GLOBE Observer - Citizen Science

 I have logged 15 observations for the GLOBE Observer Cloud Program. The app easily shows your progress and has achievement milestones along the way. A detailed account of my (VaporWander16) observations, can be found here:  https://www.globe.gov/myobservations/?userid=147423245 . This includes my uploaded photos, cloud observations, and location. For ease, I will list the exact dates and times below. There was only one day where no clouds were visible in the sky. It has been interesting to see how the clouds have evolved through the month and a half of recording. In the beginning, there was a streak of Stratocumulus always being present (often with other clouds types), but more recently, Altostratus has been the dominant cloud type. Observation # Date Time Notes 1 7-Mar 12:42 No clouds! (rare for Germany) 2 9-Mar 11:30 Cirrocumulus 3 11-Mar 10:50 Cumulus, Stratocumulus 4 14-Mar 11:24 Nimbostratus, Stratocumulus 5 15-Mar 12:00 Stratocumulus 6 17-Mar 11:11 Cirrocumulus, Stratoc...

  Today I recorded my 10th observation in GLOBE Observer - Clouds. Soon I will share more about the system of tracking individual progress in GLOBE Observer. 

  Data? The data collected by the GLOBE Observer citizen scientists are used for scientific research. There are many published works, which can be found here:   https://observer.globe.gov/publications . For the GLOBE Observer - Clouds program, the collected data are mainly compared to satellite data. Since satellite imaging is collected form top-down and the citizen scientists' observations are collected from bottom-up (with reference to the clouds in the sky), combining these two data points gives NASA a much more detailed picture of the reality of the state of the sky. Here is a recent youtube video on scientific research by GLOBE Observer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8YNyO-PFWI&t=3s .  Participation! I have found the project design and user experience for the citizen scientists very straightforward and easy to use - which likely helps GLOBE receive more observations from volunteers! The app, and thus a smartphone, is needed to take observations...