The 2025 Aviation Weather Mission brings together Civil Air Patrol cadets (ages 11–20) and senior members across the country to contribute meaningful aviation weather data as part of a national collaboration with NASA Earth Science. Participants record real-time airport conditions, GLOBE Cloud observations, and aircraft details, supporting satellite collocations provided by the NASA GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center. These observations help validate satellite data and provide insights into weather and climate patterns relevant to aviation safety.
Author: C/SSgt Santiago Ordonez, CAP North Carolina Wing, Cape Fear Composite Squadron
26 July 2025 Mission Overview This report will cover my perspective of the mission with my friends in NC-023. This may not be what my fellow cadets saw from their perspective. Overall, I had a lot of fun.
I loved being able to help out NASA in all new ways that I never thought I could. The first mission was amazing, even though we didn't know what to expect, we still had a whole bunch of data ready for the scientists. Our main struggle was that GLOBE Observer would by no means cooperate with some of the cadets' phones.
Our second mission also went really well; it was super simple, and because we already knew what to do, it went super smoothly. There were a few errors here and there, but a lot fewer than in the first mission. We even uploaded more data. The main difference is that there were a couple of clouds here and there, but not enough to make any difference to the data. It was another successful mission.
Last but not least, our third mission. It got really cloudy really quickly. Luckily, we didn’t need to use the “cloudy day protocol.” It was harder that day, and I have to admit, some of our data refused to upload, so it wasn’t our best day, and yet we still uploaded almost as much data as last time. To sum it all up, doing this mission, I had a whole lot of fun, and I was so proud to be a big help to NASA and its scientists. Never would I have thought in a million years that I could help NASA in this way. I was so honored to even write this report!
Author: C/MSgt Hastings and C/2nd Lt Hastings, CAP Kansas Wing
"Participating in the NASA weather mission has been one of my favorite activities through Civil Air Patrol. I’ve enjoyed how it lets me bond with members of my squadron and learn valuable skills. These skills include how to operate a sextant, use local ADSB to find planes, and how to record data for later use. I find it cool that in this mission we recorded weather and other parameters the same way that scientists do. It has been an amazing opportunity for my entire squadron. Thank you to the scientists at NASA. - C/MSgt Hastings
As a pilot myself, I rely on aviation weather to keep myself and my passengers safe. Collecting data to improve the weather models I use has been an incredible opportunity. The photos my team took combined with satellite imagery will provide a unique perspective on this field of study and I’m proud to be a part of it. Teaching other cadets the basics of orienteering and data collection has also helped me grow as a leader. I believe I speak for the majority of cadets who participated: we are happy to help and look forward to future missions! - C/2nd Lt Hastings
Kansas Wing cadets recording observations.
