In response to an Announcement of Opportunity for the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment Program (GLOBE) this project is designed to meet GLOBE goals and objectives of linking scientists and schoolchildren in a global information network with the ultimate goal of better understanding Earth's environment and changes that take place within it. This proposal consists of various segments addressing GLOBE Program needs: support for existing protocols, development of new protocols, and scientific research with GLOBE data. This proposal will support the current set of GLOBE cloud protocols, add a new Relative Humidity measurement, and continue development of the teaching materials for both protocols. This project will develop a protocol for the measurement of atmospheric humidity, to be taken at the same time as the daily temperature and precipitation measurements - within one hour of local solar noon. This measurement will enhance the usefulness of the following GLOBE measurements: cloud type, fractional cloud cover, quality control of the previous items. The project also proposes to provide daily visible and Infra-red satellite imagery via the Internet from the GOES-8 and -9, GOMS, Elektro/Fen Yung 2B, and Meteosat 6 satellites in order to correlate cloud cover observations with the location of the pixel covering the observation site. The direct scientific application of this data will be the study of the relationship between sea breezes and soil moisture, air temperature, and water body temperature at various locations in the tropics and middle latitudes. Where observations are dense enough, the formation of sea breeze fronts will be studied. %%% In response to an Announcement of Opportunity for the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment Program (GLOBE) this project is designed to meet GLOBE goals and objectives of linking scientists and schoolchildren in a global information network with the ultimate goal of better understanding Earth's environment and changes that take place within it. This proposal consists of various segments addressing GLOBE Program needs: support for existing protocols, development of new protocols, and scientific research with GLOBE data. This proposal will support the current set of GLOBE cloud protocols, add a new Relative Humidity measurement, and continue development of the teaching materials for both protocols. This project will develop a protocol for the measurement of atmospheric humidity, to be taken at the same time as the daily temperature and precipitation measurements - within one hour of local solar noon. This measurement will enhance the usefulness of the following GLOBE measurements: cloud type, fractional cloud cover, quality control of the previous items. The project also proposes to provide daily visible and Infra-red satellite imagery via the Internet from the GOES-8 and -9, GOMS, Elektro/Fen Yung 2B, and Meteosat 6 satellites in order to correlate cloud cover observations with the location of the pixel covering the observation site. The direct scientific application of this data will be the study of the relationship between sea breezes and soil moisture, air temperature, and water body temperature at various locations in the tropics and middle latitudes. Where observations are dense enough, the formation of sea breeze fronts will be studied.
