Do you have a smartphone? Do you ever go outside? If you answered yes to those two questions, NASA could use your help!
This week, NASA launched the Globe Observer App.
“What we need is for people to go outside, take those cloud observations and we need them from all over the place,” said Holli Kohl, the lead for the Globe Observer Program.
The reason for this program is to get a different view of the clouds and pair that with satellite data.
“To get the full picture, we need the view from the ground up," Kohl said. "Satellite is top-down, your view is ground-up, so we put them together and now we know what the whole sky is."
To submit your observation, which takes just a minute or two, download the app (Globe Observer), register, and complete the app-prompted instructions to take pictures of each quadrant of the sky.
You can take observations at any time of the day but it is most useful when a weather satellite is over your locations. The good news is that the app will tell you exactly when a satellite is passing over your location.
Once you submit your observation, the program will link your photos to the satellite pass.
“[Your photo] is oriented to specifically north-south and east-west, and we can than match that up to a satellite pretty easily,” said Kohl.
This link will allow scientist to get a completely different and fuller picture of the atmosphere. So download the app and do you part to keep science moving forward! You can also view everyone's observations from across the globe and start your own investigations.
“People are really excited to be helping NASA and to do something that makes a difference,” said Kohl.
For more information, check out the program's website.