How Honor Roll is Calculated

How Honor Roll is Calculated

Frequency

Honor rolls are calculated 4 times per year for data covering 3 month periods from solstice to equinox and from equinox to solstice.

Honor Roll service calculates these totals at 6:00 AM UTC on the 22nd day of January, April, July, and October and there is a delay in the propagation of totals when this calculation process occurs.
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Required Site Definition

For all honor rolls except Schools Reporting Many Measurements, the sites for the measurements must have been located (latitude, longitude, elevation) and defined using the site definition pages.
 

Counting Measurements from Automated Equipment

For Schools Reporting Many Measurements, each value or picture reported counts as one measurement, except data reported using automated measurement systems. In these cases, data for a day will count the same as the equivalent manual measurements. For example, the up to 96 atmospheric temperature measurements provided by automated data collection systems for a day can be used to determine the maximum, minimum, and current temperatures for that day. These three values are the ones reported from manual measurements of atmospheric temperature, so one day's automated air temperature data are counted as 3 measurements and not as 96 measurements. Similarly rain data for a day count as 1 measurement so the rain measurements provided by automated data collection systems for a day count as 1 measurement.
 

Honor Roll Levels

The Science Honor Rolls recognize three levels of effort. For measurements that are reported repeatedly – Atmosphere, Hydrology, Soil Moisture and Temperature – these levels generally correspond to collecting and reporting 70%, 80%, and 90% of the possible data. For other measurements that are not collected on a regular schedule, the level III honor rolls require roughly twice the effort of the Level I honor rolls.
 

Honor Roll Requirements

Earth As a System Honor Roll

There are four different combinations of data that can qualify a school for this honor roll. Please note that to qualify a school must submit the required amount of data for ALL listed protocols in one of the groups. Should a school meet the criteria for two groups at level I or one group at level II, the school would rate a level II Earth As a System Honor Roll. A school would rate a level III Earth As a System Honor Roll should it meet the criteria for three groups at level I or one group at level I and one at level II or one group at level III.

The criteria are:

* To meet this criterion a school must report precipitation measurements covering 70%, 80%, or 90% of the days in the three-month period and if they received enough precipitation to enable pH measurement, they must have reported pH for 70%, 80%, or 90% of these occurrences. If sufficient precipitation was not received, the school is viewed as having reported pH for 100% of the possible occurrences. So for example, if a school reports precipitation covering more than 70% but less than 80% of the days, it is only eligible for Level I even if it measured pH for more than 80% of these occurrences.
 

Pan-GLOBE and Climate Honor Rolls

These honor rolls recognize schools for achieving honor rolls in multiple areas. In calculating them a level I honor roll is worth 1 point, a level II is worth 2 points, and a level III is worth 3 points.

What Counts?

Clouds: For each day, one point each is awarded for a report of cloud cover, cloud type, contrail cover, and contrail type – 4 points maximum per day.
 

Atmosphere: For each day, one point each is awarded for a report of maximum, minimum, and current air temperature, liquid equivalent depth (rain and/or new snow), new snow depth, snow pack depth, and snow pack liquid equivalent depth – 7 points maximum per day.
 

Advanced Atmosphere: For each day, one point each is awarded for a report of precipitation pH, snow pack pH, surface temperature, barometric pressure, relative humidity, and wind direction; two points are awarded for a report of aerosol optical thickness; and four points are awarded for a report of ozone concentration and precipitable water – 16 points maximum per day, but pH can only be measured when there is sufficient precipitation or snow pack.
 

Hydrology: For each day, one point each is awarded for a report of water temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, salinity, water pH, alkalinity, nitrate-nitrogen plus nitrite-nitrogen, nitrite-nitrogen only, and transparency – 9 points maximum per day although measurements are only expected once per week.
 

Soil Moisture and Temperature: For each day, 2 points for each report of current soil temperature and 1 point for each report of maximum and minimum soil temperature for each depth up to a maximum of 6 points per day, and 1 point for each report of soil moisture content measured at a different depth using a sensor up to a maximum of 4 points per day or 3 points for each report of gravimetric soil moisture content with no limit.
 

Soil Characterization: For each horizon, one point is awarded for each report of top depth, bottom depth, moisture state, structure, color, consistence, texture, presence of rocks, presence of roots, carbonates, pH, nitrate, phosphate, and potassium and 4 points are awarded for each report of bulk density, particle density, and particle size distribution. For each soil site, 7 points for soil infiltration measurements covering a 45 minute period and 3 points for a report of saturated soil water content for a maximum of 10 points per day.
 

Land Cover: For each day, four points are awarded for each MUC classification and 1 point is awarded for each land cover site photo for a maximum of 8 points for each site.
 

Phenology: For each day, one point is awarded for each report of leaf state, leaf color, and leaf length for each distinct sample site following the Green-up, Budburst, or Green-down protocols.
 

Earth As a System: In Earth As a System, there are specific requirements for individual measurements, so every measurement report gets one point.