MIT graduate students from the Plasma Science and Fusion Center have been conducting annual expeditions to Fairbanks, Alaska, to study plasma physics using the aurora borealis as a natural laboratory. Now in its third year, the Geophysical Plasma Observation Expedition (GPOE) deploys all-sky cameras, magnetometers, and muon detectors across sites up to 100 miles apart to capture auroral structures and correlate them with magnetic field changes. Students design and build their own instruments, manage logistics, and complete a full research cycle in months. The program has expanded to include high school outreach, conference presentations, and peer-reviewed publications, with their low-cost camera designs now adopted by other research teams.
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