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Discover how the GLOBE community is engaging in all things GLOBE through the community blog posts below.

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The weather has been really kicking up quite a bit of whacky weather in November.  On November 2, 2021, the town of Kikonai in northern Japan’s Kokkaido prefecture set a record amount of rainfall of 2.2 inches (5.5 centimeters) in 10 minutes.  Wow!!  That’s a lot of rain in a short amount of time!  You can see where the rainfall fell on the image below! (credit: Extreme weather around the world amid COP26 - The Washington Post ) Meanwhile in Uzbekistan, it saw the worst dust storm in about 50 years!  The dust finally settled on November 4, 2021 but ...


Posted in: Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM


  Stratus clouds are one of the three main types of clouds. Remember that there are many types of clouds that fall into three main categories: cumulus, stratus, and cirrus. Using  hand-motions , we would stretch out our hands as far out as we could to mimic a stratus cloud. There are stratus-type clouds at all three basic altitude levels. These are: stratus clouds (low level), altostratus clouds (mid level), and cirrostratus clouds (high level). When stratus-type clouds are present, your skies will most likely be overcast or the cloud cover is 90% or more. Note, there is a ...


Posted in: Curriculum: SCIENCE AND MATH STEM   GLOBE Science Topics: GENERAL SCIENCE GLOBE PROTOCOLS   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   Primary Audience: ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS PARTNERS STUDENTS TEACHERS TRAINERS


Have you heard there is a new clouds project? It is called NASA GLOBE CLOUD GAZE. It is a merger of GLOBE Clouds and The Zooniverse online citizen science platform. A one-week pacing guide is now available! Sky photographs are one of the most requested portions of a GLOBE Clouds observation. This is because there is so much you can do with them. Photographs give scientists the opportunity to be right there with you. Details within a photograph can be used to compare with satellite data, confirm dust or haze observations, and give insight to unique cloud types like ...


Posted in: Curriculum: SCIENCE AND MATH STEM   GLOBE Science Topics: BACKYARD SCIENCE CLIMATE CLIMATE CHANGE DATA INCLUDED GENERAL SCIENCE GLOBE PROTOCOLS EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE   Learning Activities: ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE   News Topics: NEWS BRIEFS   Primary Audience: ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS PARTNERS SCIENTISTS STUDENTS TEACHERS TRAINERS


Many protocol-trained GLOBE members may have noticed a recent update to the GLOBE Program’s GLOBE Observer app. The change brings a new look and a new way to submit GLOBE atmospheric measurements.  If you were used to entering meteorological conditions in the Cloud Tool, you’ll see this option is no longer there. Don’t worry, you can still submit these observations through the Atmosphere Data Entry section. You just need to do a few extra steps to get it all set up. The new update gives you the opportunity to save your favorite or go to observations as a bundle, a step you ...


Posted in: GLOBE Science Topics: CLIMATE CLIMATE CHANGE DATA INCLUDED GENERAL SCIENCE GLOBE PROTOCOLS   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   Primary Audience: ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS PARTNERS TEACHERS TRAINERS


Every time you take a cloud observation, the NASA GLOBE Clouds team matches your observation to satellite data.  Why do we do this? Your view of clouds is from a different perspective than what is observed from a satellite. Satellites look down at clouds and see the top. When you make your observation, you are looking up towards the sky and seeing the bottom of the clouds. When there is a match, scientists then have a top-down view of clouds from a satellite and a bottom-up view from your spot. When you mix these two views together, you have a more complete picture of the sky. ...


Posted in: Curriculum: EDUCATION RESEARCH SCIENCE AND MATH STEM   GLOBE Science Topics: BACKYARD SCIENCE CLIMATE CLIMATE CHANGE DATA INCLUDED GENERAL SCIENCE GLOBE PROTOCOLS EARTH AS A SYSTEM EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE SCIENTIST SKILLS   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   News Topics: REGIONS   Primary Audience: ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS PARTNERS SCIENTISTS STUDENTS TEACHERS TRAINERS


The NASA GLOBE Clouds team highlights cloud observers Hilde Fålun Strøm (Norway) and Sunniva Sorby (Canada), who created Hearts In The Ice to call attention to all the rapid changes occurring in the polar regions due to the changing climate. These citizen scientists made history last year by being the first women to overwinter solo in the high Arctic. They spent 12 consecutive months without running water or electricity at a remote trappers cabin called “Bamsebu” in Svalbard, Norway. While they were there, they made numerous GLOBE cloud observations as ...


Posted in: Curriculum: LANGUAGE CULTURE AND ARTS STEM   GLOBE Science Topics: BACKYARD SCIENCE CLIMATE CLIMATE CHANGE DATA INCLUDED GENERAL SCIENCE EARTH AS A SYSTEM EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE SCIENTIST SKILLS   GLOBE Working Groups: SCIENCE WORKING GROUP EDUCATION WORKING GROUP   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   News Topics: COMMUNITY LETTERS NEWS BRIEFS   Primary Audience: ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS PARTNERS SCIENTISTS STUDENTS TEACHERS TRAINERS


The NASA GLOBE Clouds team is continuously working with scientists around the world finding ways that cloud observations from citizen scientists impact the most. As we find new ways of using the data, we want to remind you how important each part of your cloud report is to the scientific community. All cloud observations can help with big questions such as the link between clouds and climate.  Dr. Patrick Taylor is an atmospheric scientist at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. In the Clouds and Earth’s Climate video , Patrick discusses how he studies clouds to ...


Posted in: Curriculum: ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION EDUCATION RESEARCH SCIENCE AND MATH STEM   GLOBE Science Topics: BACKYARD SCIENCE CLIMATE CLIMATE CHANGE GENERAL SCIENCE GLOBE PROTOCOLS EARTH AS A SYSTEM EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE SCIENTIST SKILLS   GLOBE Working Groups: SCIENCE WORKING GROUP EDUCATION WORKING GROUP   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   Learning Activities: ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE   News Topics: COMMUNITY LETTERS NEWS BRIEFS   Primary Audience: ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS PARTNERS SCIENTISTS STUDENTS TEACHERS TRAINERS   Student Research Reports: STANDARD RESEARCH REPORT   Teacher's Guide: INVESTIGATION AREA DOCUMENTS


Each cloud observation submitted using the GLOBE Observer app or through The GLOBE Program is compared to data from multiple satellites. A satellite match is when satellite data is identified that corresponds to a cloud observation. For orbiting satellites the observation must be within 15 minutes before or after a satellite’s overpass. Geostationary satellites, like the GOES satellites, are always observing the same location. If you are in the United States, you are likely  to get a satellite match to a GOES satellite. These satellites are sending data every 15 minutes. As long ...


Posted in: Curriculum: SCIENCE AND MATH STEM   GLOBE Science Topics: BACKYARD SCIENCE CLIMATE GENERAL SCIENCE GLOBE PROTOCOLS EARTH AS A SYSTEM EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE SCIENTIST SKILLS   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   News Topics: COMMUNITY LETTERS NEWS BRIEFS   Primary Audience: ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS PARTNERS SCIENTISTS STUDENTS TEACHERS TRAINERS


The NASA GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center is working with NASA scientist Dr. Bill Smith to use GLOBE Cloud observations made by people just like you to solve the Terminator Problem! Wait, what? Well, the Solar Terminator or twilight zone is that line that separates the daylit side of a planet from the dark night side. The image on the left is an example. It was taken from the International Space Station as it crossed the terminator on April 17, 2019 as it orbits 254 miles above the Gulf of Guinea on Africa’s mid-western coast.      ...


Posted in: Curriculum: EDUCATION RESEARCH SCIENCE AND MATH TECHNOLOGY STEM   GLOBE Science Topics: BACKYARD SCIENCE CLIMATE CLIMATE CHANGE DATA INCLUDED GENERAL SCIENCE GLOBE PROTOCOLS EARTH AS A SYSTEM EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE SCIENTIST SKILLS   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   Learning Activities: ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   News Topics: COMMUNITY LETTERS NEWS BRIEFS   Student Research Reports: STANDARD RESEARCH REPORT INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT U.S. STUDENT RESEARCH SYMPOSIA (SRS)


In May 2020, citizen scientist  Carmen Mandel  met two major milestones: she marked her one-year anniversary of being a GLOBE Observer and she single-handedly expanded the  Clouds satellite match  data by 36%. Carmen uses GLOBE Observer to record clouds 2-3 times daily every time she gets a notification that a NASA satellite is overhead. She sends her data to GLOBE, but then she records her observation in her own clouds journal. When she receives an email from NASA Langley Research Center matching her observation to satellite data, she adds that to her journal as ...


Posted in: GLOBE Science Topics: BACKYARD SCIENCE DATA INCLUDED EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE GENERAL SCIENCE   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE CLOUDS   Primary Audience: ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS SCIENTISTS STUDENTS