GLOBE Observer Data: 2016-2019

Abstract

This technical report summarizes the GLOBE Observer data set from 1 April 2016 to 1 December 2019. GLOBE Observer is an ongoing NASA-sponsored international citizen science project that is part of the larger Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program, which has been in operation since 1995. GLOBE Observer has the greatest number of participants and geographic coverage of the citizen science projects in the Earth Science Division at NASA. Participants use the GLOBE Observer mobile app (launched in 2016) to collect atmospheric, hydrologic, and terrestrial observations. The app connects participants to satellite observations from Aqua, Terra, CALIPSO, GOES, Himawari, and Meteosat. Thirty-eight thousand participants have contributed 320,000 observations worldwide, including 1,000,000 georeferenced photographs. It would take an individual more than 13 years to replicate this effort. The GLOBE Observer app has substantially increased the spatial extent and sampling density of GLOBE measurements and more than doubled the number of measurements collected through the GLOBE Program. GLOBE Observer data are publicly available (at observer.globe.gov).Plain Language Summary GLOBE Observer is a NASA citizen science mobile application ("app") that gives anyone with a smartphone or tablet the opportunity to share what they see in the sky and on the landscape around them. GLOBE Observer is available for free from Google Play and the Apple App Store. Since 2016, tens of thousands of people around the world have taken hundreds of thousands of observations. An individual scientist would have to work non-stop for more than 13 years to make the same number of observations. All of the data sent through GLOBE Observer go into a worldwide database that's made freely available to everyone (at observer.globe.gov). This article describes how the GLOBE Observer app works and shows what 3 years of data look like.

GLOBE Mosquito Habitat Mapper Citizen Science Data 2017–2020

“…Since its inception 25 years ago, GLOBE has supported authentic inquiry‐based science in K‐12 classrooms in 124 countries though a student environmental monitoring program that applies scientist‐developed research protocols and data reporting procedures. In 2016, The GLOBE Program launched the GLOBE Observer (GO) mobile application (app), expanding its mission to include the participation of citizen scientists at large, both broadening the reach of NASA science and increasing the spatial and temporal density of environmental observations reported to the database (Amos & Andersen, 2019 ).…”

“…Data can be downloaded as KML or CSV files using the GLOBE Visualization Tool (GLOBE Vis), the Advanced Data Analysis Tool (ADAT) or through an Application Programming Interface (API) from the GLOBE website ( https://www.globe.gov/globe-data ). Descriptions of GLOBE data visualization and access procedures, metadata descriptions, and quality assurance practices are detailed in Amos and Andersen ( 2019 ) and GLOBE ( 2019 ).…”

Utilizing citizen science to model the distribution of Aedes aegypti ([Diptera]: [Culicidae]) in West Africa

“…Citizen science has been proposed as a way to bolster local Aedes mosquito surveillance (Walther and Kampen 2017, de Souza Silva et al 2018, Eritja et al 2019, Amos et al 2020). Citizen science is generally defined as members of a local or global community-many without formal training-participating in scientific activities, such as data collection and species surveillance (Kullenberg and Kasperowski 2016).…”

“…This study examines the value of incorporating data from NASA’s Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper (MHM) application (https://observer.globe.gov/toolkit/mosquito-habitat-mapper-toolkit) (Amos et al 2020) to estimate the distribution of Aedes mosquitoes in West Africa. The GLOBE Program has regional offices around the world and conducts outreach to students and teachers; providing them curriculum and protocols for conducting citizen science-however people who do not receive training can also use the app.…”

“…The MHM was designed to address two goals; to categorize and map water sources used as mosquito breeding grounds and to understand the distribution of mosquitoes. The app primarily captures data on the larval stage of mosquito development, but additionally has users input information about other life stages present at the habitat (Amos et al 2020). GLOBE Observer walks the user through a series of questions to identify habitat types and the genus of mosquitoes found.…”