Winter Clouds Update 2021 - Clouds Protocol

Greetings from the NASA GLOBE Cloud Team. Our team matches GLOBE Cloud observations to satellite data. These matches provide ground and space views of clouds at the same location in a 15 minute time frame. We compare your observations to geostationary and low Earth orbiting satellites. Geostationary satellites observe the same location of the Earth all the time. These include GOES, Himawari, and Meteosat. Low Earth orbiting satellites like Terra, Aqua, and CALIPSO observe the entire planet. You can find out more at NASA GLOBE Cloud Satellites at a Glance.

How can you maximize your chances of getting a satellite match?

1. Geostationary satellites: All you have to do is make a cloud observation. If there is data from those satellites, you will see them in your satellite match table.
2. Orbiting satellites: A match is possible if a satellite was overhead within 15 minutes before or after the observation. You can time your observation to the satellite flyover schedule. The GLOBE Program’s GLOBE Observer app can alert you when a satellite will be over your area. You can find this setting in the GLOBE Observer app on the main clouds screen. A satellite flyover schedule is also available on the NASA GLOBE Clouds website.

Help us reach our goal of 20,000 satellite matches during the NASA GLOBE Cloud Challenge 2022. Make more observations and maximize your chances of a satellite match. Remember, you will get personalized emails when your observations match to a satellite.

NASA GLOBE Cloud Challenge 2022: Clouds in a Changing Climate
January 15 - February 15, 2022

Did you know that clouds can both warm and cool our planet? Keeping an eye on clouds helps NASA study our climate. We need you to continue capturing data about clouds where you live! The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program invites you to take part in our upcoming Cloud Challenge: “Clouds in a Changing Climate.” There are two ways to contribute to this citizen science effort:

1. Submit cloud observations from your location using The GLOBE Program’s GLOBE Observer app. (Remember to always be safe and follow local guidelines while observing.)


2. You can also participate from the comfort of your home through NASA GLOBE CLOUD GAZE. Using this project on the Zooniverse online platform, you can identify cloud types and other phenomena in photos taken by GLOBE participants.

Link to the challenge page: https://observer.globe.gov/cloud-challenge-2022

The Importance of Observations Over Time

Data challenges like the NASA GLOBE Clouds Challenge 2022 help increase the number of cloud observations around the world. All cloud observations are useful. Individual observations can document weather at a given time or help us explore science questions. Observations over time are also important to do long-term studies and detect changes.

Help add to GLOBE’s climate record by making cloud observations over a long period of time. GLOBE started in 1995 and teachers, students, and citizen scientists have been contributing to the GLOBE data for over 25 years. This long term dataset is useful for learning about climate. The more observations we have, the more questions we can answer. This is why it is so important for you to continue to make observations. We need your observations during the data challenge, but also once it is over. So, be sure to continue submitting your cloud observations to GLOBE!

Dr. Daniel Lindsey works for NOAA and serves as the GOES-R Program Scientist. His job is to help lead and manage science projects where scientists seek new and innovative ways to take data from GOES-R satellites and use it to help better society in some way. An example is using satellite data to improve the forecasts for hurricanes.

Question: Where are you from?
Answer: I’m originally from a small town in north Georgia, USA called Jasper.

Question: What do you like to do when you aren’t working?
Answer: I enjoy playing volleyball and downhill skiing.

Question: What inspired you to work in this field?
Answer: When I was growing up, there were a few high impact weather events that left a lasting impression and made me want to study the weather. One was the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak that occurred in 1994. Nine people were killed by a tornado in my home county.

Question: What kinds of skills do you need in your job that you didn’t learn in school?
Answer: Verbal and written communication skills are probably the most important requirements of my job that weren’t taught in school. Computer programming is another critical skill that I didn’t learn in school, so I had to teach myself.

Question: What one piece of advice would you like to pass on to the next generation?
Answer: Find a niche and work toward becoming the very best at it. Try to always be positive and don’t expect something in return when you do something to help someone else out.

Cloud Observation Tip: Satellite Flyover Notifications from the GLOBE Observer app

The best way to get a match to satellite data is to time your observation. Remember, this is for orbiting satellites. You will get a match to geostationary satellites if there is data available from the satellite for your location. One of the best ways to time your cloud observations is through notifications from the GLOBE Observer app. A new step-by-step video tutorial shows you how to set up notifications for satellite flyovers within the app. You can also change the language and sign up to receive news from NASA GLOBE Clouds and GLOBE. Visit the Explore the GLOBE Observer App website to learn how to do these and more.

If there is a match, NASA will send you a personalized email. The email will detail your observation and the satellite data. The satellite match table guide is a great resource to find out how to read the satellite match table.

Science Topic: Weather versus Climate

It might seem hard to describe the difference between weather and climate. The reason is that the difference is time. Weather are the events that happen in short time scales that affect our day, from hour-to-hour, day-to-day, or even weeks. Climate refers to the long-term averages that give us patterns based on the weather events. Scientists average several decades of weather data to get climate.

A pre-winter storm located just off the coast of southwestern Australia was photographed from the International Space Station on March 29, 2014. A solar array panel on the orbital outpost is in the left side of the frame.

Image Credit: NASA

A phrase that helps is climate is what you expect, weather is what you get. Let’s use the NASA GLOBE Clouds team as an example. We are at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA, USA. For us, we expect (climate) it to be cold and sunny for this time of the year. Today (weather), it is cold and cloudy, with a chance of rain. Another way to think of the difference is through your clothes. Climate determines the clothes you have in your closet. Weather is the clothes you chose to wear today. In our example, our closet has warm and cold weather options. For the weather today, we may grab a long sleeve shirt and pants. We would need a jacket, and an umbrella to go outside. If you have lived in more than one place, you may have noticed that you need to go clothes shopping. That is because you are in a new climate.

Learn more about the difference with the following short articles:

Adults: https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/13/whats-the-difference-between-weather-and-climate/

Kids: https://scijinks.gov/weather-v-climate/