"For years our program has aimed not only to present the progress of astronomy, but to give an opportunity to our members to hear, see, and visit with eminent scientists who actually are contributing to the ever-widening horizon of our knowledge of the universe. ”
1947 quote from club founder Dr. Jason J. Nassau
The Cleveland Astronomical Society
LECTURE NEWS: MEETINGS:
2025 - 2026
The Cleveland Astronomical Society Lecture Series
has announced the lineup of speakers for the 104th Season.
November 6, 2025
Dr. Burcu Kosar
Title: Spritacular: A NASA Citizen Science Project to Study Electrical Discharges Above Thunderstorms Spritacular is a community science project that aims to collect observations of sprites and other optical phenomena occurring above the thunderstorms - collectively known as Transient Luminous Events (TLEs). TLEs have been frequently captured by storm chasers all around the globe with off-the-shelf DSLR cameras, however, they are sporadically shared over various social media platforms. In late 2022, we launched a NASA citizen science project with the goals of gathering these observations for research and building a community. The database generated from these observations serves as an invaluable resource for researchers, allowing them to find interesting cases, perform studies in conjunction with other scientific data, and conduct broad statistical studies. We aim to connect the public with scientists to ensure optimal exploitation of these observations. In this presentation, we will introduce the project and discuss TLE science!
Bio Information:
Dr. Kosar is affiliated with the Ionosphere, Thermosphere, Mesosphere Physics Laboratory of NASA Goddard Space Flight center. She is an expert in atmospheric and space physics, has studied critical regions of the Earth’s atmosphere through computational modeling and satellite data analysis. Dr. Kosar has a wide range of research interests including plasma discharge physics and computational electromagnetics, lightning related transient luminous events (TLEs), data science, citizen science, ionospheric outflow, and magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. She has experience in modeling upper atmospheric discharges, analyzing space weather data together with non-traditional citizen science data and application of state-of-the art machine learning frameworks to scientific data. Dr Kosar educational background includes a (Ph.D.), in Physics, from Florida Institute of Technology, a (M.S.) in Space Sciences, from Florida Institute of Technology, and a (B.S.) in Physics, also from the Florida Institute of Technology. Dr. Kosar is currently a Associate Research Scientist HSD SESI Program Lead, with NASA/GSFC, Heliophysics Division, ITM Lab and on the faculty of The Catholic University of America, Physics Department.