Stars and STEM Stories
GLOBE United States: Collecting Cloud and Land Cover Observations to Better Understand Dust Storms
John Olgin, physics and astronomy instructor at El Paso Community College and GLOBE educator and Partner, lives and works in the U.S. Southwest. Due to its often desert-like conditions, the Southwest is prone to dust storms, when parched soil and sand are lifted and transported many miles by strong desert winds, causing decreased visibility on the ground and in the air and creating severe air-quality issues. In addition to the air being filled with particulates, making breathing difficult, scientists have found dangerous pathogens (e.g., Valley fever, caused by fungal spores) and toxic materials (e.g., arsenic) in the disturbed dirt.
Environmental changes over the past few decades have caused dust storms to become more prevalent in the Chihuahuan Desert, but also in stretches of New Mexico, Arizona, California, and parts of Mexico. For these reasons, it’s important to gather data to learn more about the storms and figure out ways to remedy their effects on people, animals, and the environment.
Olgin created a GLOBE Observer team called Desert Blooms EP26—“EP” for El Paso, “26” for the year. The name also comes from the stunning desert poppies that bloom in spring in Olgin’s desert environment. This data-collection group will synthesize cloud and land cover observation data from GLOBE citizen scientists better understand these storms—how they form, how to predict them, and how to mitigate their effects—while also getting the public more aware of their environment.
Cloud observations are the easiest way to participate in the project, but land cover is also important for understanding dust sources. For example, increased urban development in East El Paso, reduced vegetation, and drying water sources impact the prevalence and severity of dust storms. Elephant Butte Reservoir is drying up, and those exposed lakebeds are becoming new dust sources. The same thing is happening with reduced snowpack affecting the Rio Grande. If people collect land cover data in those areas, scientists can better understand what’s happening at ground level and connect that to what is seen in the atmosphere and from satellites.
This project is organized into four distinct stages:
- Stage 1 is getting people involved—students and citizen scientists. The idea is to get people outside—safely—and observing what’s happening around them. It builds awareness and helps them understand how environmental changes, like urban development or drought, affect dust storms.
- Stage 2 brings in classroom work using NASA's open-science environmental sensors known as STELLA devices. These are low-cost instruments students at El Paso Community College can build and modify to measure things like land cover and particulate matter. The project then combines these measurements with existing GLOBE data—clouds and land cover—so students can start working with real datasets.
- Stage 3 adds satellite data to collected observations along with other datasets like MODIS and PACE.
- Stage 4 is international collaboration. The project is looking at partnerships with Mexico—since they’re just across the border—and also Finland, which has its own dust issues from road sanding in winter. The idea is to compare how different regions deal with airborne sand and dust.
Using this project, students at El Paso Community College will learn Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and more advanced data analysis. The Desert Blooms EP26 project is also developing an internship program—GEARS (Geo-Environmental and Educational Applications in Research Science)—to help students build those skills and transition into research opportunities, like at University of Texas in El Paso.
The project will be ongoing throughout the year, but it will be especially promoted in April (Earth Day) and October (Earth Science Week) to drive participation. And you don’t have to live in a dust-storm-prone area to participate, although Olgin is especially interested in data from people who experience dust storms.
Learn more about GLOBE United States.
Story and images courtesy of John Olgin, instructor at El Paso Community College and GLOBE educator and Partner