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NASA Scientist Collaborates with GLOBE for Wildflower and Tree Bloom Research


Dr. Yoseline Angel, a scientist at the University of Maryland-College Park and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, is leading NASA research on wildflower and tree flower blooms and is hoping that GLOBE land cover observations will help her identify blooms in satellite data. By analyzing how the blooms look in the uploaded data, scientists can track seasonal flower cycles.

Wildflower Blooms
To help Angel’s research, GLOBE Observer is asking the community for GLOBE land cover observations of wildflowers from 24 March to 1 June in parts of California and Arizona and Nevada. Land cover observation will help scientists look back in time through the satellite record to identify the timing and extent of blooming events and understand change. Learn more about her request and read an article about the research.
Person in field with yellow flowers.
Tree Blooms
On 15 April, Angel is participating in a webinar with the GLOBE Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign to discuss a novel scalable method—focusingTree with yellow blooms. on ground to satellite observations—that she developed with her team. The method was inspired by how pollinators perceive flowers through their ultraviolet, blue, green, and red photoreceptors (~300–800 nm).  

Following the featured science talk, Angel will explain how GLOBE participants can use the GLOBE Observer land cover and trees tools to find and document Tabebuia trees in Mexico through Central America and parts of western South America. 

Tabebuia is a genus of flowering plants. The ones of major interest to Angel and her team are:
•    Guayacan amarillo (Central and South America)
•    Arbol de la primavera (Mexico)
•    Cañaguate (Colombia)
•    Araguaney (Venezuela)
•    Roble amarillo (South America)

This flowering tree data collection challenge has two phases:
Phase 1: Now – 30 May 2025
Phase 2: 1 August– 31 October 2025

Check back with the GLOBE Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign or the Trees Around the GLOBE Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs) for information about Phase 2 when it comes available.


Photos courtesy of Dr. Yoseline Angel, scientist, University of Maryland-College Park and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
 

News origin: GLOBE Implementation Office



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