NASA GLOBE CLOUD GAZE

Why NASA GLOBE CLOUD GAZE needs your help?

NASA GLOBE CLOUD GAZE is a NASA funded project aimed to help NASA better understand the effect clouds are having on Earth’s climate. Satellites have the ability to observe many different properties within our atmosphere. One of these properties are clouds! Although satellites retrieve vast amounts of data about Earth, they are not perfect in their ability to capture all the data needed to understand the Earth system properly. A satellite can only detect what it sees from its vantage point but can miss information that can be seen from an observer’s vantage point such as a citizen scientist’s perspective. This is why we need observations from citizen scientists through The GLOBE Program. When we compare the satellite data with the citizen science report sometimes they both match and sometimes they don’t match at all.

Research comparing cloud observations collected by citizen scientists and satellite observations

NASA GLOBE CLOUD GAZE will produce the necessary metadata to corroborate citizen science observations and add additional information observed in the sky photographs, particularly important in events when citizen science cloud observations mismatch satellite observations. NASA GLOBE CLOUD GAZE will also make the data more usable for scientists as the team uses the CLOUD GAZE results to develop data quality flags for the GLOBE Clouds data files (available at https://observer.globe.gov/get-data/clouds-data).

Here is a list of recent publications of interest:

• Clouds around the world: How a simple data challenge became a worldwide success
  Colón Robles, M., Amos, H. M., Dodson, J. B., Bouwman, J., Rogerson, T. M., Bombosch, A., Farmer, L., Burdick, A., Taylor, J. E. & Chambers, L.H. (2020). Clouds around the world: How a simple data challenge became a worldwide success. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

• Technical Report: GLOBE Observer Data: 2016–2019
  Amos, H. M., Starke, M. J., Rogerson, T. M., Colón Robles, M., Andersen, T., Boger, R., et al. (2020). GLOBE Observer data: 2016–2019. Earth and Space Science, 7, e2020EA001175. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EA001175

• Eclipse Across America: Citizen Science Observations of the 21 August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse
  Dodson, J.B., Colón Robles, M., Taylor J.E., DeFontes, C.C., Weaver K.L., (2019). Eclipse Across America: Citizen Science Observations of the 21 August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse. Journal of Applied Meteorology & Climatology, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-18-0297.1.

• Integrating Tech: Making Science Come Alive With Clouds
  Colón Robles, M., Bouwman, J., and Smith-Long, C., (2019). Integrating Tech: Making Science Come Alive With Clouds. NSTA Science Scope, vol. 43, no. 4, November 2019. pp. 8-12.

• CERES S’COOL Project Update: The Evolution and Value of a Long-Running Education Project with a Foundation in NASA Earth Science Missions
  Chambers, L.H., McKeown, M.A., McCrea, S.A., Martin, A.M., Rogerson T.M., and Bedka, K.M., (2017). CERES S’COOL Project Update: The Evolution and Value of a Long-Running Education Project with a Foundation in NASA Earth Science Missions. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 98, 473–483.

Where do I start classifying clouds?

1.) What do you see (i.e., identify cloud types, clear skies, and other phenomena)?

NASA scientists are interested in cloud type, clear skies, and other phenomena. Cloud type is defined as a qualitative observation where factors such as the shape, the cloud base altitude and whether they are producing precipitation are observed. When examining cloud type, make sure that you're looking at the entire sky to obtain accurate cloud type observations. As you can imagine, there are many different cloud types but you as a citizen scientist have the important job of identifying, as closely as possible and the most abundant clouds, within the photograph you're analyzing. The Cloud Identification Chart shows all the different kinds of clouds that can appear in our atmosphere.

Other phenomena
Obscured is when something is blocking your view of the sky AND the clouds. This could be dust, haze (pollution), smoke, volcanic ash, and even heavy rain or snow. Snow will appear white, but other obscurations may give the sky a brownish or orangish hue.

View blocked and other issue with photo
Some of the photographs have issues that may include being blocked by a tree or building, or other issues like taken inside of a room, blurry, or taken at night. You can choose "view blocked" is more than 25% of the image is blocked by something, and also select "Other Issue with Photo" if you notice other issues that include glare, blurriness, taken inside of a room, taken at night, or any others you can identify.

2.) Cloud Cover

Understanding cloud cover is important scientifically speaking for both meteorologists and climate scientists. Cloud cover is needed to determine the amount of solar radiation that is reflected or absorbed by clouds before reaching the surface of Earth. In many of the photographs that you'll be examining, we want to know whether the sky has no clouds, whether the sky looks overcast or somewhere in between. The chart below categorizes the percentage of cloud cover that you will classify while analyzing cloud photographs.

3.) Sky Color

When looking up at the sky, cloud cover and cloud type are important parameters, but sky color is also an important part of making observations. The classification as seen below categorizes the sky color as deep blue, blue, light blue, pale blue, or milky. When examining the sky, make sure that you classify the darkest (bluest) color of the sky. If the sky is obscured or covered 50% or more with clouds, sky color is not observed. Sky color observations should be completed at daytime, not at dusk or nighttime. Lastly, it's good to note that the sky color is about the sky itself not the color of the cloud(s).