It's not on the order of Elon Musk's $100 million prize package for carbon capture and storage but for Budding Birkeland's with a feel for the electromagnetic universe, it might be a nice way to spend an evening.
From gCaptain:
NOAA is offering $30,000 in prizes to citizens who can help them better forecast changes in Earth’s magnetic field. The efficient transfer of energy from solar wind into the Earth’s magnetic field causes geomagnetic storms and increases errors in magnetic navigation.
As a key specification of the magnetospheric dynamics, the Dst (disturbance-storm-time index) index is used to drive geomagnetic disturbance models such as NOAA/NCEI’s High Definition Geomagnetic Model – Real-Time (HDGM-RT). Additionally, magnetic surveyors, government agencies, academic institutions, satellite operators, and power grid operators use the Dst index to analyze the strength and duration of geomagnetic storms.
Contest participants will be asked to build a model that can predict Dst in real-time for both the current hour and the next hour....MORE
