STEM Professionals Blog - GLOBE International STEM Network

Whenever you submit a cloud observations, the GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center looks for satellites that were over your area at about the same time. The team then gathers the information from these satellites and compares them to your own observations. The result is a satellite match table that you receive through an email!    The table allows you to compare what you saw and what the satellite noted. You also have the actual satellite image at the bottom of the table! A new "How to Read a Satellite Match" page is available for you to learn more about...

  Welcome Message from Dr. Russanne Low, GLOBE Mission Mosquito Science Lead   Welcome to the GLOBE Mission Mosquito Scientists’ Blog. Student scientists, citizen scientists of all ages, and full-time researchers discuss and explore how changing weather[TS1] , extreme weather events, land cover modification, insect ecology and even human behavior influence the numbers, range and distribution of mosquitoes we see on the landscape.  The scientists you meet in this blog are interested in a wide variety of questions. We invite you initiate and engage in discussions with...

It’s that time of the year again! In the Northern Hemisphere, the chlorophyll in leaves are breaking down causing the green in leaves to disappear and allowing for orange and yellow colors to become visible. At GLOBE, we call this process Green-Down, and if you have not started collecting your Green-Down data yet, it's not too late*! *If you are in the U.S., you can track the annual progressive changing of the leaves with this Fall Foliage Prediction Map from Smokey Mountains. (https://smokymountains.com/fall-foliage-map/) The GLOBE Plant Color Guide The Green-Down protocol is a fairly...

Welcome Message from Dr. Russanne Low, GLOBE Mission Mosquito Science Lead   Welcome to the GLOBE Mission Mosquito Scientists’ Blog. This is the space on the campaign site where student scientists, citizen scientists of all ages, and full-time researchers discuss and explore how changing weather, extreme weather events, land cover modification, insect ecology, and even human behavior influence the numbers, range, and distribution of mosquitoes we see on the landscape.  The scientists you meet in this blog are interested in a wide variety of questions. We invite you to initiate...

It is here! The Urban Heat Island Effect/Surface Temperature Campaign for 2018-2019 will start October 1. I am so excited to be kicking off a new campaign. There are so many more schools and students participating that it is very exciting. The Urban Heat Island is a very current and timely research topic to study. This past summer there were heat waves in Japan, the United Kingdom and Europe as well as parts of the United States. Heat waves are now the natural disasters causing the most deaths in the United States. Urban Heat Island Effect makes cities even warmer than surrounding areas...

Clouds are amazing to observe and always seem to capture the attention of all, from little ones to the young at heart. The GLOBE Clouds team would like to help all of those that would be interested in doing research with clouds. A good research question is always tricky so here are some tips and ideas to get you started! What is a good research question? It is not always easy to come up with a research question, but GLOBE has a good checklist to help you out! You can even assign points and see how many points does your question total as a good research question. A lot of times scientists...

Here is the recording of my 3-minute lightening talk at the Google Earth Engine User Summit 2018 meeting. "Planetary Education: Google Earth Engine + The GLOBE Program" Read more about this event here: https://medium.com/google-earth/2018-earth-engine-user-summit-recap-4da4665d5ee8 I invite students, teachers, and partners to add a comment below if you would like to explore how to use GLOBE data with this powerful remote sensing tool.

In GLOBE, there are two major perspectives on the global environment – the spheres and the Earth system. The Teacher’s Guide and the new sphere pages build on the approach that examines Earth as the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and pedosphere. The study of Earth System Science focuses on the cycles that connect the spheres – the Energy, Water, and Biogeochemical. The Honor Roll provides recognition of those who report in depth in one area or another. There are three honor rolls recognizing Atmosphere measurement reporting; one for Hydrosphere;, and two each for Biosphere and...

I just updated HoloGLOBE to v1.0.2. For those of you new to this app, HoloGLOBE brings NASA and NOAA visualizations of the Earth to the palm of your hand through augmented reality (AR). You can read more about the app here: http://www.palmyracove.org/InstituteforEarthObservations/HoloGLOBE.aspx In this latest release, I have added play/pause functionality to the MyNASAData module. The MyNASAData is essentially an augmented reality version of GLOBE's Earth System Poster. In addition the new ICESat-2 module has been added. The ICESat-2 module was built by Emme Wiederhold, a student at...

HoloGLOBE is now available on the Apple App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hologlobe/id1411588929?ls=1&mt=8 Please send me comments and suggestions. And of course SPREAD THE WORD!!! I will use this Blog to announce issues, changes,  and upcoming features to the app.                      

The UND GLOBE 2018 Summer Training Workshop was scheduled for 30-31 July 2018.  Unfortunately the enrollment was not high enough so it was cancelled.   Attached is the postcard we used to advertise our GLOBE Workshop at our local Science Teacher's Association Conference. Next year, we plan to obtain a table at the conference and offer Elementary GLOBE books/binders for sale (at cost) in order to better advertise GLOBE and hopefully have more teachers want to attend our workshop.

Wow....what an experience the 2018 GLOBE Learning Expedition (GLE) in Killarney was!  GLOBE meetings are always intense and GLEs are even more so.  Such was the case at my first GLE in India in 2014 and 2018 in Ireland proved no exception.  However, this particular GLE was very special to me on many levels.  This was the second GLE that I attended and marked over 5 years in my time as director of the GLOBE Office at UCAR.  However, and more important, the location was my home town, and the Killarney National Park that was the backdrop for the GLE and that we used as...

The GLOBE Observer app (available for iPhones and Android devices) is a new, step-by-step way to submit cloud observations to NASA. Use your GLOBE sign-in information to sync your observations with your GLOBE data entry.  Here are some simple tips and tricks on how to better identify clouds while using the app. Your latitude, longitude, and time of day with be filled in automatically by the app!   1. What does your sky look like? Is your sky completely clear with no contrails? Are there clouds or is the sky obscured that it makes it difficult to make any observation? This is...

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...

Today we start a series of posts devoted to providing information, tips, tricks and answers to frequently asked questions by Calitoo users! So, how do you measure Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) with a Calitoo? First and foremost: NEVER look directly at the sun! And…ONLY take measurements when the sun is not obstructed by clouds. TIP: Use your hand(s) to cover the sun; if you see any clouds on either side of your hand(s), do NOT take any measurements. Wait until the sun is not obstructed by clouds. Now, the Calitoo sun photometer measures AOT values at 465 nm, 540 nm and 619 nm. ...

The NASA GLOBE Clouds team is excited to highlight Mr. Gary Popiolkowski, a middle school science teacher at Chartiers-Houston Jr./Sr. High School in Houston, PA, USA. Mr. Popiolkowski has been teaching for 44 years and has been a GLOBE teacher since 1995. He has had his students doing cloud observations for the past 18 years, submitting over 15,000 observations! He has also been doing virtual connections with Patumwan Demonstration School in Thailand each year for the past four years. We ask Mr. Popiolkowski how he does it! Here is what he shared: Each period of the day the students...

The GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA would like to highlight the top observers for the month of February! Thank you to all observers for submitting your observations and using the satellite matching of data. Also, remember that on March 15, 2018 we will start our NASA GLOBE Clouds: Spring Cloud Observations Data Challenge! The top observers will be congratulated by a NASA scientist with a video posted on the NASA GLOBE Clouds website. Click here for more information.   Top 10 cloud observers for February 2018   Observer School or...

A fourth grade student from Public School 122 (Queens, NY), recently visited NASA Langley for a week. During his visit, he studied the GLOBE Aerosol Protocol. He went outside the Atmospheric Sciences building and collected aerosol data using a Calitoo sun photometer, which measures Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) at three wavelengths: 465nm (blue), 540nm (green) and 619nm (red). After downloading the data measured with the Calitoo to his laptop, the student learned how to access AERONET data. The AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) project is a federation of ground-based remote sensing...

The NASA GLOBE Clouds team recently presented a webinar the details of how your cloud observations are matched to satellite data. The webinar, recording found below, also focuses on the importance and quality of the observations, ways that the data can be used by scientists, and current work being done by the team at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. The webinar also highlights newly processed data from the temperature and cloud observations reported for the Great North American Solar Eclipse on August 21, 2017.      See how your data is collected...

Spring is starting to spring in some parts of the Northern Hemisphere but not quite yet in others. The March observations period for the Urban Heat Island/Surface Temperature Student Research Campaign has started. Please take surface temperature observations in March to help out with the campaign. If you can, please take observations from two sites so you can compare the temperatures for them. One approach is to take observations from a grassy area and an asphalt area to compare. Just a quick look at surface temperature data on the GLOBE visualization page shows the cold weather that is...

This past week was a very exciting one for the Science Education Team at NASA Langley Research Center! Four members visited one of the schools participating in the GLOBE Air Quality Student Research Campaign: Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, in Newport News, VA., where twenty middle school students, led by their science teacher Ms. Angie Rizzi, presented their team research projects and posters about aerosols. After students started taking aerosol measurements and once they had selected their research project questions, Dr. Pippin, -lead scientist for the GLOBE Air Quality Student Research...