Today, April 24, 2020, is Arbor Day. Arbor Day, much like Earth Day, is a holiday that celebrates nature. Its purpose is to encourage people to plant trees. Did you know that there are an estimated 3,000,000,000,000 trees on Earth? That is a mind-boggling number, isn't it?
Old growth forest in coastal Oregon. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Trees are a vital component of our Earth system. As trees grow, they help reduce climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the air, storing carbon in the trees and soil, and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.
Trees are a vital part of the Tree Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign. The campaign focuses on tree height, the primary indicator of how well an ecosystem can grow trees, but tree circumference can also be assessed. The campaign brings together student research, online tools and datasets for data analysis, comparisons to satellite data, and the development of student research projects for local science fairs, United States SRS, and GLOBE IVSS.
Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign Shareable
Complementing the data collection and analysis are the monthly campaign webinars. Webinars are a vital part of the Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign. Each month, the webinars focus on the scientific research of trees, bringing in experts from around the world to share their current research experiences with trees and the importance of the GLOBE protocol measurements to understanding our planet's trees and their roles in our Earth's ecosystem.
Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign Webinars
During the webinars, researchers from inside and outside of NASA, GLOBE students and teachers, and citizen scientists share their work with trees. To view any of the last 20 campaign webinars, please visit the Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign Webinar Page.
Please note that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, we do not recommend going outside and taking NASA GLOBE Observer Observations. Please stay safe and healthy. Researching trees does not mean that you need to go outside and take tree height observations. You can also access all the GLOBE data through the GLOBE website at http://globe.gov/globe-data. This is a really cool way to take a look at all the data that is coming in from around GLOBE and investigate the many different environments and ecosystems, from 124 countries, that are part of the GLOBE community.
You can learn more about GLOBE’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic at:
https://www.globe.gov/news-events/globe-events/coronavirus-pandemic
The Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign Team wanted to share a just a few great resources with you on this Arbor Day 2020:
Tree Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign
NASA GLOBE Observer Trees Resource Library
NASA GO Trees Tool and ICESat-2 Data on Open Altimetry
NASA Earth Observatory’s Seeing the Forests for the Trees and the Carbon: Mapping the World’s Forests in Three Dimensions
NASA Visualization Explorer’s Mapping Forests Through Time
Mapping Forest Health from Space
NASA Global Climate Change’s Examining the Viability of Planting Trees to Help Mitigate Climate Change
Arbor Day Foundation’s How Trees Fight Climate Change
Happy Arbor Day to all of you!
