Community Blogs
Open social media sharing options menu
Community Blogs
Discover how the GLOBE community is engaging in all things GLOBE through the community blog posts below.
Learn how to create a GLOBE community blog post.
Filter By:
Blogs List
Greetings from Grosse Ile, Michigan (United States of America)! Recently, I had the honor of being published in the National Science Teachers Association's (NSTA) April/May 2018 edition of Science and Children with my good friend, Dr. Stein Brunvand (Associate Dean - University of Michigan - Dearborn - College of Education, Health, and Human Services ). Dr. Brunvand and I shared some ideas for introducing Citizen Science and technology in an elementary classroom setting. Many of these best practices were utilized when I was a fifth grade teacher at Frank E. Weiss Elementary ...
Read More »
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
SCIENCE AND MATH
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
GLOBE Science Topics:
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
Investigation Areas:
SOIL MOISTURE - SMAP BLOCK PATTERN
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
If you are attending the Michigan Science Teachers Association (MSTA) Conference this coming Friday, March 2, 2018 in Lansing, Michigan (United States of America), I welcome you to join myself ( Jeff Bouwman ), David Bydlowski , and Andy Henry . We are excited to present Aerial Exploration of Environmental Study Sites, Using Kites, Cameras and Other Sensors on Friday, March 2, 2018 at 9:00 AM and #GettingScienceDone – Citizen Science on Friday, March 2, 2018 at 11:00 AM. Aerial Exploration of Environmental Study Sites, Using Kites, Cameras and Other Sensors will ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
SCIENCE AND MATH
TECHNOLOGY
Event Topics:
CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
SURFACE TEMPERATURE
Investigation Areas:
PRECIPITATION
AIR TEMPERATURE
SOIL MOISTURE - SMAP BLOCK PATTERN
SURFACE TEMPERATURE
SOIL TEMPERATURE
CLOUDS
Let's talk about collaboration?
Collaboration is a way to share your research, measurements, and ideas with others that have similar goals and interests. Collaboration is about much more than just sharing data or sharing techniques, it is about leveraging the expertise of others with your own, and combining them into a "POWERPACK" of results.
During our current Phase II of the GLOBE ENSO Student Research Campaign, we are "Taking Data to the Next Level!" One way to maximize this effort is to work with other schools from around the GLOBE community to answer big questions regarding the ...
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
Investigation Areas:
SOIL MOISTURE - SMAP BLOCK PATTERN
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
How do SMAP Scientists Use GLOBE Data (Part I)?
Data Analysis and Blog by Dr. Erika Podest, SMAP Scientist
SMAP has been collecting soil moisture measurements since mid-April 2015, which are freely available, online through the National Snow and Ice Data Archive Center (NSIDC): https://nsidc.org/data/smap
Of utmost importance is to have an assessment of the quality of the data, which is why there is a SMAP calibration/validation group. Its purpose is to determine the accuracy of the measurements and whether there are any biases. In order to calibrate and validate the SMAP ...
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
Investigation Areas:
SOIL MOISTURE - SMAP BLOCK PATTERN
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
ALUMNI
Did you know that soil moisture plays a vital role in human health? Those nasty little critters called mosquitoes love warm, wet soil, and can carry extremely dangerous viruses and diseases. We also can use SMAP soil moisture data to assist famine early warning systems.
Improved seasonal soil moisture forecasts using SMAP data will directly benefit famine early warning systems particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where hunger remains a major human health factor and the population harvests its food from rain-fed agriculture in highly monsoonal (seasonal) conditions. ...
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
Investigation Areas:
SOIL MOISTURE - SMAP BLOCK PATTERN
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
The NASA SMAP satellite took off for space on January 31, 2015 to study our planet's soil moisture and freeze/thaw state. Once in space, the satellite had to go through a prescribed series of steps to ensure that the spacecraft was functioning and all its instruments and components on-board were working properly. This took several months.
In mid-April 2015, NASA starting receiving its first soil moisture measurements from SMAP's combined high resolution radar and its high accuracy radiometer. The combination of this data produced a data resolution of approximately 8km. Unfortunately, ...
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
Investigation Areas:
SOIL MOISTURE - SMAP BLOCK PATTERN
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
There are many application for SMAP soil moisture satellite data.
Understanding drought risk is vital to the health of the planet and to the lives of potentially billions of people around the world. Soil moisture strongly affects plant growth and hence agricultural productivity, especially during conditions of water shortage and drought. Currently, there is no global in situ network for soil moisture monitoring. Global estimates of soil moisture and plant water stress must be derived from models. These model predictions (and hence drought monitoring) can be greatly enhanced through ...
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
SOIL MOISTURE - SMAP BLOCK PATTERN
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
Primary Audience:
TEACHERS
TRAINERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
We all know that the SMAP satellite measures soil moisture. But, how does knowing our planet's soil moisture help us in understanding agriculture's reaction to it?
SMAP monitors soil moisture and provides critical information for drought early warning. In fact, a deficit in the amount of moisture in the soil defines agricultural drought. SMAP's measurements will come into play because researchers forecast a threefold increase in drought frequency in many regions of the world by the end of the 21st Century. History shows that a sustained drought can result in crop failure, deaths of ...
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
Investigation Areas:
SOIL MOISTURE - SMAP BLOCK PATTERN
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
From Dr. Erika Podest, SMAP Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
How do the measurements from different GLOBE protocols serve a mutual purpose better understanding our planet?
In previous blogs I’ve discussed the importance of soil moisture and how it plays a large role in weather prediction, flood and drought forecasting, plant growth, and even in pin pointing areas at risk for mosquito carrying diseases (such as malaria or yellow fever). Soil moisture also drives or is driven by other environmental variables such as air temperature, soil temperature, humidity, and ...
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
Investigation Areas:
SOIL MOISTURE - SMAP BLOCK PATTERN
Hello from Medford Memorial Middle School in Medford, New Jersey.
The quest to get an accurate soil sample continues at Medford Memorial Middle School, Medford NJ. Hello, we are the students of Memorial’s Citizen Science Education Program. We’re excited to be part of the SMAP campaign, but have not yet been able to enter any data. Here’s a brief overview of our journey.
First, we learned about SMAP as a satellite, and then we studied the protocol. We didn’t have any soil sample cans, so we settled on a sturdy coffee can, Ryan had brought in from home. Ashwin measured 5 cm from ...
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
Investigation Areas:
BULK DENSITY
SOIL MOISTURE - SMAP BLOCK PATTERN
SOIL MOISTURE - GRAVIMETRIC
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS