STEM Professionals Blog - GLOBE International STEM Network

Hi, every one, you remember that fall where Tony got rescued long ago in his youth? Well we were there and the place is so beautiful and inviting. No wonder the lad had to take a risk and climb it without ropes. It was nice place and the student field task there was exciting. But please take note if you are going to be at the Lower Toc, getting wet is very normal, and not shorts for your sake. Francis

This week we are very excited to highlight the work of Ms. Jillian Anderson and her high school students at the Lexington School for the Deaf, in Queens, NY. Ever since they joined the U.S. GLOBE Air Quality Student Research Campaign, they have been going outside to make observations of the atmosphere every day! The students have been submitting both Clouds and Aerosol Optical Thickness observations and we want to thank them for their valuable contribution to science.   We encourage them to keep up their great work and we invite other schools to continue submitting...

We would like to share with you some tips on how to keep your Calitoo instrument up and running: Keep your instrument indoors until the time of measurement. The instrument detector is sensitive to temperature and performs best near room temperature (~70F or ~21C). Don’t let your instrument overheat. Also don’t make measurements in extreme cold unless instrument is insulated from cold. Don’t forget to TURN OFF your instrument after you’re done measuring! To turn off, press the button for a few seconds until the screen reads: “Stop in progress”. When batteries start going low, the...

This has been a great year for the Urban Heat Island/Surface Temperature Student Research Campaign. More schools and more students have participated than ever before. I posted a 7 minute "Thank You" video here on https://youtu.be/QPfmAbMrwE4 Youtube. Urban Heat Island is a growing issue worldwide. More than 50% of the population of the world lives in urban areas. Much of this growth has been in developing. I went to research presentations about UHI at the American Association of Geography (AAG) meeting in New Orleans this week. There were many talks about UHI and using satellite imagery to...

Eight-grade students from Our Lady of Mount Carmel School have been very active during our GLOBE 2017-18 U.S. Air Quality Student Research Campaign. In fact, they recently submitted their team projects to the GLOBE 2018 International Virtual Science Symposium. All students have done remarkable work and one of the most important skills they have developed is collaboration. Among these students, one of them stood out for becoming a Calitoo expert user and for helping not only the members of her own team, but also the members of all other teams, with her accurate AOT measurements. This...

The GLOBE Clouds team got to celebrate World Meteorological Day with the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, Dr. Petteri Taalas through a Facebook live filmed live from NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA.    Join the celebration by watching the recorded Facebook live below.     View event on Facebook at - https://www.facebook.com/nasaearth/videos/10156418942207139/

   Today we will get a closer at look at the values displayed on our Calitoo screen. When you first turn on your Calitoo, you will get a screen like the following: note the serial number of your instrument will be displayed.                After the initial screen, your instrument will display basic information as shown on the following picture (Source: http://www.calitoo.fr/uploads/documents/en/usermanual_2016_en.pdf) TIP: The temperature displayed by your Calitoo is actually the temperature inside the instrument. When you...

Bill Smith, left, along with Kris Bedka. The NASA GLOBE Clouds team is excited to share with you this recent news article about two NASA scientists that help match your observations with satellite data - Bill Smith and Kris Bedka. They, along with Louis Nguyen lead SatCORPS, at team at NASA Langley Research Center that use expertise in clouds to make better weather predictions.  Read more about their work at https://www.nasa.gov/feature/langley/how-cloud-data-is-improving-weather-forecasts   

We are excited to have such a response to the NASA GLOBE Clouds: Spring Cloud Observations Data Challenge. Remember, top observers will be congratulated by a NASA scientist! Click here to learn more about the challenge.  Are you wondering about the clouds you are reporting and the type of weather you might experience in your area? Here is a guide to how cloud types are related to weather!  The information below was taken from the NOAA's SciJinks webpage - https://scijinks.gov/clouds/   

It’s almost spring, the time of year when the looming change in seasons could lead to some pretty fascinating cloud activity in the sky. NASA and the GLOBE Program are asking for your help by taking part in a citizen science cloud observation challenge. From March 15 through April 15, citizen scientists of all ages can make up to 10 cloud observations per day using the GLOBE Observer app or one of the other data entry options (for trained GLOBE members). Challenge participants with the most observations will be congratulated by a NASA scientist in a video...