Science Blog - Mission Mosquito

Organizing your AOI and Land Cover Observations   Hello! My name is Sophia and I live in San Diego, California. I recently finished making all 37 observations for my AOI, which I did over the course of exactly one week. I took observations almost every day, spreading out my data-collecting, which I recommend if you start well before your data deadline so you don’t get too burnt out! To...

For my (Area of Interest) AOI project I collected my 37 points using GLOBE observer, google maps, and a grid creator. These tools made collecting my data points a lot easier. To start I plotted where all my AOI points would be based on a central point. Using CVS and GeoJson files I was able to get all 37 AOI points in that area. When choosing a center point for your grid you should consider...

I did my AOI centered at a point near the entrance of my old elementary school, Wilshire Elementary, in Euless, which is where I live. I finished my 37 field observations in the span of exactly 7 days. This allowed me to have more breathing space when collecting my data. When strategizing a plan to get this done, I decided to keep my process as simple and efficient as possible while...

The Problem You've got a list of AOI coordinates. Google Maps will show them to you, but it won't tell you the best order to visit them. If you’ve got more than a few points, this becomes a mess—guesswork, wasted time, and unnecessary backtracking.  We need a tool that will plan the most efficient route for us instead of figuring things out ourselves. That’s what this does, here’s...

This project is all about mixing the personal stories of citizen scientists with 30 years of the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) program. It combines these two sources, as well as other data sources, to get a complete picture of how our environment change              ​​​​​​​ This is the...

Our project for SEES 2024 was "Creating a Model to Identify High-Risk Areas for Flash Flooding in Houston, Texas." In this blog, I will discuss how we calculated which areas are "high-risk." There are many ways to identify the most at-risk points of flooding in a given region. Such points are commonly identified in a flood map, such as the one here: For our project, we...

SEES 2024 Experience Getting the opportunity to participate in the NASA SEES Earth System Explorers program has positively impacted my educational and career journey in more ways than I could've imagined. Throughout this internship, I gained an immense amount of knowledge in Earth science, utilizing the GLOBE Observer app, ArcGIS, Collect Earth Online, Python, and many other tools to better...

In this blog post, I will go through every step of the internship and outline my experience! Before I do that, first of all, I would like to say that I am so happy that I got to spend my summer with SEES! This program was so amazing and helped guide me a bit more on what I want to do in my future career and in college! I am very grateful for all of our mentors who guided us through the program...

If you had asked me what “citizen science” was before this internship with the NASA SEES (STEM Enhancement in Earth Science) Earth System Explorers, I most likely would have conjured a description that involved studying the human body. Now, however, I feel confident in saying that citizen science is a dynamic, extraordinary meaningful process by which everyday citizens contribute to real-world...

The wildfire data analysis journey began with a dataset comprising over 1200 points located in the California region. To uncover the correlation between land cover types and wildfire risk, we first needed to determine the wildfire risk for each point using the FEMA Wildfire Risk Map. This step involved entering coordinates into the software to obtain the wildfire risk index for each location....

My group’s project focused on using land cover data and GLOBE Observer images to create a machine learning model that can predict land surface temperature - a measure of how hot the surface of the Earth feels in a given location. For context, GLOBE is short for “Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment”. It’s an app that lets volunteers across the world take observations of...

Roboflow is an open-source dataset management platform, where users can import data, label it, and then have a model train on it. For my group's project, CS-FLARE, we used Roboflow to label brush, grass, trees, and leaf litter in our NESW Images as shown below.  When I initially began labeling images, I tried using bounding boxes for each picture like the leaf litter in the image above. This...

Adopt-a-Pixel | Where does water meet land in my community? Scanning the Area As our first assignment as part of the Earth System Explorers team, we've been tasked with making our first observations using the GLOBE Observer App. The goal was to make 12 total observations (6 Potential Mosquito Habitat & 6 Land Cover).  To be more efficient, I decided to make all of my observations...

I built my mosquito traps on June 20th and ran the experiment until July 15th. I collected a total of 15 observations during this period. To construct the traps I used three identical pots to hold water. The goal of my experiment was to find which type of mosquito bait would be the most effective at attracting and sheltering mosquitos. For the three baits I used dried leaves, grass clippings,...

My mosquito trap was definitely a rollercoaster, and with this being the last required update, I still plan on seeing how the traps do after the internship finishes since this has been really interesting. To give some background, I set out three traps around 30-40 yards away from each other around my AOI so I could get an idea of how different areas may yield different results. The first trap...

Mosquito Trap Week 1 For the mosquito traps, I decided quite early on that my independent variable would be the container. I got 3 different containers; an old tire, a black bucket, and a gallon bottle/container while keeping all other factors the same. I used the same bait and the same amount of water and placed all 3 traps in my backyard behind the shade of the t​​​​​​​ree. I  decided on...

AOI Fieldwork At first, collecting land cover data for 37 points within my area of interest felt like a daunting task. However, after only a few "expeditions" in the past week, I was able to complete all 37 observations. To make my work easier and more accurate, I intentionally choose an AOI that would contain as many points as possible within a nearby park. This was to ensure that I could...

My fieldwork to map land via the Globe app led me to understand where I live better. Texas is the second-largest U.S. state by both area and population. There are only four deserts in North America, and Texas is home to the Chihuahuan Desert. Texas Land Conservancy [TLC] works to conserve natural areas, protect the physical and ecological integrity of their wildlife habitat and native plant...

Concerns regarding the impact of global warming on vector-borne diseases have intensified interest in the relationship between atmospheric factors and dengue fever incidence. Global climate change poses the threat of serious social upheaval, population displacement, economic hardships, and environmental degradation. Changes in temperature, rainfall and relative humidity have potential to...

When you start writing your GLOBE report for IVSS, it might be difficult because you might not sure where to start. We tend to start writing the Methods section first because it is something you did it yourselves, and it should be relatively easy and straightforward to write. Second, you should write the Results section, do graphs, tables and texts (think of a best way to present your cool...