Blog - Dorian Wood Janney

While in Thailand, last month Peter and I met one of Kris and Mullica’s graduate students, who is involved with the regular collection of GLOBE weather data and is learning about the ENSO cycle. He and I chatted a lot about what he is doing, and he took us to see one of the automated weather stations that is situated in a mountain village about 30 minutes out of Nakhom Si Thammarat.  We...

Have you ever wondered how NASA Earth observing satellites are able to ground truth their data? What about satellites that collect data over the ocean? Is it ever possible to compare actual in situ data with data that is collected using remote sensing? It just so happens that there are several NASA scientists who will be doing just that- and more- from January 24th through February 20th! And,...

I just came across an article from NASA's Earth Observatory that was released yesterday entitled "A Dry Start to South America’s Wet Season". The article describes the current lack of precipitation in South America, and includes the map below. In this map, we are seeing the accumulated deficit of rainfall that is both flowing onto the surface and accumulating under the ground as of this...

One of NASA's scientists, Dr. Stephanie Uz, has been working closely with the GLOBE ENSO Campaign throughout its beginning. She is an oceanographer who studies the response of ocean biology to physical forcing through remotely sensed satellite data, in situ measurements, model output and statistical reconstructions using proxies. Her research focuses on variability in global ocean color or...

I came across this information this afternoon, and thought I would share it with everyone. Here are some of the impacts of the 2015-2016 El Nino's impact on some parts of Brazil and Columbia.  We would love to hear from any of you as to how the El Nino impacted you in your area! Just add a comment below.  "Brazil is undergoing its most severe drought in 35 years and heavily...

Hey there all your fabulous GLOBE Teachers and Scientists!!!! We want one slide from you- and here is the template ready to go!- to share either how you are already using collaboration as a tool or how you would like to use this tool in the future!  It is super easy- here are the directions.  What better way to show your students that they are a valuable part of the GLOBE Community...

Apparently the wind belts around the equator flip about once every two years. This past year, NASA found that the flip occurred much earlier than it expected. Watch the short video at this url to learn more about this phenomena and how it might be related to the 2015-16 El Nino event.  ...

I just came across a fascinating article titled "A Tale of Fire and Water- A NASA Scientist's Quest to Understand Rain in Africa". You can see this article at this link:http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/IchokuRain/.  You learn the story of a NASA scientist who grew up in southern Nigeria as a poor refugee child whose family was forced to flee their home because of a civil war that...

I just came across an article that discusses the impact of the 2015-2016 El Nino on landslides in California. You can read it at this link: http://landslides.usgs.gov/monitoring/2015elnino/ncal.php. How would you think that the El Nino impacted the incidence of landslides in that region? Historically it is the large winter storms that cause the devastating landslides in the Francisco...

I just read a fascinating article from National Geographic that was published yesterday entitled "How La Nina Could Affect the Spread of Zika": http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/will-la-nina-affect-the-spread-of-zika-/. Before you read the article, stop and consider how the temperature and precipitation patterns in your local region changed as a result of the El Nino. In my area, the...

The third and fourth grade students whom I work with at Cedar Grove ES asked me what will happen once the El Nino conditions begin to subside, and I admitted that I really wasn't sure. So, we used the internet and looked it up! We found a website that answered our question!  Discovery News has a great article with videos and graphics...

Dorian Janney, GLOBE Scientist Mentor Blog for El Nino Field Campaign   I have had the pleasure of working with two groups of elementary school students this year as their GLOBE mentor. They attend Cedar Grove Elementary School in Clarksburg, MD. My primary goal was to install an instrument box with a rain gauge and a multi-day thermometer at their school, and to help them collect and...