The Synergy of Scientific Research and Citizen Science

The Pro-Am Collaborative Astronomy (PACA) Project 1.0, evolved from the successful NASA observational campaign CIOC to characterize Oort-cloud comet C/2012 S1(ISON) in 2013 on its initial passage through the inner solar system. With no spacecraft en route to comet ISON, many of NASA assets were utilised to characterize the comet. With the inclusion of amateur astronomers, educators, students, outreach coordinators and astronomy journalists; adaptation of various social media platforms and components of emerging field of citizen science, four phases for a successful pro-am collaboration were identified: (1) identification of a scientific knowledge gap; (2) integration of the pro-am communities; (3) adopt emerging technology and (4) stay in the limelight with results of the campaign. Several important results that emerged from the successful campaigns are: (i) establishment of a global network of astronomers that can be galvanized into action on short notice; (ii) provide an alert mechanism to all observers; (iii) immediate outreach and dissemination of results via our media/blogger members; (iv) provide a forum for discussions between the communities to help strategize the observing campaign for maximum benefit and (v) identify potential challenges on the data archival and its crowdsourcing. We will illustrate these concepts in detail for the first comet campaign, PACA_CIOC. We will also share some strategies for building successful pro-am campaigns, with examples from various PACA- and non-PACA campaigns, including NASA/CIOC campaigns; ESA/Rosetta mission to comet 67P; 2017 and 2019 Total Solar Eclipses (TSE) polarization experiments with citizen scientists; planetary oppositions of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in 2018 and other observing modes of polarization and spectroscopy now available to the amateur community. The evolution of Citizen Science in astronomy is intimately tied to professional-amateur collaboration (pro-am) observing campaigns. We will provide a framework from the set-up of the pro-am observing campaign to identifying challenges (such as data archival and its crowdsourcing) unique to each campaign. We will identify future opportunities for small aperture pro-am campaigns to include elements of citizen science (i) for engaging various audiences; and (ii) to include scientists and educators to provide guidance for the project and post-activity analysis of the data collected. The inclusion of educators from the start in defining such activities is vital for their success. Yet many scientists do not include educators till later in campaign. While some of this is mitigated by preparing a parallel outreach/citizen science program, the lack of scientists is highlighted by the lack of useable research results. Citizen science has evolved from a simple sort of data by engaging the public to iteratively cycling through the dimensions of a pro-am campaign (listed above). The PACA Observer comprises of a global network consisting of professional observers, individual amateur observers (solar, planetary, cometary), remote telescope networks and portable, mobile telescope networks.  We will share the various products delivered via the PACA Project and highlight several new PACA campaigns that will be instituted soon, including the return of comet 67P/C-G (target of the ESA/NASA Rosetta mission). The deliverables of the observational campaigns include long data sets of various planetary atmospheres (Jupiter, Saturn and Mars); upcoming total and annular solar eclipses; involvement of students and data scientists in all phases of data acquisition and analysis. All amateur observers are invited to join the new campaigns and participate in the upcoming PACA campaigns and the evolution of the next generation of citizen science projects with new tools like correlative analysis and virtual/augmented reality.