Fwd: [BSA] Citizen Science: Climatology for Everyone

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

fyi


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bill St. Arnaud <[hidden email]>
Date: Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 6:24 PM
Subject: [BSA] Citizen Science: Climatology for Everyone
To: [hidden email]


Citizen Science: Climatology for Everyone

http://www.skepticalscience.com/news.php?n=892

With recent posts addressing personal action in the fight to combat
global warming, I thought it would be interesting to dedicate a post
to ways in which the average citizen can help global warming by
directly contributing to our scientific understanding of it. That is,
becoming a ‘citizen scientist’.

Citizen science projects date back hundreds of years, with many of
the first projects involving citizens keeping track of wildlife
populations. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count is perhaps the most
famous in the United States and dates back to 1900. With help from the
internet, and a growing recognition of the value that citizens are
capable of contributing, citizen science projects have been rapidly
growing.

The range of subjects that are covered by citizen science projects is
vast. Here are just a few of them, which directly relate to climate
change:

Computational projects

The majority of activities that we use our computers for actually
require less than 1% of our computer’s available processing power.
Using one of today's new computers to browse the internet is like
using a forklift to hang a potted plant. Why not get the most out of
that expensive hardware under the hood, by putting it to work to help
the planet?

Climateprediction.net – Using the popular BOINC grid computing
software, allows you to harness unused processing power to run global
climate models on your home computer. Several scientific papers have
already been published based on results from the project.

The Clean Energy Project – Part of IBM’s World Community Grid,
and also running on the BOINC platform, it uses the powerful Q-Chem®
quantum chemistry software to explore new molecular structures for use
in potential low-cost “organic” solar panels.

Hydrogen@home – A new project, similar to the Clean Energy Project,
but seeks new ways to create and store hydrogen as part of a clean
fuel economy.

The projects listed above may be considered 'passive' citizen
science, in that they don't require any real effort to carry out. Once
you download and get the software running to your preferences, you can
essentially ‘set it and forget it’. The software is fully
customizable with respect to how much of your processor/memory you
want to allocate to the projects, when the computations run, and which
projects you would like to contribute to (if climate science isn't
your greatest passion, there are several other projects out there
ranging from the search for aliens to discovering new protein folding
techniques.)

Active Participation

For those who are motivated to do a bit more, there are many 'active'
participation projects out there. Some of these can be quite involved,
but typically don't require any minimum time commitment--work as often
as you like and as hard as you like.

Old Weather – Read old navy logbooks and digitize their historic
weather information, in order to gain a better understanding of past
weather and climate patterns and enhance the accuracy of modern day
predictions. A talent for reading handwriting is required.

Data rescue at home – Similar to Old Weather but with a wider range
of sources, involves digitizing handwritten atmospheric conditions for
computational analysis. Currently working on German radiosonde data
from WWII.

CoCoRaHS (USA) —Measuring precipitation in “your backyard”,
with the goal of creating an ongoing, ultra-high resolution data set
of precipitation events, which will contribute to scientific
understanding of weather and climate patterns.

Opal Climate Survey (England) – Requests that citizens observe and
report several climate factors, such as aircraft contrails and wind
speed. Related surveys such as air quality and biodiversity are also
featured.

Students’ Cloud Observations On-Line – A NASA program, geared
towards kids but with the very important purpose of cross-checking
satellite cloud measurements. Students visually classify clouds by
altitude, type, cover percentage, and opacity.

Surfacestations.org (USA) – Seeks volunteers to photographically
document the status of official temperature stations throughout the
United States.

ClimateWatch (Australia) – Track populations of an insect, animal
or plant species through time within a certain region, to better
understand how the biosphere reacts to climate change and other long
term trends.

ClimateWatch is similar in nature to the earliest type of citizen
science project discussed above, that of keeping track of species
number and behavior in their natural environment (formally known as
phenology). While most do not officially take tracking climate change
to be their primary goal, there is no doubt that this data will be
helpful in tracking how the biosphere is reacting in response to
regional or global climate forcings. Knowing how the natural world
will react to a rapid climate shift lists among the biggest and most
important uncertainties still plaguing climate predictions, and lack
of data is a limiting factor. Imagine how much more informed our
policy actions could be if we knew exactly how populations and
behaviors of all of the key species on earth were trending.

There are hundreds of similar projects involving tracking the natural
world; it is almost certain you will be able to find one involving
whichever plant, animal, or insect species you may especially hold
dear. Many of these projects can be found at the excellent database
for citizen science projectsscienceforcitizens.net. There are even
iPhone apps to let you participate on the go.

So why not start giving scientists a hand? Virtually anyone,
including kids, can get involved in these projects and know they are
making a real difference. Many feature some kind of
participation-based points system for fun and to encourage some
friendly competition. And they can also be a great way to meet
people—whether your passion lies in developing clean energy to save
the world, or simply the intricacies of the swallowtail’s mating
cycle, there is no shortage of passionate citizens out there working
hard to improve our scientific understanding of the natural world.

------

Green Internet Consultant. Practical solutions to reducing GHG
emissions such as free broadband and electric highways.
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/

email: [hidden email]

twitter: BillStArnaud

blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/

skype: Pocketpro



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Tracey P. Lauriault
613-234-2805
http://traceyplauriault.ca/