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GLOBE program volunteers from across North America uploaded data to this map concurrently with the July 21, 2017 event. The totality path in the western United States stands out because of the concentration of observers.Credit: Globe Program
On April 8, 2024, thousands of amateur citizen scientists will measure temperatures and take pictures of clouds as the moon passes between the sun and Earth. The data they collect will help researchers investigate how the sun affects the climate of different environments.
These citizen scientists include fifth and sixth graders at Alpena Elementary School in northwest Arkansas. In the weeks leading up to the eclipse, students have been visiting the school’s weather station 10 times a day, collecting temperature readings and monitoring cloud cover. Then upload that data to a phone-based app. This app is part of his NASA-led program called GLOBE, which stands for Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment.
The goal is to “make science and math more real” to students, said Roger Rose, a science and math teacher at Alpena Elementary School. “It makes them feel like they’re doing something important and valuable.”
The GLOBE eclipse tool is part of the broader GLOBE project, where students and citizen scientists collect data on plants, soil, water, air, and even mosquitoes. All contributors to the eclipse project need is a thermometer and a smartphone with the GLOBE Observer app downloaded. You can access Eclipse tools within the app.
This is not the first time the GLOBE eclipse tool has been deployed in North America. During the 2017 North American solar eclipse, NASA researchers investigated the relationship between clouds and temperature and found that during the eclipse, temperature fluctuations were greatest in areas with little cloud cover, while temperature fluctuations were more gradual in areas with more cloud cover. I discovered something.
Marile Colon Robles, a meteorologist based at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and a scientist on the GLOBE project that oversees the clouds, said he made numerous amateur observations along the eclipse’s path. He said this was a discovery that would have been difficult, or perhaps impossible, without the support of others. Research portion of the project.
There are a limited number of weather stations along this year’s eclipse path, and while satellites give us a global view, they cannot provide the same level of detail as people on the ground. said Ashley Autore, a data scientist at NASA Langley. A follow-up survey of the 2017 study is underway. “The power of citizen science is that people can make observations and take action.”
Colon-Robles said it is still unclear how temperature fluctuations during a total solar eclipse will compare in different climate regions. “The upcoming solar eclipse will pass through desert regions, mountainous regions, and even wetter areas near the ocean.” Obtaining observations across these regions will “result in regional differences between cloud cover and surface temperatures.” “It will help us dig deeper into questions about the relationship,” she said.
This research should allow scientists to better understand the flow of energy from the sun, which is important for understanding climate.
Citizen scientists are expected to gather in droves in many regions. “We’re basically inviting the entire population of El Paso to campus,” said John Holguin, a geophysicist at El Paso Community College in Texas and a GLOBE partner. A nearly total solar eclipse will occur in this area, covering approximately 80% of the sun at the summit. Enough to make an engaging event involving citizen scientists from Juarez, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from the United States.
