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S'COOL Participation Example: Report of Phase 1

1. Register: The initial test of the S'COOL project was done by:

Mrs. Eleanor Jones
Peasley Middle School
6th Grade
Email address (not available)
No web access yet
Gloucester, Virginia, USA, 37.41 N, 76.53 W

A conversation with Mrs. Jones in December 1996 sparked the idea for this project.

2. Overpass Times: The map used for our very first day of observation illustrates the problem. At 1920 Universal time (2:20 pm local standard time) on January 13, 1997, the NOAA-14 satellite was over the southeastern United States on its way up over the north pole. Five minutes later it was over Canada, north of Lake Superior. While it did not pass directly over Eastern Virginia, our observation site, the red dashed lines on the map show how far the imaging instrument could see as it looked right and left while flying over us. The overpass occurred a few minutes earlier each day for the rest of the week.

3. Observation: The students walked to an open area outside the school at the time of the overpass. This gave them a view of most of the sky to allow a good estimate of the cloud fraction. To make a proper temperature reading, they placed their thermometer outside an hour beforehand so that it would read the correct temperature. They used fancy instruments they happened to have on hand to record the barometric pressure and relative humidity, but the teacher also double-checked their measurement with the local weather report to check for unreasonable readings.

4. Transmit results: Having no computer access, these students recorded their observations on post cards we provided to them and mailed them to the ASDC (Atmospheric Sciences Data Center). Initial testing of the e-mail interface was done by students in Big Timber, Montana; and the Internet interface was inaugurated by students in Poquoson, Virginia.

5. Compare: For this initial test, we captured the NOAA/AVHRR images for the east coast and applied our science algorithms to them. We then took the results to the classroom to show the students how they compared to what they saw and to get their feedback on the project. Their observations now form the initial core of the database of observations at your disposal. Comparisons are also available for a few days of the Big Timber observations.

S'COOL What to Observe Report Form Glossary