E-note Index    April 2006

S'COOL E-note for March, 2006

Greetings and welcome to the first of what we hope will be a monthly email of news from S'COOL. Since the S'COOL Breeze newsletter ended last year, we've been trying to figure out what to do. Your feedback on the length, format, and content of this note are invited. We'll take that into account for future notes.

THIS MONTH'S NOTE INCLUDES:

1) GLOBE at Night: Join the Star-Hunting Party During March 22-29, 2006!
2) Daylight Saving Time: Starts April 2 in most of the US; March 26 in Europe.
3) S'COOL Intensive Observation Period: April 17-21, 2006
4) Faster access to satellite data
5) S'COOL data analysis tutorial
6) Hear CERES Principal Investigator on Earth & Sky
7) Cloud Photo of the Month

(1) GLOBE at Night: JOIN THE STAR-HUNTING PARTY DURING MARCH 22-29, 2006!
Want to measure the magnitude of light of visible stars and share your data with students and families around the world? The GLOBE Program invites you to participate in a global campaign, GLOBE at Night, during March 22-29, 2006, as a means of measuring light pollution in a given location. This easy activity takes 15-30 minutes to complete. The observations made during GLOBE at Night will help students and scientists assess how the quality of the night sky varies around the world. For more information, visit http://www.globe.gov/GaN/index.html.

(2) Daylight Saving Time
When requesting S'COOL overpass schedules and reporting observations, do not forget that Daylight Saving Time begins April 2 in most of the US (March 26 in most of Europe). Please request separate schedules before and after that date!

(3) S'COOL Intensive Observation Period: APRIL 17-21, 2006
In conjunction with the second annual National Environmental Education (EE) Week and leading up to Earth Day, S'COOL announces the next Intensive Observation Period (IOP). We encourage as many schools as possible to observe and report clouds during that week (unless it's your Spring Break as it will be here).

(4) Faster access to satellite data
If you have watched the flying banner on our main web page lately, you know that things are happening. There have been a couple of positive developments:
- we now are routinely processing FLASHFlux data. This is a faster version of the CERES data processing, with the result that satellite cloud observations now show up in the S'COOL database within a week for some observations. We encourage your students to check for these, and see whether the ground and satellite view compare (see item 5 below).
- we've also added directions and a link to the MODIS Rapid Response site. When you submit an observation, you can follow the directions in order to view near real-time imagery from the MODIS instrument on Terra or Aqua. This will give you a raw view of what the satellite saw at the time of your observation. Check it out!

(5) S'COOL data analysis tutorial:
Check the link from the main page to find the two existing S'COOL tutorials (which use Flash), and our newest tutorial on data analysis, which is just a powerpoint file. It will walk your students through some initial steps for looking at and analyzing their data, and the satellite data, when it is available.

(6) CERES on Earth & Sky:
CERES Principal Investigator, Dr. Bruce Wielicki, has been featured in a number of short segments on the Earth & Sky Radio program. You can listen to these clips at the URLs below.
Radio Shows
* Climate "noise" makes change hard to notice
* Clouds create uncertainty in climate models
* Scientists track clouds to study climate
Interview:
* Bruce Wielicki

(7) Cloud Photo of the Month
We've been making some changes (improvements, we hope!) to the process here. Please keep this in mind when you see interesting cloud formations in the sky. The judging criteria are as much about your explanation as they are about the photo.

As always, keep looking at the sky!

Dr. Lin Chambers - Director
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The CERES S'COOL Project - Students' Cloud Observations On-Line
http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/SCOOL/ scool@lists.nasa.gov
Tel.: (757) 864-4371 Fax.: (757) 864-7996
The CERES S'COOL Project, MS 420, NASA Langley Research Center,
Hampton, VA 23681-2199
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