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Calling All Cloud Gazers: NASA and GLOBE Need Your Help! Spring Cloud Observations Data Challenge through 15 April!


GLOBE Observer app users
Credits: NASA/Jessica Taylor

The NASA GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, USA, 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 15 March through 15 April 2018 using the GLOBE Program’s data entry options or using GLOBE Observer app. Challenge participants with the most observations will be congratulated by a NASA scientist in a video posted on the GLOBE Program’s website and on social media.

“The GLOBE Program is offering this challenge to show people how important it is to NASA to have citizen scientist observations; observations from the ground up,” said Marilé Colón Robles, lead for the GLOBE Clouds team at NASA’s Langley Research Center. “We’re going from winter to spring, so the types of storms will change, which will also change the types of clouds.”

Researchers use, and value, this citizen science cloud data because it helps to validate data from Earth-observing instruments. Scientists at Langley work with a suite of six instruments known as the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES).

Even though CERES’ instruments use advanced technology, it is not always easy for researchers to positively identify all types of clouds in their images. For example, it can be difficult to differentiate thin, wispy cirrus clouds from snow since both are cold and bright; even more so when cirrus clouds are above a surface with patchy snow or snow cover. One solution to this problem is to look at satellite images from a particular area and compare them to data submitted by citizen scientists on the ground.

“Looking at what an observer recorded as clouds and looking at their surface observations really helps us better understand the images that were matched from the satellite,” said Colón Robles.

Citizen science observations are especially needed now because scientists are starting to verify data from a new CERES instrument. CERES FM6 launched to orbit 18 November, and began taking measurements on 05 January.

You don’t have to be a cloud-gazing pro to participate. For those who want to be part of the challenge but don’t have a lot of experience identifying clouds, Colón Robles offers the following advice: “Just go outside.” The more clouds you observe, she said, the more comfortable you’ll be collecting data.

  • Read more about the challenge here.
  • Find tips for making good cloud observations here.

Thank you for participating in this data challenge. Your observations help scientists better understand satellite data of our atmosphere.  

type: globe-news

News origin: GLOBE Implementation Office



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