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Tina Rogerson

Publications and source records attributed to Tina Rogerson.

Clouds Around the World: How a Simple Citizen Science Data Challenge Became a Worldwide Success

Citizen science is often recognized for its potential to directly engage the public in science, and is uniquely positioned to support and extend participants’ learning in science. In March 2018, the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program, NASA’s largest and longest-lasting citizen science program about Earth, organized a month-long event that asked people around the world to contribute daily cloud observations and photographs of the sky (15 March–15 April 2018). What was considered a simple engagement activity turned into an unprecedented worldwide event that garnered major public interest and media recognition, collecting over 55,000 observations from 99 different countries, in more than 15,000 locations, on every continent including Antarctica. The event was called the “Spring Cloud Challenge” and was created to 1) engage the general public in the scientific process and promote the use of the GLOBE Observer app, 2) collect ground-based visual observations of varying cloud types during boreal spring, and 3) increase the number and locations of ground-based visual cloud observations collocated with cloud-observing satellites. The event resulted in roughly 3 times more observations than during the historic and highly publicized 2017 North American total solar eclipse. The dataset also includes observations over the Drake Passage in Antarctica and reports from intense Saharan dust events. This article describes how the challenge was crafted, outreach to volunteer scientists around the world, details of the data collected, and impact of the data.

GLOBE↗

NASA GLOBE Clouds: Matching your sky observations to multiple satellite data

Have you ever wondered how your view of the sky compares to satellite data? The NASA GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA, matches ground-cloud observations taken by citizen scientists through the GLOBE Program to geostationary satellites as well as to Terra, Aqua, and CALIPSO satellites. The result is the NASA GLOBE Clouds satellite match table sent in a NASA personalized email summarizing both ground-cloud and satellite observations. The table contains ground-cloud and satellite values of total cloud cover and cloud cover by height (low, mid, high), cloud opacity and cloud phase. The satellite match table also includes images from the respective satellites centered on the latitude and longitude of the ground-cloud report entered through the GLOBE Program. Participants can receive satellite flyover notifications for their location through the GLOBE Observer app or through the satellite flyover schedule. This presentation will engage the audience through a live demonstration showing how to access GLOBE Clouds data visualization tools and view corresponding satellite imagery and data. We will also discuss best practices suggested by classroom teachers and undergraduate professors in incorporating active learning and satellite data analysis.

Marilé Colón Robles↗

917 GLOBE Eclipse: Citizen Scientist Measurements of Atmospheric Changes During Astronomical Events

The GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program is an international citizen science (CS) and education program. The program’s GLOBE Observer app guides participants to collect cloud and air temperature observations during solar eclipses. The participants are prompted to collect: - Air temperature every 10 minutes and then every 5 minutes 30 minutes before/after maximum. - Cloud information (cover, type, and height) every 15 to 30 minutes. - A land cover observation the day of the eclipse (new in 2023). This research explores: - The importance of citizen science. - The effects of the solar eclipse on clouds.

Ashlee Autore↗