Category: Climate & Weather

Our oceans are vast, powerful and mysterious — and even after centuries of study, there are still many things scientists don’t know about our planet’s blue expanses. But the ocean affects all of our lives intimately, even those of us who live far from the coast. Oceans provide food for billions of people, shape weather […]

At NASA GLOBE Clouds, our science team uses observations from citizen scientists like you to help us better understand the data our satellites collect. Using the GLOBE Observer app, volunteers send us observations of clouds taken while a satellite is overhead, which we then compare to our satellite measurements of the same clouds. In just […]

Lost your smartphone? Rabbits eating all your sunflowers? Can’t seem to find opportunities right for you? Sometimes doing citizen science can bring some unexpected problems. But take heart — whatever challenge you’re facing, you’re likely not the first one to deal with it.  We surveyed SciStarter’s users about the problems they’ve encountered while trying to […]

This post is based on the latest episode of our podcast, Citizen Science: Stories of Science We Can Do Together! In it, co-host Bob Hirshon and Caroline Nickerson discuss some of the inspiring citizen science work conducted under the auspices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Listen here: Citizen Science: Stories of Science […]

Researchers can accomplish amazing things these days with satellites — they can study clouds and climate, forests and land use change and even bird migrations. But with so much satellite data, it can be hard to match up measurements from the sky above with information about what’s actually on the ground. That’s where citizen scientists […]

Anyone, anywhere, at any time can turn their curiosity about nature into real-world impact by volunteering online with citizen science. Caroline Nickerson, Miss Louisiana Earth, is hosting an online challenge with SciStarter, Cartoscope, Healthy Gulf and Northeastern University for the general public from August 1 – August 14 to volunteer online and map land loss. […]

Wicked high tides, also known as king tides or astronomical high tides, are a natural phenomenon that occur several times a year in certain areas around the globe. In the Boston area, these events usually happen in March and October. This is when there is a full or new moon, and the Earth, Sun and […]

Your experience of climate change is likely different than that of your relatives living in another state, and probably even different than your cross-town friends. The dispersed nature of climate effects means that they can be felt differently across individual neighborhoods, even within the same city block. Seemingly mundane factors drive these differences: how much […]

Guest Post by Sarah Jones Learn more about Budburst on SciStarter. Link to https://scistarter.org/budburst Join Communities Across the World in Observing Plant Life Cycles – Any Plant, Any Place, Any Time! I haven’t always loved plants. I loved the animals that took shelter in branches, eating leaves and fruits. I loved the lake surrounded by trees […]

Life on Earth needs water to survive. Yet, drinkable water is a rapidly dwindling resource. Out of all the water on our planet, only 2.5 percent is freshwater. And of that 2.5 percent, just 0.3 percent is readily accessible as surface water. According to FreshWaterWatch, by the year 2050, half of the world’s population will […]