Blog - Dorian Wood Janney

Water- essential to life and capable also of causing so many natural disasters.. The ENSO Phase III "Water in our Environment" field campaign will be hosting a webinar this Thursday at 18:00 UTC/1 pm EST which will focus on "Connection and Communication" as we listen to students from Texas and Nigeria share ways they use The GLOBE Program protocols to learn about water in their environment....

Right now I am sitting in my home office, watching the trees bend as the wind howls. My automated weather station in my front yard has an anemometer that is simply going nuts, and the wind vane is wildly careening back and forth as the winds pushes in from all directions. We have had wind gusts that exceeded 40 mph and now my weather station is reporting sustained winds at 25 mph.  The...

We have all been dismayed to see the extent of the damage done during the recent landslides that occurred after forest fires had destroyed much of the vegetation, and then intense rain caused a horrific landslide to occur in Montecito. You can read more here about how NASA's Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 was able to acquire natural color imagery of the affected region both before...

As many of us have seen on the news recently, a great many people in southern California were impacted by mudslides last night. We know these dangerous natural disasters occur all over the world. Scientists globally are working hard to be able to better predict these devastating events. You can learn more about the use of NASA's satellite data to detect potential landslides...

The ENSO Phase III Field Measurement Campaign is focusing on “Water in Our Environment” during the 2017-2018 school year. Each month we have a webinar using Zoom, and we like to spotlight a different region each time. Our Feb. 8th spotlight will shine on the Near East and Africa. On February 8th, we would like to shine this spotlight on the wonderful GLOBE scientists, teachers, and students...

  It turns out that we are most likely entering another mild La Niña winter across the globe. This article, “La Nina Makes a Quiet Return”, describes how scientists are able to use data on sea surface temperatures from were made by altimeters on the Jason-2 and Jason-3 satellites, and show averaged sea surface height anomalies. Climatologists are predicting...

Too much water can have devastating consequences when it falls too quickly on Earth's surface. On January 9th, the "Water in Our Environment" webinar will spotlight the experiences of our GLOBE community in Asia and the Pacific.  Earlier this week in the Philippines, tropical cyclone Kai-Tak wrecked havoc on this region as it caused extreme flooding and landslides. On December 4th and...

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a hearing entitled "Gravity Never Sleeps: Landslide Risk Across the Country"at the Rayburn House Office Building that was intended to inform our lawmakers and government officials about the impacts of landslides in many parts of the United States. As the topic is related to our guiding investigative question for the ENSO Student Research Campaign- "What...

Sometimes, actually most of the time, I forget to be grateful for the fact that I have easy access to clean freshwater. When Thanksgiving rolls around each year, I try to step back and consider the many things I have to be thankful for. Day after day I work with the amazing science team behind the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, and I never cease to be completely amazed at how...

Many of us are so used to having clean freshwater that is easily accessible that we don't often stop to marvel at the fact that we are incredibly fortunate. The majority of our freshwater comes from our water cycle, and precipitation is unevenly distributed across the globe. You can learn more about the importance of clean freshwater resources in this "one-pager" entitled "Precious...

What are the impacts of extreme events, like Hurricane Harvey, on the water quality? This article from the Smithsonian magazine describes multiple ways in which public health officials are responding to several threats facing residents of Houston and surrounding locations. These threats include the impact of mold, the potential of an increase in vector-borne diseases such as Zika and West Nile...

One way to teach students about water quality and/or how scientists go about their work is to share articles with them. Here is a great article entitled "Study Maps Hidden Water Pollution in U.S. Coastal Areas". This research shows a great example of the use of both NASA satellite data and ground-based data. In this study, the researchers used U.S. topographic data as well...

It is pretty neat when you can get two for the price of one- as most teachers can attest to with regard to trying to get everything into their curriculum. Did you know that this year, the FIRST LEGO League's challenge is focused on water. And what could be better, as that water is also the theme of this year's ENSO Student Research Campaign!  The LEGO Challenge Project states: "People use...

Just when you think that perhaps the weather systems are settling down- our amazing scientific instruments are able to detect a potential change! I never cease to be amazed at what we are able to learn about Earth's systems- both from the ground and from space!  This article from the New York Times just came across my newsfeed- "It's Like it Never Left: Another El Nino May be on the Way"....

One of the important aspects of a scientist's job is to look at the data that was collected and try to make sense of it in order to better understand natural phenomena. With the ENSO Student Research Campaign, we have a unique opportunity to analyze data and use the analysis to help us better understand the impact of the ENSO cycles on weather and climate in locations all around the...

There will be a special Google hangout for GLOBE teachers and scientists on Feb 15 at 7pm (ET).  During this event, we will learn about the results of the research from several scientists who were onboard the research vessel, and will have a chance to ask questions about this work and results.  http://bit.ly/2lL4Kgd No registration required- open to any GLOBE teacher and/or...

Have you ever wondered how NASA Earth observing satellites are able to ground truth their data? What about satellites that collect data over the ocean? Is it ever possible to compare actual in situ data with data that is collected using remote sensing? It just so happens that there are several NASA scientists who will be doing just that- and more- from January 24th through February 20th! And,...

I just came across an article from NASA's Earth Observatory that was released yesterday entitled "A Dry Start to South America’s Wet Season". The article describes the current lack of precipitation in South America, and includes the map below. In this map, we are seeing the accumulated deficit of rainfall that is both flowing onto the surface and accumulating under the ground as of this...

One of NASA's scientists, Dr. Stephanie Uz, has been working closely with the GLOBE ENSO Campaign throughout its beginning. She is an oceanographer who studies the response of ocean biology to physical forcing through remotely sensed satellite data, in situ measurements, model output and statistical reconstructions using proxies. Her research focuses on variability in global ocean color or...