GLOBE Surface Temperature Field Campaign
The GLOBE Program will host the annual surface temperature field campaign from December 1 to December 31, 2014. This is a great opportunity to work as a community with schools around the world on a common research project. Students have used the surface temperature field campaign data to do research projects. And, one of my graduate students has been looking at the data and found that a strong warming due to urban areas is observable in the student data. It is my hope that continued expansion of the surface temperature field campaign will help students of all ages answer interesting and important research questions.
I will be blogging during the field campaign about the weather and also the student data. You won’t want to miss it. The blog is located at: http://satellitesk12.org. There is information about last year’s field campaign on the blog site as well.
http://satellitesk12.org/?p=1550
This image shows the schools that have taken surface temperature observations this past year. The number of schools and countries involved continues to increase which is great to see. One thing to note are the schools shown in China. Those are actually schools in the United States that put in east longitude instead of west. Please be careful when the students enter their latitude and longitude for you sites.
For resources, go to the GLOBE website. The GLOBE teacher’s guide has the how’s and what’s about the surface temperature protocol.
http://www.globe.gov/web/atmosphere-climate/protocols
The field guide also provides important information about performing the protocol.
http://www.globe.gov/web/atmosphere-climate/overview/field-guides
The data sheets can be found off of this page.
http://www.globe.gov/web/atmosphere-climate/overview/data-sheets
Some teachers find it hard to get an infrared thermometer (IRT) to do the protocol. In the past, we have used Fluke 63. We have used Fluke 561 most recently. If you can’t find one of those, you may use a lower cost instrument. When you set up your surface temperature site, please specify the type of IRT you are using. Also, you may be able to borrow one from a heating and cooling specialist or an auto mechanic. They use them for their jobs.
Questions? Contact Kevin Czajkowski, 419-530-4274, kevin.czajkowski@utoledo.edu
