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GISN & STEM Professional's Blog
The GLOBE International STEM Network (GISN) and STEM Professional's Blog is an online collaborative effort where scientists associated with GLOBE post their thoughts, comments, and philosophies about a variety of science topics.
GLOBE strongly encourages positive and productive discussions to further advance the scientific understanding of all involved with The GLOBE Program.
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Nitrogen is an important molecule that makes up nearly 78 percent of the atmosphere. Burning fossil fuels and using fertilizers for agriculture are two ways that this number can increase. But the atmosphere isn’t the only place that nitrogen is found – it is also found in bodies of water. Of the nitrogen that is spread in fertilizers, only 25-30 percent is absorbed by plants, so that leaves a lot of nitrogen left to either be absorbed by the atmosphere or into water. Figure 1 shows the intricacies of the nitrogen cycle, from Physical Geography.net’s Fundamentals ...
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This week, we have a guest post from Dr. Angela Rowe – a post-doc with Colorado State University and the country of Taiwan examining radar data and monsoons. Dr. Rowe received her undergraduate degree in meteorology from Millersville University, and her Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Colorado State University, focusing on the Asian and North American Monsoons. This post is timely, as the monsoon was mentioned in many of the state of the climate of 2010 discussions for different GLOBE regions.
When most people hear the word “monsoon”, thoughts of abrupt, intense ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
GENERAL SCIENCE
In December 2009, Dr. Donna Charlevoix, of the GLOBE Program Office, attended the COP-15 (15th meeting of the Conference of Parties) meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Charlevoix gave a great summary of the meetings in five separate blog posts that began on 7 December 2009. Some of you may have read these posts, and for those of you who haven’t, I encourage you to visit them, beginning with the first to get a better understanding of the importance of these annual meetings.
This year’s meeting was titled COP-17 (17th Conference of Parties). The meeting is ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
GENERAL SCIENCE
Primary Audience:
SCIENTISTS
Sometimes in a rapidly changing world, it is difficult to see the effects that small changes in human lifestyle can have on not only climate, but on ecosystems. Various countries and international organizations are working to pass legislation to ensure change. One such case of legislation working is being observed in the San Francisco Bay – the return of harbor porpoises. This was recently reported in the QUEST biology blog .
The map below shows the location of the San Francisco Bay, marked by the bubble with an A, from Google.
In 1972, ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
GENERAL SCIENCE
BACKYARD SCIENCE
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
A few weeks ago, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) wrote about a report claiming that some of the fruit from native trees in Britain are ripening anywhere from 13 to 18 days earlier than they did a decade ago. The report was from Nature’s Calendar, a data collection network in the United Kingdom. While the cause isn’t specifically known, many believe it’s due to a change in climate.
What does a change like this mean to the earth as a system?
Scientists are interested in studying the connections between the different Earth processes – from how greenhouse ...
2011 has been an interesting year in regards to rainfall for the GLOBE country of Thailand, as both the north and south portions of the country have seen significant flooding. Let’s take a look at Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, which is located in the north, as well as Phuket, which is located in the south. Here’s a map of the country for those who aren’t familiar with Thailand, with the cities of interest indicated by the red dots:
Map of Thailand from Google
First, we’ll begin by examining the major flooding ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
BACKYARD SCIENCE
This week we’ll finish our look at the climate summaries for each GLOBE region with a focus on the Near East-North Africa region. Remember that these annual reports provide a summary of the global climatic conditions and are a great benchmark for monitoring climate.
Regional reports provide a tremendous amount of information. The temperature and precipitation climate summaries are highlighted here, but if you are interested, more information about the Near East-North Africa region state of the climate is available from this website: ...
This week we’ll continue our look at the climate summaries for each GLOBE region, with a focus on the North America region. These annual reports provide a summary of the global climatic conditions and are a great benchmark for monitoring climate.
Regional reports provide a tremendous amount of information. The temperature and precipitation climate summaries are highlighted here, but if you are interested, more information about the North America Region state of the climate is available from this website: ...
This week we’ll continue our look at the climate summaries for each GLOBE region, with a focus on the Latin America-Caribbean region. Remember that these annual reports provide a summary of the global climatic conditions and are a great benchmark for monitoring climate. You can use this data in your own GLOBE climate research projects!
Regional reports provide a tremendous amount of information including temperature, precipitation, tropical cyclone activity, and notable events. Temperature and precipitation climate summaries are highlighted here; more information about the ...
This week we’ll continue our look at the climate summaries for each GLOBE region, with a focus on the Europe-Eurasia region. Recall that these annual reports provide a summary of the global climatic conditions and are a great benchmark for monitoring climate.
Regional reports provide a tremendous amount of information. The temperature and precipitation climate summaries are highlighted here, but if you are interested, more information about the Europe-Eurasia Region state of the climate is available from this website: ...
This week we’ll continue our look at the climate summaries for each GLOBE region, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. Recall that these annual reports provide a summary of the global climatic conditions and are a great benchmark for monitoring climate.
Regional reports provide a tremendous amount of information. The temperature and precipitation climate summaries are highlighted here, but if you are interested, more information about the Asia-Pacific Region state of the climate is available from this website: ...
In a recent blog post , we shared with you the NOAA State of the Climate report for 2010. These annual reports provide a summary of the global climatic conditions and are a great benchmark for monitoring climate. Along with the global summary, the report summarizes regions. The regions very closely overlap with the GLOBE Regions! We will go through the report and provide a summary for each GLOBE Region. A review of the Regional summaries is a great way for you to see how the climate of your region compared with the regions of other GLOBE Schools. We will start off with Africa.
All ...
Late last week, Pacific Ocean visitors near San Diego, California, USA were able to see an amazing sight that doesn’t happen very often… glowing waves!
So what exactly is the process that causes the glowing waves?
Algae! This particular type of algae, Lingulodinium polyedrum , began blooming in late August. During the day, the waters off the coast of California turn a brownish-red color, according to The University of California – San Diego scientists. Take a look at what this microorganism looks like under a microscope:
Image from The Smithsonian ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
BACKYARD SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
Recently NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) released the 2010 State of the Climate. The State of the Climate is an annual report that summarizes the climate conditions around the world over the time period of a calendar year. All the reports are available online through the National Climatic Data Center website. [ http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/bams-state-of-the-climate/2010.php ]
The annual State of the Climate is a record of the conditions around the globe and provides an excellent reference for beginning studies of climate. If you are participating in the ...
Starting tomorrow, July 1, 2011, the Climate and Land Cover (CLC) Project will commence! This project is a joint research effort between GLOBE schools around the world and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists in the United States. The purpose is to use data collected by students to improve current land cover classifications, which can also improve climate models that need to use land cover data. As a fellow atmospheric scientist once said to me, if you put bad data into your model, you’re going to get bad data out. So an improvement in land cover should help ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
GENERAL SCIENCE
The GLOBE Program is excited to announce the relaunch of the GLOBE Scientists’ Blog! This blog will be a place where GLOBE Scientists can share their thoughts about a variety of scientific topics. In January 2011, three new scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO joined the GLOBE Program Office as support to the Science and Education team. These three scientists are Duncan Axisa, Jessica Mackaro, and Sarah Tessendorf.
Duncan Axisa is an Associate Scientist at NCAR’s Research Applications Laboratory. Duncan is responsible ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
GENERAL SCIENCE