Blogs

GLOBE Eclipse Challenge: Clouds and Our Solar-Powered Earth (15 March - 15 April 2024)

an artist rendition of a view of the Earth, moon and sun from space. The Earth is covered by clouds and the moon is covering the sun causing a solar eclipse.

The Sun drives many processes in Earth’s atmosphere. As the Sun rises and sets, it warms the Earth’s surface at different intensities. These changes in heat lead to changes in the clouds, especially the types of clouds. To study these changes, we need observations at different times over the course of hours, days, weeks, months, and years from around the globe. It can be tricky to capture the extent of these interactions with satellites alone, which is why we need observations from your perspective on the ground as part of the GLOBE Eclipse Challenge: Clouds and Our Solar-Powered Earth.

The challenge runs 15 March - 15 April 2024 to align with the NASA GLOBE Clouds: Spring Cloud Observations Data Challenge which occurred 15 March - 15 April 2018. In the 2018 challenge, volunteers submitted more than 55,600 cloud observations! The 2024 GLOBE Eclipse Challenge builds the long-term record of cloud observations to help scientists study change over time and allows a comparison to the previous challenge data.

More Blog Entries