Whenever I talk with teachers about studying phenology, their first question is always, “What is phenology?” To me, phenology is one of the most exciting observations we can make through GLOBE. The ability to observe, first hand, the life cycles of living things and how the processes change with seasons is an amazing connection to our environment. Sometimes it can be hard to visualize the potential impacts of climate change. This makes sense, because with climate we are talking about long time scales, so thinking about how our environment may be different in 30, 100 or even 1000 years from now can be difficult to understand. However, with plant phenology, you can start tracking real-life observations that may indicate how our environment is changing now.

The GLOBE Program provides some engaging protocols for phonological data collection. Scientists have been observing these changes in the environment for years using satellite images, measuring vegetation “greenness” using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Students can observe this greening of Earth through the seasons using various web-based tools at several websites.

My NASA DATA allows students to access NDVI data and create their own color plots and time series graphs of NDVI

Satellite data can be used to monitor the health of plant life from space, and is visualized through this video (click the image to open a new window with the video) . The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) provides a simple numerical indicator of the health of vegetation which can be used to monitoring changes in vegetation over time. This animation shows the seasonal changes in vegetation by fading between average monthly NDVI data from 2004. The loop begins on September 24 and repeats six times during one full rotation of the globe at a rate of one frame per day. The fade for each month is complete on the 15th of each month.

The GLOBE Program also provides learning activities to facilitate the understanding of the science behind this investigation. One such learning activity is Green-up Cards. Creating your own class set of Green-Up Cards is a great way to start tracking local plant phenology.  As a trainer, I have incorporated this learning activity into my workshops, but have always wanted to showcase local plant species.  Teachers see the usefulness of this activity because it uses sequencing and pattern skills and helps illustrate the importance of detailed observations.  Teachers often ask if there is a database of photos they can use to help train their students in determining the vegetative phases of plant development.  By having GLOBE students around the world make their own Green-Up Cards, we can create a library of plant photos showcasing green-up across the globe.

NASA Langley engineer David Beals has spent time looking at plant phenology and captured the following images.  These are great examples of what you can include in your Green-Up Card.

Similar cards can be created for Green-Down, exhibiting the colors of plant senescence.  Documenting your plant phenology observations through photos and sketches is a great way for students to track plants’ life cycle and it creates a resource for future student observers.  This can be a part of your Student Climate Research Campaign  activities. You can extend this activity further by comparing your plant observations to local temperature and precipitation measurements.

Suggested activity: Start gathering your equipment and define a site for documenting Green-Up if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere.  You can learn additional information about this activity on the GLOBE website.  Once you begin taking photographs or drawings, share them with us on Facebook.  You could also use this activity as an inspiration for your entry into the GLOBE Earth Day Video Competition, which is occurring right now.

Unlike the Rover landing, no one from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Landsat Data Continuity Mission has appeared in the media write-ups with a Mohawk to encourage students around the world to think that science, technology, engineering and mathematics can be both cool and exciting.

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Systems Engineer Bobak Ferdowsi is seen reacting after the MSL rover Curiosity successfully landed on Mars, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Despite the relatively quiet coverage, on 11 February 2013 at approximately 18 UTC (1 pm EST), many scientists watched the launch with nervousness and anticipation, including me.  I had been counting down for days.  My colleagues and friends were both tired of my daily countdown and upset when I missed a day.  But many of them really didn’t know why I was so excited and what this launch means to GLOBE and to scientists who use remotely sensed data.

Fast fact: Once the satellite is fully tested, operational and in the hands of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), it will be known as Landsat 8.

NASA Sees Fields of Green Spring up in Saudi Arabia. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Landsat

For 40 years, we have been able to access data showing us how the Earth has changed over time.  We have been able to download these data for free for years.  By using MultiSpec (a free digital image processing software), there were no constraints on how young or old users were, what country they were from, by whom and for how much they were funded, or not funded, or even what they were using these data for in their research. Scientists, students, and citizens of every country in the world could process these data, create images, and study the Earth and its changes over time with a computer, a tutorial and basic remote sensing knowledge. These data are at spatial, spectral and temporal (passes over a location every 16 days) resolutions that can be used to consistently monitor ecosystems and forest types, natural disaster impacts from floods, volcanoes, and fires, and urban development.

Fast fact: For GLOBE land cover mapping, we typically use 5 spectral bands – 3 visible light and 2 near-infrared – with 30 meter spatial resolution.

What if this launch did not go well?  Landsat 5, with a projected lifespan of only three years, was recently decomissioned after 30 years of collecting data!

The decommissioned Landsat 5 gets a new title by setting a Guinness World Record as the “Longest Operating Earth Observation Satellite.” Credit: USGS

Landsat 6 never achieved orbit. Landsat 7 collects data, but it has large gaps in coverage for each scene. Would our data record of the Earth stop? No. There are other satellites and other ways to collect data – but not for free, and not with the breadth of Landsat. Landsat is a lot like GLOBE: accessible to everyone, everywhere, with a legacy of data and an amazing mechanism to continue on its mission, with no boundaries. And the possibilities are endless when GLOBE research is carried out by students using Landsat data.

On Monday, Feb 11^th, if you weren’t cheering on the launch or weren’t thinking about its significance for GLOBE, don’t worry; I was doing enough of that for all of us.

“Landsat is the one monitoring system that for the last 40 years has provided every citizen of planet Earth the scale and the resolution to observe – for himself or herself – the changes and the ability of this planet to provide for each and every one of us those services that we require.  I’m happy to say that thanks to that flawless launch today, the Landsat legacy will live on.” - Marcia McNutt, director of the USGS

Suggested activity:  Did you watch the launch of Landsat, or have you been using Landsat to do GLOBE?  Let us know about it either on Facebook or through the “Tell us about it” link on your profile page on the GLOBE website.  You can also read more about Landsat by looking at the fact sheet.  And finally, be sure to check out some of Jennifer’s favorite Landsat photos.

The GLOBE Program, launched on Earth Day 1995, celebrated Earth Day 2012 by engaging GLOBE students in a video competition.  58 short videos were submitted by students from 19 countries showing themselves and their colleagues engaged in exploring their local climate through GLOBE protocols.  Each video featured students explaining, either in their native language or English, what they were doing and how that related to their climate research projects.

The following images are screen captures from the winning videos from the 2012 competition.  Clicking on the image will take you to The GLOBE Program’s YouTube Channel where you will be able to watch the video in its entirety.  You will also find the second and third place videos from each region in the Student Climate Research Campaign Video Competition YouTube Channel.

2012 Winning Video from Africa Region

2012 Winning Video from Asia and Pacific Region

2012 Winning Video from Europe and Eurasia Region

2012 Winning Video from Latin America and Caribbean Region

2012 Winning Video from Near East and North Africa Region

2012 Winning Video from North America Region

The GLOBE Program is once again hosting a video competition for Earth Day 2013, This year, the theme is: “How has doing GLOBE improved our local community?”  Videos, which should be no more than two minutes in length, should be uploaded to your favorite video sharing website and sent to The GLOBE Program.  Winners will be announced starting on 16 April 2013, with the top overall video announced on Earth Day 2013.

For more information, such as judging criteria and video submission information, please see the Earth Day Video Competition page on the GLOBE website.  We look forward to receiving your videos and witnessing  how The GLOBE Program is impacting communities all over the world!

-Jessica Mackaro

An intricate network of soil microorganisms From: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CISRO).

The study, performed by scientists from the University of New Hampshire, the University of California-Davis and the Marine Biological Laboratory, examined how microorganisms in the soil respond to temperature changes.  By learning more about that process, scientists could then improve the prediction of how much carbon dioxide is released from the soil.

Microorganisms in the soil release carbon dioxide as a byproduct of how they utilize their food source.  There are two types of food sources: glucose, a simple food source that is release from plant roots, and phenol, a complex food source that comes from decomposing organic matter such as wood and leaves.  Under normal conditions, they release at least 10 times the amount of carbon dioxide that human activities do in a year through the breakdown of these two food sources.  For a perspective on what this amount means, take a look at the graph below, taken from a study from 2010.

Time series of global carbon emissions from fossil fuels. Image from EPA.

This dramatic amount of carbon dioxide is usually absorbed through the root uptake of trees.  But if the soil warms too much, then these microorganisms are not as efficient at breaking down their food, and thus release more carbon dioxide as they expend the energy.  They are then over-producing, and the trees and plants will not take up as much.  In the short term, it may lead to a positive feedback cycle – where more carbon dioxide is emitted contributing to the rising amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

However, this same research showed that these microorganisms may have the once again become efficient with their food breakdown after many years of warmer soil temperatures.  After approximately 18 years, the community once again became efficient in their ability to break down food.  This may be due to one of the following things: a change in the community of microorganisms (i.e. the type of microorganism changes), a change in the available nutrients,  and/or species adaptation.

While GLOBE doesn’t have protocols to look directly at microorganisms in the soil, it does have protocols to examine soil temperature.  This is just as important, because soil temperature directly affects many things, such as the timing of Budburst, Green Up and Green Down.  The timing of the phenological processes is important because it informs farmers when to plant crops.   For these reasons, it is very valuable to collect soil temperature data and monitor its changes through the seasons and years.

Suggested activity: Have you collecting soil temperature data?  Did you participate in December’s Surface Temperature Field Campaign?  Have you seen any changes?  We’d love to hear about your experience!  Leave a comment, share with us on our Facebook page, or send us an email.  And make sure you enter the data you’re collecting into the GLOBE database!

-Jessica Mackaro

Scientists are well aware of the potential implications that climate has on these trees, what they aren’t aware of is the affect that the reduction in forest will have on the world’s ecosystems.   Trees act like giant lungs, taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen.  Studies have shown that trees take in more than 50% of human-generated carbon dioxide and store it.   Therefore, if these big trees continue to die, there’s more carbon dioxide left in the atmosphere, which can lead to additional atmospheric warming.  Furthermore, if the trees are dead, they cannot provide the key nutrients, such as nitrogen or seeding, to the surrounding soil to allow the forest to re-establish itself after fire or windstorm.

Forest die-off can also affect things like surface moisture and climate classification.  Heat and drought affect each tree species differently, which can result in a long-term shift in the dominant species found in a location.  For example, a forest may become grassland.  This will also affect soil moisture, as there will be no tree canopy to intercept rainfall or prevent the exposure to harsh sun and wind.

But it goes further than that.  Trees provide homes to many different types of animal life, from mammals to birds and reptiles.  As the trees die, these animals are forced to look for a new habitat.   It is feared that as trees die, so will different species that rely on these old trees.

The GLOBE Program has protocols that can aide in the examination of how these forests are changing. Looking at land cover classification while taking air temperature and precipitation measurements can start the foundation for an exploration between climate change and land cover change.  The month of January features a repeat of the Climate and Land Cover Intensive Observing Period (IOP).  With that IOP, teachers and students are encouraged to classify their land cover as well as take photographs.  By keeping these records over the years, GLOBE schools can contribute to studies following forest mortality.

Suggested activity: Participate in the January Climate and Land Cover IOP by establishing or visiting your land cover site.  Submit your photographs and land cover classification to the GLOBE website.

-Jessica Mackaro

Surface temperature map of the United States, from the RUC analysis at 1800 UTC on 13 January 2013; Image courtesy of RAL Real-Time Weather Data

When we looked at the weather map, we were amazed to see such a strong temperature gradient, which is how quickly temperature changes over a given distance.  This was the result of a very strong cold front that moved across the country bringing chilling Arctic air into the heart of the U.S., where you can see some temperatures fell well below -17.8 °C (0 °F).  Ahead of the cold front, temperatures soared, however only until the cold front passed.  If you examine hourly observations from the Southeast U.S., you’ll find some dramatic temperature drops.  For example, in Memphis, TN, the temperature fell nearly 8°C (18°F) in only one hour and fifteen minutes.

Outside of the United States, there are many other countries experiencing extreme weather.  Thousands of people have had to evacuate their homes in Russia after a pipeline burst in the extreme and record cold and Jerusalem, Israel experienced a very rare snowfall last week.  Conversely, Australia is experiencing raging brush fires as the country is gripped by a record-breaking heat wave.  This heat wave has been so intense that road tar has melted and the Bureau of Meteorology had to add two new colors to its temperature maps.

Children play in front of the Dome on the Rock during the recent snowstorm in Israel; Photo from Reuters/Ammar Awad

A map from space showing hotspots from brushfires (red dots) in Tasmania; from NASA

While these are examples of weather extremes, they are not necessarily indicators of climate.  It is important to reiterate the difference between weather and climate, as these kinds of weather extremes often get people talking about how it relates to climate and climate change.  Weather is the current state of the atmosphere, the temperatures and weather systems that sweep through a nation over the course of a day or a week, while climate is the long-term average and trend of weather events over many years.  Thus, while these weather extremes are dramatic on both ends of the spectrum, they may not affect a location’s climate unless they occur repeatedly, for many years to come.  It is also important to realize that weather extremes are not uncommon; cold fronts often create sharp temperature gradients and weather patterns can set up to create heat waves or cold spells.  However these extremes may be occurring more frequently and at record-breaking levels due to climate change.

In order to document extreme weather and if it is occurring frequently enough to impact climate, it is important to collect data on a daily basis for many years.  Over time, these data help identify if any long-term trends are occurring.  The GLOBE Program sponsors the Great Global Investigation of Climate project to encourage GLOBE schools to collect regular, daily temperature and precipitation data for this very reason.  The data collection efforts of GLOBE schools help contribute valuable data to monitor weather and climate across the planet.  Just look at this example from Fayetteville High School in Arkansas.  The daily temperature observations of maximum temperature at their school over the past two weeks illustrate the warm up and then extreme cool down that occurred as the cold front passed on January 13th.   These kinds of weather data, recorded over long periods of time, are the key pieces of evidence needed to help decipher if these tales of weather extremes are leading us toward a change in climate.

Maximum daily air temperature (degrees C) recorded by Fayetteville High School in Arkansas between 1-14 January 2013.

Suggested activity: Have you been affected by this recent extreme weather?  Let us know about it by leaving a comment or sending us an email.  Also, use the recent extreme weather to develop and carryout a research topic, then email it to us at science@globe.gov.  And don’t forget to collect data for the Great Global Investigation of Climate, which repeats again in March!

- Jessica Mackaro and Sarah Tessendorf

This week I attended the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in Austin, TX.  I started attending eight years ago as a senior undergraduate meteorology major at Millersville University.  That first year, I’ll admit, was very overwhelming – great minds from various expertises within the Earth Sciences came together to share ideas and present their recent research.  The meeting brings many opportunities for sharing: from WeatherFest, a collection of over 65 interactive science exhibits that is free to the community, to posters and formal presentations at the meeting venue.

Like the past few years, GLOBE sponsored a table at WeatherFest, where we met members of the Austin community – from local scout troops to teachers and students.  We explored with them how fun and easy GLOBE is, by engaging with Green Down and Surface Temperature focused activities.  We also shared calendars from the student art competition.  Everyone who stopped by the table loved how you, our GLOBE Students, represented climate through your art.  WeatherFest occurs the Sunday prior to each AMS meeting, and next year’s will be in Atlanta, GA, USA.  Check out this link to watch a video of images from this year’s WeatherFest, courtesy of Teresa Eastburn of UCAR’s SPARK Program.

Julie and I take a moment to take a picture before the doors to WeatherFest open

The Meeting officially kicked off on Monday, and I was able to present how GLOBE connects to the Next Generation Science Standards, which was timely as a new draft of the standards was released on Tuesday.  GLOBE itself connects so well to the Next Generation Science Standards , as student research projects touch on each of the three dimensions of the new standards.   The three dimensions, to be explained briefly, are Scientific and Engineering Practices, Crosscutting concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas.  As you’re aware, one of the key components of GLOBE is its inquiry-based, hands-on activities.  This aligns to Dimension 1 of the Standards.  To address the different cross-cutting concepts, Dimension 2 of The Standards, GLOBE Students and Teachers engage in data analysis and application to research projects.  Finally, basic GLOBE, the implementation of GLOBE protocols aligns to Dimension 3 – disciplinary core ideas.  By looking at even one project, such as the Oyster Gardening and Climate Change project from Trinity Lutheran School in Newport News, VA, USA, it is easy to make the connection.  Once the standards are finalized, we’ll be sure to feature a post or two dedicated to how GLOBE connects to them.

On Tuesday, GLOBE was presented again to the AMS audience by showing how GLOBE students are environmental stewards in their local communities.  Since the presentation was only limited to 12 minutes, I was only able to discuss two projects: one from students in the Czech Republic who were looking out for toads crossing a busy highway, and another from students in Pakistan who created fliers to pass out to the community in hopes to clean up and protect their local water source.  Everyone in attendance was impressed when they realized that students recognize problems, research these problems using GLOBE protocols and work to find a solution.  Also on Tuesday, one of our GLOBE Teachers, Mr. Peter Dorofy from the Burlington County Institute of Technology in New Jersey, received the American Meteorological Society’s K-12 Educator Award.  He attended the meeting too, and will be blogging about his experience at the science conference in the near future.

As the week came to a close, we feel confident that The GLOBE Program had been shared in many ways with this wide scientific audience.  I was able to meet scientists and educators who are able to bring amazing expertise to students and teachers alike. I have been able to reconnect with GLOBE partners, who are attending the meeting as representatives of their organization, as well as network with the local Austin community in hopes to recruit new GLOBE teachers and schools.  It is our hope that in future meetings, we can continue to present what you, our GLOBE Community, are doing.  Whether it be future results of another competition or presenting the latest way our students are environmental stewards, members of the American Meteorological Society are inspired by what you are doing.

Suggested activity: Students – Get together with your classmates and look around your community to find a local problem and develop a project to answer the question.  Then, submit it to us through the GLOBE Facebook Page or have your teacher submit it through the “Tell Us About It” link on their My Page on the GLOBE Website.Teachers – read through the latest draft of the Next Generation Science Standards and provide your feedback.   The draft will be open for comments until 29 January 2013.

Cloud Forest located in Mount Kinabalu, Borneo Photo Credit: Nep Grower

Scientists became interested in how cloud forests work after they started studying some of the amphibians and migratory birds that live in cloud forests.  For a long time, a lot was known about the animals, but not about the vegetation that provided homes for all these animals.  This inspired a group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley to research the cloud forests of Monteverde, Costa Rica. The cloud forests in Monteverde receive precipitation about 9 months out of the year.  During the other three months, Monteverde receives very little precipitation, but it does get fog.  Some parts of the forests will have fog for an average of 13 hours per day.  This fog forms when moist air from the Caribbean Sea condenses under the forest’s canopy.

A quetzal - a bird that lives in cloud forest trees Photo Credit: Drew Fulton (Canopy in the Clouds)

In order to study where the water in the trees comes from, scientists heated a spot on their branches and then tracked how the warmed water under the spot moved.  If the water moved towards the leaves, it came from the roots.  If the water moved towards the trunk, it came from the leaves.  After studying trees both in and out of cloud forests, the scientists found that the trees in the cloud forests could store 20% more water for growth via foliar uptake than the trees outside of the cloud forests.   Scientists had long suspected that the ecology of cloud forests was tied to the fog and low-level clouds, but not until this research was conducted were they able to say that cloud forests do obtain water via the clouds.

For more information, here is a research group in Costa Rica that studies cloud forests.

Some of our GLOBE schools are near cloud forests.  We would love if you could share your pictures and experiences via email to science@globe.gov or by leaving a comment.  Also, for all our GLOBE schools – we want to wish you a Happy New Year and remind you to always keep investigating!  You might find something amazing.

-Julie Malmberg

For example, GLOBE Scientist Sarah Tessendorf recently wrote about her experiences of observing seasonal changes near the GLOBE Program Office. To contribute to GLOBE’s growing database as well as model the learning that GLOBE classrooms conduct each week, the Science and Education team completed the Green-Down Protocol on a tree near our office building.   You can read about these experiences in a blog posted earlier this year.

Seasonal changes mean different things for humans than they do for flora and fauna. While humans in Boulder, Colorado, can wear different clothes or eat different foods to adapt to seasonal variations, the effects of these changes weigh heavier on other living organisms, such as hummingbirds.

One of our other phenology protocols is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird Protocol.  In this protocol, students observe the arrival and departure of hummingbirds, monitor their visits to flowers and feeders, and observe nesting behavior.  This is the exact type of research that National Science Foundation scientists recently wrote about for the journal Ecology. Scientists from the Maryland, Colorado, and Arizona are investigating how the flowering time of the glacier lily, a favorite of hummingbirds and bees, could potentially impact hummingbird populations.  The scientists have found that the glacier lily is blooming 17 days earlier than it did in the 1970s.  In earlier decades, hummingbird migration coincided with the flowering dates.  However, in recent years, hummingbirds have been arriving towards the end of, or even after, the bloom dates.

Glacier Lily Photo Credit: David Inouye

Broad-tailed hummingbirds, the type of bird in this study, fly from Central America to the mountains in the western United States to breed and raise their young.  The broad-tailed hummingbirds depend on glacier lily nectar for food.  So, what happens when the hummingbirds arrive and there are no more flowering plants?  These scientists speculate that it could be detrimental for the broad-tailed hummingbird populations.

Broad-Tailed Hummingbird Photo Credit: David Inouye

This goes back to the principle that organisms can only survive when their needs are met – understanding the dynamic interrelations between seasonal changes, limited food, and survival of populations are important lessons.  GLOBE students make valuable contributions to our understanding of hummingbirds – GLOBE student-collected data is a valuable contribution to scientists and global understanding of these birds.

Has your school done the Ruby-throated Hummingbird Protocol?  Or have you investigated another type of animal that migrates into your community?  Let us know what you have found by either commenting or sending an email to science@globe.gov.

-Julie Malmberg

A graphical representation of carbon dioxide variations. From Science Blogs

So I began to wonder, is global warming causing more droughts?  Or are more droughts leading to more global warming?  Which caused the other first (e.g., which came first—the chicken or the egg)?

While our understanding of the Earth System would imply that droughts alone have not caused global warming, it is now clear that they can further enhance it.  This is an example of a positive feedback loop in the Earth System.  A positive feedback means that one process occurs, causing a subsequent process to occur that results in an outcome that further enhances the first process, and the cycle amplifies and continues over time.  A negative feedback, however, would cause the opposite to happen where the subsequent process results in an outcome that counteracts or weakens the first process.

There are also examples of negative feedbacks in our Earth System.  Take for example when the Earth’s ocean surface temperature heats up, it causes more evaporation from the oceans.  This additional source of moisture into the atmosphere over the oceans can lead to more low-level marine clouds.  Low-level marine stratocumulus clouds are often very reflective of solar radiation, so more of these clouds can thus increase the Earth’s albedo (or solar radiation reflectivity) and thereby cool the ocean surface temperatures.

Another example of a positive feedback; the changing albedo when sea ice melts due to global warming. From Vancouver Observer

Don’t be fooled, however, by the terms positive and negative feedback, which may imply one is good and one is bad.  It is actually often the opposite; that the negative feedbacks are what produce balance in the Earth System, whereas the positive feedback loops can act like a runaway train.  Either way, most of these processes are completely natural; however, some can and are being influenced by human activity.  As responsible residents of this planet, we need to do our best to understand how our actions are affecting our home and try to prevent any runaway trains from occurring on our watch.

Suggested activity: Investigate the albedo of various surfaces near you in the GLOBE Surface Temperature Field Campaign and try to estimate if the surface cover changed, would it act as a positive or negative feedback in your local community.

-Sarah Tessendorf