The GAVRT Solar Patrol program is a heliophysics program
aimed at Citizen Scientists
and K through 12 students, both locally, nationally and throughout the world.
The goal of GAVRT Solar Patrol is to monitor active regions
on the Sun in order to understand
how they're connected to explosive events that we categorize under space weather.
Participants can remote in and actually control the telescope themselves.
So a common observing mode with the GAVRT Solar Patrol is
that we’ll have classrooms actually operate the telescope themselves,
collect some data and then generate maps
of what the sun looks like at radio frequencies.
They're gaining a really unique experience that I think
is really special to the GAVRT program, and that's the ability to walk
through the scientific process from the very beginning - from the steps
of collecting the data themselves, all the way to reducing that data
and interpreting scientific results from their studies.
I get excited anytime I get to operate a radio telescope
and so I really enjoy it when other people get to have that same opportunity
and that same learning process.