STEM Professionals Blog - GLOBE International STEM Network

La Sra. Tina Rogerson es la programadora científica y analista para el equipo NASA GLOBE nubes en el Centro de Investigaciones Langley de la NASA en Hampton, Virginia con la compañía SSAI. Tina analiza tus observaciones de nubes y del cielo y escribe código de computadoras para realizar la correspondencia con data de satélites. Ella también está encargada de manejar todos los mensajes electrónicos de la NASA y se asegura que te lleguen por cada observación de nubes.   Pregunta: ¿De dónde eres? Respuesta: Yo soy de Poquoson, Virginia un pueblo pequeño en la costa este de los...

March/April/May 2020   What is NASA GLOBE Clouds? Cloud observations through The GLOBE Program are led by the NASA GLOBE Clouds Team at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. Every sky and cloud observation submitted through GLOBE Clouds, including through the GLOBE Observer app, is analyzed by the team to determine if it matches satellite data. If there is a match, a personalized NASA email is sent to you comparing your observations with satellites. Your observations and photographs help researchers better understand our atmosphere and how to make satellite data...

Hello GLOBE community, The NASA GLOBE Clouds team is offering virtually connections or personalized videos (previously recorded) for your students. It can be in a variety of topics including: Career Connections (Path to NASA) The Impact of Your Observations Clouds and Cloud Types Earth's Atmosphere and Climate Clouds and Atmospheres on Earth and Other Planets Cloud Types in Masterpieces/Landscape Paintings Any topic of Your Choice If you are interested, comment below or contact NASA GLOBE Clouds Project Scientist Marilé Colón Robles.  

You have submitted GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper observations, but are still unsure how to access and analyze that data?  This blog outlines the steps to download data into a spreadsheet, describes the data found in each column, and discusses what to do with the two sets of latitude and longitude data associated with each observation. Download Data First you will need to download your data using GLOBE’s Advanced Data Access Tool (ADAT). This link also has video and text tutorials to get you started. Once you open ADAT, it prompts you to select filters, which will determine...

We are asking for photographs of dust storms and dust events in cold climates (or high latitude areas), southwest United States and Northern Mexico, and desert (or arid and semi arid) areas. Follow these steps on how to take photographs of the horizon, not the sky in the direction of the dust event. Different flyers are now available to print or share that you can use to spread the word!    

In this pro tip, you will learn how to increase your location accuracy while using the GLOBE Observer app and learn why location accuracy matters. How is location determined? By using a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, (either  hand-held or built into your mobile device), you are able to obtain your geographical position on the Earth’s surface. The antennas on your GPS receiver will acquire satellite signals and once it has located three satellites, it will perform a first calculation of latitude and longitude.  For the GLOBE Observer Land Cover tool,  the initial...

Enhancing undergraduate understanding of hydro-climatic studies in the environmental cohort using the GLOBE led inquiry-based learning approach. Teaching practices are context specific, thus we focus this study on enhancing the inquiry-based learning (IBL) in teacher education. The South African physical science curriculum (DBE, 2011b) supports the teaching and learning of science through inquiry and learners are expected to be involved in practical investigations. However, South African preservice teachers who join universities are not confident to implement inquiry approaches when they...

Hello GISN community, Did you know that there are now curated, analysis-ready GLOBE datasets posted on the website? These are subsets of GLOBE data that have been post-processed by a scientist on the GLOBE team and are being made available for broader use by the community. Check them out:   Clouds data, https://observer.globe.gov/get-data/clouds-data Dust data, https://observer.globe.gov/get-data/dust-data Eclipse data, https://observer.globe.gov/get-data/eclipse-data

The GLOBE Urban Heat Island Student Research Campaign finished up the 2019-2020 campaign with observations from 254 sites in October with 6,688 surface temperature observations. In December, 4,248 observations were taken from 126 schools. Over 50% of the data was submitted in the last 2 weeks. This is a large increase from last year of about 150%. There are focus areas with many schools participating including the Great Lakes, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and Oman, and Taiwan. And, there are first time participants from Brazil, South Korea and India. The blog post in October had...

Special observations of airplanes and contrails are being collected by a select few as part of a pilot project the GLOBE Clouds team has been working on for a year. The project asks students to use an app that tracks aircrafts, then note if the airplane is or is not creating a contrail. The airplane tracker app suggested notes the height of the airplanes, giving the opportunity to note the altitude of the contrails if present. The GLOBE Clouds team was able to present a first look at the data collected by students at Alpena Elementary/Middle School (Mr. Roger Rose teacher), Treadway...

This year is the 100th Anniversary of the American Meteorological Society, and 26th presentation at the Symposium on Education. This year it will be held in Boston and the K12 Initiatives are on Monday January 13th. I will be sharing our recent work with GLOBE Mission Earth and focusing in on the GLOBE Observer Clouds App. With the recent collaboration with NASA S'COOL Clouds Observations, it is a prime example of the Space to Earth:Earth to Space (SEES) Model, i.e. giving students and citizen scientists the ability to gather imagery from earth observing satellites and from the ground up....

Do you want to learn how to take surface temperature observations? The students at the Toledo Public School Natural Science Technology Center (NSTC) show how it can be done in this short video.  https://www.facebook.com/globemissionearth/videos/2581539525466417/ December is the second month of Urban Heat Island Effect Research Campaign. Take as many observations in the month of December as you can. Take observations from two different sites such as asphalt, concrete, grass or shrubs. There was great participation since October. Surface temperature observations were taken at...

Thirty-one seniors armed with the GLOBE Observer mobile app hiked Kamanaumui Valley at the end of October. During the 3.3 mile trek, hikers made Land Cover and Mosquito Habitat observations, while passing verdant tropical vegetation, the ruins of a colonial manor, a biological restoration plot and ancient petroglyphs.  OLLI trekkers used the GLOBE Observer app to make observations The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), University of Hawaii at Manoa offers a wide range of educational activities and non-credit courses for people 50 years and older. GLOBE Observer has conducted...

The GLOBE Fall Cloud Observation Challenge brought in more than 45,000 observations from citizen scientists in more than 17,000 locations in 93 countries on every continent — including Antarctica. This influx of cloud observations is super helpful to NASA scientists who work with geostationary satellites and the suite of satellite instruments known as the Clouds and the Earth's Energy Radiant System (CERES). By comparing geostationary and CERES observations from a particular area to data submitted by citizen scientists, scientists can differentiate between wispy cirrus clouds and cold,...

As the GIO announced a call for nominations for GLOBE working groups, where i happen to have served for the period 2016 - 2019, my seniors at the University asked members of faculty,  to demonstrate how we have contributed towards SDGs for the last 2 years? Suprisingly its the small things i have been doing in GLOBE which have given me mileage over my colleagues. Having been a member of GLOBE since 2006, and serving in different capapcities while being active in GLOBE campaigns and working groups, has made me contribute to SDGs [ 4, 5, 15, 17]. My personal research has enabled me...

In this article, meet Prof. Glenda Ivette Lozada Negrón, a science teacher whose elementary classroom is actively engaged in reducing the risk of mosquito borne disease through mosquito surveillance and mitigation, as part of an ongoing service learning project in Puerto Rico . Tell us about your project? The project began as part of a curriculum with the Science and Research Trust of Puerto Rico and the Science in Service project. It is a community of teachers that serves to help students create new learning communities. Since August 2018, I have been working with an entomologist,...

    Guest Scientist blog by Dr. Joseph Kerski, Esri Esri and the GLOBE program have been working together on initiatives and educator training for decades.  GLOBE was one of the first major education-focused citizen science programs, and it offers a wealth of data on soil chemistry, water quality, weather, and much more, as well as rigorously tested methods to have your students collect and contribute data, and a network of educators with which to collaborate. Using GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper data as an example,  we look at what I consider to be ...

  A new article is now available on the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Science Scope journal geared for middle school teachers on ways to integrate using the GLOBE Observer app in the classroom and take cloud observations. The article titled "Making Science Come Alive with Clouds" features GLOBE superstar educators Mr. Jeffrey Bouwman (Shumate Middle School in Gibraltar, Michigan, USA) and Dr. Caryn Smith-Long (Montverde Academy, Montverde, Florida, USA) as they share their classroom technology expertise and how they use the app with their students.    ...

Story published on https://spaceweather.com/ on 10/29/2019. A sharable version of this story is available here. You can also look at Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery. Image Credit - Chris Holmes.   This is the picture that captured everyone's attention! It is a photograph of a gigantic jet as observed by pilot Chris Holmes as he traveled at 35,000 ft over the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula. He noticed the big thunderstorm (or cumulonimbus cloud) producing lots of lightning with sprites and jets.    Gigantic jets, sometimes...

Purple Skies observed Dallas, TX on October 27, 2019. Purple skies during sunsets and sunrises (blog explaining science) have been observed by our GLOBE participants! Thank you to all those sending in their observations and participating of the Fall Clouds Challenge!    Educator Angie Rizzi, part of the Science Education team at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA, created this lesson for teachers who want to use this event to talk about aerosols and sky color. The activity incorporates the Elementary GLOBE Sky Observers activity with photographs of the observed...

Picture by Jan Curtin @ Vail, AZ (https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=156718) Raikoke Volcanic Eruption Have you noticed purple sunrises or sunsets where you live? Submit your photographs to GLOBE or GLOBE Observer, especially as we get ready to start the Fall Cloud Challenge: What's Up in Your Sky (Oct 15 - Nov 15, 2019)! People around the world have been noticing purple skies at dawn and at dusk, calling it the Raikoke Sunsets (see photographs submitted). The purple color is because of sulfurous gas that was launched into...

We are kicking off the Urban Heat Island Effect campaign today with a heat wave in the eastern United States. Many record temperatures were broken today with highs reaching 32 to 35 C. 53 sites around the world entered data already today, October 1, 2019. You can see that most of the observations were in places of the world where it has been pretty warm. The coolest observation came from Alaska. My students, Shefa and Ahmad, took surface temperature observations of a grassy field in front of my building at the University of Toledo and then of the parking lot behind the building. Both...

NASA está solicitando tu ayuda para determinar “¿Qué ves en tu cielo?” El equipo NASA GLOBE nube quiere estudiar diferencias en nubes y aerosoles. La data colectada durante este reto del otoño en el hemisferio norte o primavera en el hemisferio sur será comparada con los resultados obtenidos durante el reto de primavera del 2018. Puedes ayudar sometiendo observaciones de nubes, polvo atmosférico, calina, o humo (límite 10 por día) a GLOBE usando cualquiera de las opciones de entrada de datos, incluyendo la aplicación móvil GLOBE Observer. Los participantes GLOBE y GLOBE...

Tú puedes reportar el cielo como 100% cubierto u obscurecido usando el protocolo de nubes en GLOBE y en la aplicación GLOBE Observer. ¿Cuál es la diferencia? Este blog tiene consejos para ayudarte. Todas las fotografías en este blog fueron colectadas por observadores como tú. ¡Gracias! Al principio encontré la diferencia entre cubierto y obscurecido algo confuso, pero cuando entendí el significado de ambas, pude mejorar mis observaciones. Empecemos con definir ambos términos:   Cubierto – Noventa por ciento o más del cielo está cubierto por nubes. En esta situación vez bien poco o...

Audience: Everyone! (Students and teachers all grade levels, informal educators, and the general public) Dates: October 15, 2019 - November 15, 2019 Observations: Clouds and aerosols (dust storms, haze, smoke). Limit 10 per day. NASA is requesting your help to determine “What’s up in your Sky”. The GLOBE Clouds team wants to study differences in clouds and aerosols. The data collected during this fall challenge will be compared to results from the 2018 Spring Clouds Challenge. Help by submitting clouds, dust, haze or smoke observations (limit of 10 per day) to GLOBE using any of...

Guest Scientist Blog by Kayla M. Thomas, McNair Scholar, Southern Nazarene University Oklahoma has experienced three major outbreaks of West Nile Virus (WNV) since its local introduction in 2002. State and local health agencies provide surveillance of mosquito-borne diseases although reduced resources and personnel limits its scope. With the addition of citizen scientists from the greater Oklahoma City, I was able to analyze ongoing mosquito observations by using NASA’s GLOBE Observer mobile app during the 2019 mosquito season. Citizen scientist participation studies have shown several...

Guest Scientist Blog by Kenan Arica, NASA JPL Summer Intern Mosquitoes are vectors for diseases such as malaria, dengue, Zika, Rift Valley fever, West Nile virus, chikungunya and other diseases. Unfortunately, climate change is expected to make the spread of mosquito-borne diseases worse. This summer, I did some exploratory research to see if we could combine the power of GLOBE citizen science data and social media to learn about where mosquitoes are found.     This summer I worked with the GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper (MHM) data. To ensure we get the highest...

Guest Scientist Blog by Jacqueline Castellanos, NASA JPL Summer Intern My summer internship at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory exposed me to all parts of the scientific process. I went on a hike in search of mosquitoes, collected data, and I had the opportunity to teach teachers how to use the GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper. In my analysis, I learned how to work with data of varying quality and saw how environmental factors affect mosquito abundance. Most importantly, I learned that data given context and explored in meaningful ways can help us understand the problems we are...

In the GLOBE Clouds protocol and GLOBE Observer app, you can report if your sky is “overcast” or “obscured”. But what’s the difference? Below are some tips to help! All the photographs featured were collected by observers just like you - Thank you! I found “obscured” and “overcast” very confusing at first, but when I understood what they meant, things made much more sense. Let’s start by defining them: Overcast – The sky is completely covered by clouds (cloud cover greater than 90%). This means that you will see little or no blue sky. When it’s overcast, you are looking at stratus...

NASA GLOBE Clouds team with summer intern (from left to right: Tina Rogerson, Kevin Ivey, Marilé Colón Robles. The NASA GLOBE Clouds team has been delighted to have recent high school graduate Kevin Ivey this summer as our intern through NASA's Internships and Fellowships program [link]. Read about his experience this summer as he tackled big data!     I’m Kevin Ivey and I’ve been interning with NASA GLOBE Clouds at NASA Langley Research Center this summer. I graduated high school in June and I’ll be a first-year at the University of Virginia this fall where I plan to...