GLOBE News
GLOBE Climate and Land Cover Project Webinar
The next Climate and Land Cover Project Intensive Observing Period will take place from 1 – 31 January 2012. A great way to prepare for this event is to participate in the NOAA/NSTA Webinar: Exploring with Students the Connections between a Changing Land Cover and Climate. In this webinar, you will learn about the efforts climate scientists are using to improve land cover classifications for climate models. Participants will also receive an overview of what changes are occurring in global land cover and land use as well as their causes. Additionally, you will also understand how land cover relates to the global carbon cycle.
The Climate and Land Cover Project is an important part of the Student Climate Research Campaign (SCRC) because having a detailed understanding of land surface types is critical to the study of climate. Scientists use computer models to study how changes in the earth system affect climate, so they need to have detailed maps of the land surface types for their models. These maps and the land cover data contributed by GLOBE students, help scientists better understand how and where to calculate the different interactions with radiation and the water cycle.
During the first IOP in October, 19 different schools participated, entering data for 34 land cover sites. We encourage schools that participated in the first IOP to participate again, so that scientists can take note of seasonal changes at each land cover site.
News origin: GLOBE Implementation Office