Visit us on Facebook Visit us on Twitter View our RSS Feed 
Dec
18
Posted by jessicakilham on December 18th, 2020
Posted in: Blog
On Saturday morning, with my morning coffee I look at the trees lining the front of my property and feel relaxed. Something about the little wooded area just seems to feel right. So, when I read about the Globe Observer: Trees project being presented by SciStarter. I thought, why not trees! We all have some near us even in the city.
Citizen Scientists this project is for you! NASA’s and the Global project is this – Healthy forests play a crucial role in Earth’s ecosystem as growing trees take up carbon from the atmosphere. NASA satellites and airborne missions study forests to see how carbon moves through ecosystems. Adding in height measurements to more general observations of land cover gives a more complete, three-dimensional portrait of the ecosystem. Scientists need that third dimension to calculate how much carbon is stored in a tree or in a forest. The GLOBE Observer: Trees tool allows citizen scientists to help investigate by using their smartphone to measure tree height. With the tool, observers record tree height by tilting their phone up and down to align the screen with the tree’s top branch and base, and pace off the distance to the tree; the app does the rest to calculate the tree’s height.
To get started: Sign up or Log in to SciStarter. Your free account, while not required, enables your participation to be credited on your SciStarter Dashboard.
Click the Get Started/Visit Project’s Website button on this page. You will be directed to the project’s website or app and invited to create a project account there.
New and interested users are encouraged to go to SciStarter.org/NASA to learn more and receive step-by-step instructions. You can visit https://observer.globe.gov to learn more about GLOBE Observer and the Trees tool. Especially for educators, the main GLOBE Program can be found at http://www.globe.gov.
ABOUT jessicakilham