STEM Professionals Blog - GLOBE International STEM Network

Every time you take a cloud observation, the NASA GLOBE Clouds team matches your observation to satellite data. Why do we do this? Your view of clouds is from a different perspective than what is observed from a satellite. Satellites look down at clouds and see the top. When you make your observation, you are looking up towards the sky and seeing the bottom of the clouds. When there is a match, scientists then have a top-down view of clouds from a satellite and a bottom-up view from your spot. When you mix these two views together, you have a more complete picture of the sky....

The NASA GLOBE Clouds team is continuously working with scientists around the world finding ways that cloud observations from citizen scientists impact the most. As we find new ways of using the data, we want to remind you how important each part of your cloud report is to the scientific community. All cloud observations can help with big questions such as the link between clouds and climate. Dr. Patrick Taylor is an atmospheric scientist at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. In the Clouds and Earth’s Climate video, Patrick discusses how he studies clouds to look at our...

Each cloud observation submitted using the GLOBE Observer app or through The GLOBE Program is compared to data from multiple satellites. A satellite match is when satellite data is identified that corresponds to a cloud observation. For orbiting satellites the observation must be within 15 minutes before or after a satellite’s overpass. Geostationary satellites, like the GOES satellites, are always observing the same location. If you are in the United States, you are likely  to get a satellite match to a GOES satellite. These satellites are sending data every 15 minutes. As long as the...

The NASA GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center is working with NASA scientist Dr. Bill Smith to use GLOBE Cloud observations made by people just like you to solve the Terminator Problem! Wait, what? Well, the Solar Terminator or twilight zone is that line that separates the daylit side of a planet from the dark night side. The image on the left is an example. It was taken from the International Space Station as it crossed the terminator on April 17, 2019 as it orbits 254 miles above the Gulf of Guinea on Africa’s mid-western coast.      How can...

septiembre/octubre/noviembre 2020 Nuevos recursos disponibles Gracias a nuestra comunidad de nubes, el reto comunitario de nubes 2020 fue un gran éxito al mostrar cómo la ciencia es mejor juntos. Recibimos excelentes fotografías y obras de artes de los participantes, algunas de las cuales se destacaron en el video de agradecimiento. Si no pudistes participar del reto o quieres seguir trabajando en él, visita la página de la guía para familias de nubes GLOBE para obtener los recursos. Encontrarás vídeos sobre la ciencias de nubes (inglés) y el reto para Familias sobre...

September/October/November 2020   Cloud Challenge Resources Available Thanks to our cloud community, the 2020 Community Cloud Challenge was a great success showing how Science is Better Together! We received some great photos and artwork from participants, some of which were highlighted in the thank you video. If you missed the challenge or want to keep working on it, visit the GLOBE Clouds Family Guide page for the resources. You will find videos about the Science of Clouds and the Family Cloud Challenge page with a Choice Chart for activities...

The NASA GLOBE Clouds team never imagined this time last year that we'd be holding our GLOBE 2020 Community Cloud Challenge in the midst of a global pandemic. But GLOBE is about community and showing how science is better together! In the four weeks of the challenge, we had the opportunity to learn how eight different NASA scientists study clouds to better understand our atmosphere and the important role citizen science observations play in that. You also had the chance to learn about cloud-related activities from six different amazing GLOBE educators.   And considering the...

Audiencia: ¡Todos! (Estudiantes y maestros de todos los grados, educadores informales y el público en general) Fechas: 15 de julio de 2020 - 15 de agosto de 2020 Cómo Participar: Disfruta del verano descubriendo las nubes desde una nueva perspectiva. Hay muchas formas de participar. Cada jueves puedes aprender más sobre las nubes con científicos y educadores de la NASA por medio de la página NASA Earth’s Facebook page. También puedes hacer actividades en casa o hacer observaciones de las nubes o el cielo a través de la herramienta Nubes en GLOBE o la aplicación GLOBE Observer app. ¡Todo...

Audience: Everyone! (Students and teachers all grade levels, informal educators, and the general public) Dates: July 15, 2020 - August 15, 2020 How to Participate: Spend summer together by discovering clouds from a new perspective. There are many ways to participate. Learn more about clouds with NASA scientists and educators each Thursday on NASA Earth’s Facebook page, do at-home activities, or take cloud or sky observations through the Clouds tool on GLOBE or the GLOBE Observer app. It is all up to you! Show how you took part in this unique event by sharing on social media. Choose...

The EPA is celebrating Air Quality Week (May 4-8) and the GLOBE Clouds team would like to ask everyone again for your photographs of dust events! We got a chance to chat with Anne Semrau, a biology teacher at New Mexico State University, who sent in some amazing photographs of a dust event. Question: Where are you from? Where do you live now? Answer: I am mostly from Texas (different parts: Dallas, Houston, Austin, rural northeast Texas) but I have lived in several other places (Navajo Nation, California, Montana, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Missouri, Washington DC).   ...

The NASA GLOBE Clouds team has put together a family guide filled with activities and resources great to do as a family from your home.   El equipo NASA GLOBE nubes ha preparado una guía para familias llena de actividades y recursos tremendas para realizar haceren family en tu hogar.   Guide in English (Link). Guía en español (Enlace).    

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.  

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!    

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...

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,...

  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...

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...

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...

  ¿Vives en un área que tiene tormentas de polvo atmosférico? Nos gustaría que fotografíes el evento y envíes tus fotos usando el app GLOBE Observer. ¿Ya has estado enviando datos sobre tormentas de polvo atmosférico? ¡MUCHAS GRACIAS! Ahora queremos que todos sepan que pueden enviar datos sobre estas tormentas con GLOBE Observer usando los siguientes pasos.   Conoce a los científicos Daniel Tong es un pronosticador de polvo atmosférico con el Programa Nacional de Capacidades de Pronóstico de Calidad del Aire de la NOAA y el Equipo de Ciencias Aplicadas de Salud y...

#19 August 2019 Prepared by Helen Amos, helen.m.amos@nasa.gov   How to Download Dust Observations Reported through GLOBE Dust event on 10 July 2019. Photo credit: GLOBE                             Citizen scientists from around the world have been reporting dust events using the NASA GLOBE Observer app. You can learn about how to get involved here. This blog offers step-by-step instructions on how to download GLOBE dust observations. There are two options. Option 1 is to download...

Do you live in an area that has dust storms? The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment Program (GLOBE) team would like you to photograph dust events in your area and submit your photos using the GLOBE Observer app.   Join NASA GLOBE Clouds Project Scientist, Marilé Colón Robles, to learn more about how to collect your observations and educational resources you can use with formal and informal audiences. Your observations will be used by scientists to verify satellite observations and see if their models have successfully predicted these dust storms...

  Do you live in an area that has dust storms? We would like for you to photograph the dust event and submit your photos using the GLOBE Observer app. Have you already been reporting dust storms? We noticed and what to say THANK YOU! Now we want to get the word out that anyone can report dust storms with the app following the steps below.   Watch the recorded webinar on how to submit your observations using the NASA GLOBE Observer app and learn about educational resources you can use in your classroom or in an informal setting [link]! Interested in the data?...

GLOBE Students! The GLOBE Clouds team is hoping you are all collecting observations or downloading and analyzing clouds data for the upcoming U.S. Student Research Symposia or the International Virtual Science Symposium. If you are using data downloaded from the GLOBE site, you will see a T between the date and time of the observations (example - 2018-10-01T14:00:00).    We got together with Dr. Helen Amos, who put together steps on how to take the "T" out using Excel and Google sheets. The result is having a date and time that looks like 2018-04-13T16:27:00 UTC to...

The NASA GLOBE Clouds team is looking for members of the GLOBE International STEM Network (GISN) or any researcher that would be interested in publishing research (as lead or co-author) using the GLOBE Clouds data.  We are looking for researchers that are interested in: Cryosphere that would be willing to use cloud observations over the Arctic/Antarctica. Satellite validation studies with collocated observations, particularly those collected during GLOBE Clouds Data Challenge (March 15-April 15, 2018). Natural hazards to explore possibilities of using the...

  The 2019 GLOBE International Virtual Science Symposium important dates and rubrics are now available! The GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center would love to see you use cloud observations in your research!  Do you need some ideas? Here are a few. Also, don't forget about the blog on how to come up with a good research question.  K-2nd grade: - What is the cloud type observed the most during Fall/Spring/Summer (choose one or a different period of time)? - Which cloud type, nimbostratus or cumulonimbus, produces the most rain at our school? (choose a...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

   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/   

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...

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...

Mr. Jeff Bouwman The NASA GLOBE Clouds team is excited to highlight Mr. Jeff Bouwman, a 6th and 7th grade teacher at Shumate Middle School (Gibraltar School District) in Gibraltar, MI. Mr. Bouwman was one of the top 10 GLOBE Cloud observers for 2017 and we are very excited for the research his students are doing with the data.    We invite you to read his most recent post - "It's Cool to Have Your Head in the Clouds" - and read the research his students are doing with 2-years of cloud observations!    If you would like to be highlighted as a NASA...

The 2017-18 GLOBE U.S. Air Quality Student Research Campaign is well underway in the United States! There are 34 school participating with more joining as the weeks go by: Broadalbin Perth High School (Alicia Dobyns) Cassadaga Middle School (Sandi Askin) Crestwood High School (Diana Johns) * Elizabeth City Middle School (Wanda Hathaway) Fredonia Middle School (Amy Lauer) Hamburg High School (Kaci Nowadly) Kipp Intrepid Prep School (Robert Bujosa) Life Academy (Sarah Pipping) * Main Street Intermediate School (Marcy Burns) Met Sacramento High School (Christopher Chu) Mountain View...

NASA GLOBE Clouds: Spring Cloud Observations Data Challenge Audience: Students and teachers all grade levels, informal educators, and the general public Dates: March 15, 2018 - April 15, 2018 The NASA GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA is excited to announce the NASA GLOBE Clouds: Spring Cloud Observations Data Challenge. Participants are invited to enter up to 10 cloud observations per day from March 15, 2018 to April 15, 2018 using the GLOBE Program’s data entry options or using GLOBE Observer app. GLOBE and GLOBE Observer participants with the most...

The GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA would like to highlight the top observers for the month of January! Thank you to all observers for submitting your observations and using the satellite matching of data.   Top 10 cloud observers for January 2018   Observer School Country Total Observations Ebtisam Nahhas 19th Secondary Girls School at Al-Madinah Al-Monawarah Saudi Arabia 121 Helio Cabral Independent Observer Brazil 119 Valentina Langiene ...

Friday, February 2nd is Groundhog Day and some of us will be waiting to see if Punxsutawney Phil saw a shadow or not! Punxsutawney Phil and other groundhogs have been predicting the arrival of Spring for many years and has intrigued us all.   NASA Education Specialist Dr. Anne Weiss NASA Education specialist at NASA Langley Research Center, Dr. Anne Weiss, was gathering cloud and temperature data while visiting her nephews (3rd, 5th, and 8th grade) when they got talking about Punxsutawney Phil. Her nephews were questioning if Punxsutawney Phil’s forecast would affect ‘Aunt Anne’...