April 2012 CLC Summary

April 2012 CLC Summary

In the April 2012 Climate and Land Cover (CLC) Intensive Observing Period (IOP), eight different countries participated (Argentina, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Croatia, Peru, Pakistan, Thailand, and the United States) representing all six of GLOBE's regions.  Thank you for your participation! Interestingly, of the 33 photos that were uploaded, only 5 reported landscape types had perfect agreement with the MODIS, Geo-wiki, and GLC-2000 land cover identified in the Geo-wiki.  Why were there discrepancies?  Were the sites that schools selected bordering areas with more than one different land use type?  How can we find out?

Researchers who review land cover need to know what percentage of the region has specific land cover features (color, roughness, size), so that they can determine the albedo of the region.  What is albedo?  It's the reflectivity of a surface and is dependent on surface features.  For instance, lighter colors reflect more energy and darker colors absorb more energy.  This is important because if more solar energy is absorbed then surfaces get warmer, which can lead to warmer air temperatures above the land and possibly more evaporation of water from the surface.  This could definitely impact the type of vegetation growing in the region. 

 How would the albedo of your reported land cover type compare with the albedo of the land cover identified in MODIS, Geo-wiki, and GLC-2000?  How would these differences affect changes in the temperature and moisture in the region? 

GLOBE scientists are curious to review the results of your next set of photos.  Be sure to participate in the October CLC IOP by returning to your land cover sites, taking photos, and uploading them to the GLOBE website.  Please also be sure to upload your photos from the July 2012 CLC IOP, since the website did not allow photo uploads at that time.  We will make comparisons to see how vegetation is changing and may even feature your photos in an upcoming GLOBE webinar during the Student Climate Research Campaign!