Blog - Brian Andrew Campbell

Scientists rely on research, statistical models, and climate forecast models to help them determine upcoming natural events. Currently, scientists are have a difficult time deciding if and when the potential big El Niño event will happen. It will happen in 2017, but will it be the Summer or Fall? "Right now, many climate forecast models do predict the development of a full-fledged El Niño...

How do you ENSO? Did you know that students from around the world are taking measurements as part of the NASA GLOBE ENSO Student Research Campaign?  Check out what's happening at the Medford Memorial Middle School in New Jersey, USA! We are looking for YOUR videos, showcasing your students taking measurements that are part of the NASA GLOBE ENSO Student Research Campaign. (Note, you...

Currently, we are in an ENSO-neutral period called "La Nada." La Nada is the midpoint between an El Niño and La Niña. This occurs when the ocean temperatures in the Pacific Ocean are near average. The "in-between" ocean state can be frustrating for long-range forecasters. "It's like driving without a decent road map — it makes forecasting difficult," said climatologist Bill Patzert of NASA's...

Students from Mr. Jeff Bouwman’s science class at Shumate Middle School in Gibraltar, MI are not just budding scientists, but artists as well. Check out the awesome wall mural they have created just Mr. Bouwman’s classroom. #NASASMAP #GettingScienceDone #ShumateScience

ENSO Student Research Campaign Students in the United States, here is where you take your GLOBE date to the next level! The US Student Research Symposium is ready to learn all about the data that you have taken! https://www.globe.gov/web/united-states-of-america/student-research-symposia Teachers, if you are interested in attending with a group of students, please indicate your interest and...

As you know, the ENSO phenomenon affect the entire planet. Check out this great video from the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology. In this video, you will see the extremes that ENSO brings to all corners of Australia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzat16LMtQk Are the affects of ENSO in your country the same or different than in Australia? Try to draw some conclusions based upon...

Have you missed some of the ENSO Student Research Campaign webinar? Look no further. We have a 1-stop-shop to view the webinars from our current Phase II, and also from Phase I. Please click HERE to view all the past webinars and learn about future ones!

As you know, the theme for Phase II of the ENSO Student Research Campaign is "Taking Data to the Next Level!" For our U.S. schools, teachers, and partners, GLOBE has just announced the 2017 series of Regional Student Research Symposia (previously called GLOBE Regional Science Fairs). This is an opportune time to take your data to the next level. As the campaign lead, I will advise you to...

As you might know, Phase II of the GLOBE ENSO Student Research Campaign is in full force! Are you an OFFICIAL MEMBER? If not, you are missing out on vital updates and potential collaboration with other GLOBE schools from around the world. We have already had 3 webinars for Phase II. CLICK HERE TO JOIN TODAY! Did you know that approximately 50,000 automated and non-automated measurements are...

The GLOBE ENSO Student Research Campaign wants to hear how you are collaborating with other GLOBE schools – or how you would like to collaborate in the future. Create a slide and send it in by 13 November so that it can be shared during the upcoming 15 November webinar. What better way to show your students that they are a valuable part of the GLOBE community than by sharing a slide that shows...

A few months ago, scientists and researchers gave La Niña a slim-to-none chance of forming..... BUT..... recent weather and climate models are now saying that La Niña has a 70% chance of taking shape, albeit a weak one. Check out this cool article by NOAA's Climate research group.

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...

How hot was August 2016?   It was the hottest August in the last 136 years of modern meteorological record keeping? On Sept. 12, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) posted its monthly analysis of global temperatures for August 2016. The analysis by the GISS team is assembled from publicly available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around the world;...

Have you been taking lots of GLOBE data for the El Niño Student Research Campaign? Now that you have all the data, what can you do with it? There are lots of cool ways to make sense of your data by sharing your WATER STORIES via the H2yOu Project and El Niño stories via the Story Maps Project. By analyzing your El Niño protocol data, you can develop stories that will tell the rest of the...

Earlier this summer, scientists predicted about a 75% chance of a La Niña following the El Niño from 2015-2016. But now, a La Niña is most likely not going to happen, with a 40% chance as of September. Last Spring, waters in the Pacific Ocean seemed to be cooling off. This is an indicator of a La Niña weather pattern. Scientists have now noticed that these water temperatures have been leveling...

Mark Your Calendars!!! The GLOBE ENSO Student Research Campaign will continue with Phase II. The official commencement of Phase II will be at the Wednesday, September 21, 2016 at 8:00pm EDT (12:00 am September 22nd UTC). Please visit the WEBINAR page to sign up and join us in celebrating the beginning of another year of the ENSO Student Research Campaign.  

As you might know, NASA came out with a statement that July 2016 was the hottest month on record, ever! Since the 2015-2016 El Niño event began in October 2015, each month has set a new record for the hottest month on record. Even though we are currently in a period of neutrality, we are on the tails of an El Niño and quite possibly about to enter a La Niña. "Since October 2015, every month...

Plants need light to grow. They also require nutrients. For tiny marine plants, called phytoplankton, those nutrients are often brought up from the ocean’s cold, deep waters to the surface by mixing. But this normal circulation gets disrupted during El Niño years, when huge masses of warm water—equivalent to about half of the volume of the Mediterranean Sea—slosh east across the Pacific Ocean...

Check out the latest and greatest images, from NASA, associated with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event. These images that you will see show sea surface height anomalies with the seasonal cycle (the effects of summer, fall, winter, and spring) removed. The differences between what we see and what is normal for different times and regions are called anomalies, or residuals. When...

US La Nina forecast: Snowy winter on tap for East; Dry weather to alleviate flood woes in South Central! Check this out!

10. El Niño Student Campaign Refresher and Update -  Wednesday, September 21st, 2016 8:00 pm EDT (12:00 am September 22nd UTC) In this hour-long webinar, participants will get a refresher on this campaign, and will hear from several GLOBE teachers who have been involved with their classes from the start of the campaign. We will discuss the need for ongoing data collection and share the...

El Niño Field Campaign members, teachers, students, and campaign team at the 20th GLOBE Annual Meeting in Estes Park, Colorado 16-21 July 2016! Keep up the awesome work!

See the latest and greatest satellite imagery of our current El Niño leading up to a potential La Niña! See more HERE!

Have you ever wondered why you need to take so much data via the GLOBE Protocols? Are you part of the GLOBE El Niño Campaign. This articled entitled, "El Niño is over, and nearly all the forecasts got it wrong", really hits home with the idea that a global event like El Niño is so unpredictable. So many parts of the environment are being affected it is really hard to predict how each...

Guest Blogger: Pat Benner from Somerset County Schools, Maryland and her students.               Sixth grade students at Somerset Intermediate School on the Eastern Shore of Maryland are currently studying weather, climate, and human impacts on Earth systems, synthesizing our year-long study of Earth science. We monitored and...

"The global weather pattern that has been affecting the United States over the last 9 months is coming to an end, and now its sister is likely to take hold." Check out this recent article - http://www.fox9.com/news/135728044-story  

Water Availability can be defined as "The hydrologic capacity of a water source (surface water body, groundwater, municipal water) to sustain additional water demands after considering other current water uses and water conditions. (GEMI, 2012) The Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission provides information on water availability and environmental stress for estimating plant productivity and...

The freezing and thawing of our planet's soil can make a big impact on our climate. Check out the blog below to see just how important this is. SMAP’s focus also includes measurements of freeze/thaw, which tells us whether the land surface is frozen or thawed in areas north of 45-degree north latitude. This is very important to know, because when the vegetation is frozen there is minimal...

We are just about one month into the El Niño Field Campaign and we have many schools that have gone above and beyond expectations. Teacher, Jeff Bouwman, at Shumate Middle School in Michigan, has taken his student science to the next level. By maximizing his classroom space to using the great outdoors to do great science, #GettingScienceDone is setting the bar high for student GLOBE...

"The Atlanta Science Festival is an annual public celebration of local science and technology. From March 19-26, 2016, curious people of all ages will explore the science and technology in our region and see how science is connected to all parts of our lives in 100 engaging events, including hands-on activities, facility tours, presentations, and performances throughout the metro...