck parked outside an apartment complex in Bengaluru, India

Opinions

Deploying Community Water Solutions with People, for People

by Indrani Pal, Celena Wasserstrom, Adriel Chang and Ganesh Shanbhag 14 July 202214 July 2022

Guiding principles and strategies for solving local water availability problems in India have emerged from collaborations involving water users, water experts, and water solutions providers.

Editors' Vox

Sewing DEI Into the Fabric of the Geosciences

by Paige Wooden, Mia Ricci and Tanya Dzekon 13 July 20228 February 2023

AGU journals host a new living special collection on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the geosciences and invite additional contributions to grow this collection.