Late ice year in Alaska and northern continental US

In Alaska, each year there is a contest to see who can predict when the ice will go out in the spring on the Tanana River in Nenana, Alaska. It is called the Nenana Ice Classic. People wager some money and then there is a prize of over $300,000 for the closest answer.

The website for the Nenana Ice Classic is:

http://www.nenanaakiceclassic.com/

You can look at the break-up dates on the brochure on the website. They are on side B.There is also a graph over time here.

http://futurehistoric.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/nenana-ice-classic-2011-result/

The average date that the ice goes is about May 5. Today it is May 19 so the ice is still in very late. The latest date on record was in 1964 when the ice went out on May 20. It has been cold in Alaska the last couple of days. This may be a record breaking year.

This data series of ice break-up has been used as an example of climate change/global warming. The ice has been going out earlier and earlier in the last 20 years. Some questions come to my mind. Does this year’s record affect the conclusion that climate change is making ice break-up earlier in the spring? Is the a fluke or part of a new trend? What do you think about it?

In addition, ice has been going out late in northern Minnesota and southern Canada. It was a cool spring in those areas.

Successful OhioView SATELLITES Conference 2013!

We had another successful OhioView SATELLITES Conference May 7, 2013 at Penta Career Center. The student projects get better every year and we learn more new things each year. It was a beautiful day outside but everyone was so engaged inside that I don’t think anyone noticed.

Students have developed their research projects over the last several months. Many used GLOBE protocols of surface temperature, clouds, snow and water quality. Other students gathered data off of NASA websites or used satellite imagery like Landsat. They presented their projects on poster boards and shared them at the conference Tuesday.

The science was good, the students were engaged and the trophies were big. Steve Frantz from Roswell-Kent Middle School in Akron, OH and his students gave the keynote address. He did a great job of highlighting all of the different projects that his students work on and the contests they won. One student won a contest to make use of a potato chip bag. She made a birdhouse.

Here is a video of the conference.

 

Here are the winners by grade level.

Place	Teacher	Students	School	Grade
K-6
1st	Eileen McGuire	Maggie Cornelison	Lakewood Catholic Academy	6
2nd	Kathy Zeichman	Timmy Czajkowski	Ida Elementary	4
3rd	Laura Galati	Hunter Lenhardt	Longfellow Elementary School	4
7-9
1st	Steve Frantz	Morgan Rardon	Roswell-Kent Middle School	8
2nd	Steve Frantz	Justin Rumel	Roswell-Kent Middle School	8
3rd	Steve Frantz	Davontre Cohen	Roswell-Kent Middle School	8
10-12
1st	Dan Wyandt	Patrick Short, Tyler Hassall and Anthony Rorigi	Penta Career Center	12
2nd	Dan Wyandt	Grant Adams	Penta Career Center	11
3rd	Dan Wyandt	Dan Ross	Penta Career Center	11
University
1st	Linda Barrett	Richard Ampomah	University of Akron	U
2nd	Linda Barrett	Christopher Portell	University of Akron	U
3rd	Mandy Munro-Stasiuk	Andrea Blanka Szell, Vanessa Marshall, Aisehia Brooks, Andrew Curtis	Kent State University	U
peaple’s choice	Dan Wyandt	Nathaniel Dobbs	Penta Career Center	11

Congratulations everyone

 

 

 

 

 

 

Results from the AmericaView/GLOBE Earth Observation Day

On April 10 and 22, 2013, students participated in the first spring Earth Observation Day sponsored by GLOBE and the AmericaView Remote Sensing Consortium.

Students took observations near their school of a grassy area and an asphalt surface.

The Earth has warmed over the last 50 years and continues to warm. In addition, over the same time period, urban areas have expanded leading to increased warming of cities exasperating summer heat waves. Satellites can observe the temperature of cities and their surrounding areas. In situ observations are needed to validate the satellite temperatures. Student observations of surface temperature can contribute to the validation of the surface temperature.

Dr. Kevin Czajkowski from the University of Toledo hosted the first spring AmericaView/GLOBE Surface Temperature field day on April 10 and 22, 2013, Earth Observation Day. On this two day event, we supported students to take surface temperature. Students entered data on the GLOBE website or they sent the data to AmericaView Director Rick Landenberger, Rick.Landenberger@mail.wvu.edu.

This year, some of the GLOBE Scientists developed videos explaining how to take surface temperature observations. Here is a video of Rick Landenberger from West Virginia University taking his surface temperature observations.

Nektaria Adaktilou, a GLOBE Scientist from the University of Athens, described how to take surface temperature observations in both English and Greek.

And, here is her instructions in Greek.

 Looking at the data

The schools that took observations during the surface temperature observation days were:

Ida Elementary School, Michigan USA

Main Street School, Ohio, USA

California University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA

West Virginia University, VW, USA

3rd Lyceum of Algaleo, Athens, Greece

Brazil High School, Trinidad and Tobago

Killingi-Nomme Gymnasium, Estonia

Here are students at Ida Elementary School taking surface temperature observations.

Ida Ts 4-23-13

Here are students at Brazil High School in Trinidad and Tobago discussing the clouds when taking their surface temperature observations.

 

AmericaView is a consortium of 36 states working together to promote the use of remote sensing and other geospatial technologies.

http://www.americaview.org/

AmericaView and GLOBE have a partnership that goes back at least 10 years. GLOBE brings the field observations and AmericaView brings in the remote sensing/geospatial technologies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neat Comparison betwee March 2012 and 2013

I got this email from a colleague about this neat Earth Now website and video. It shows a comparison between last March, 2012, and this March 2013. The difference is stark in North America. It is a narrated video from U. Wisconsin.

I’m writing to share a very cool 3D visual summary of last months climate that includes comparisons to last March.
It’s educational and interesting and a mere 3 minutes long – check it out!
http://sphere.ssec.wisc.edu/20130422/

Wyoming Student wins 3rd Place in Science Fair

From the WyomingView Blog

http://wyomingview.blogspot.com/

Sarah’s urban heat island study wins third place in the 2013 Wyoming State Science Fair

Lake Erie Getting Ice Covered

The cold weather this last month has led to Lake Erie developing ice cover. This past week, the temperature has been averaging about 20 F (-6 C). Even with temperatures in the 50s and 60s F (10 C to 15 C), ice has formed. See the Figure 1 below.

As you can see in the picture, the ice on Lake Erie is broken up into things that look like islands. The wind blows the ice around and breaks it up. There is a straight line through Lake St. Clair that extends down into Lake Erie. What do you think caused this straight line? Usually, on Earth, straight lines are produced by humans.

Figure 1: MODIS satellites image of Lake Erie February 6, 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2: MODIS satellite image of Lake Erie from January 24, 2013.

As you can see, on January 24, 2013, just two weeks ago, the Western basin of Lake Erie was ice covered and  there was some ice on the northern side of the lake. You can see that areas of Southern Ontario north of Lake Erie did not have snow on the ground on January 24, 2013 and then on February 6, 2013, there is snow.

As part of GLOBE’s Seasons and Biomes Earth System Science Program (ESSP), I have taken pictures of the Ottawa River that flows through the University of Toledo and then empties into Lake Erie. http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/spotlights/2012/globe-workshop I took pictures from the shore across the river and then from the bridge upstream and downstream.

Figure 3: GLOBE Seasons and Biomes instructions for taking pictures of ice cover.

You can see in the pictures that the river has ice along the banks. Why is the river not frozen while the lake is? Last week, the river was completely ice covered. But, when temperatures went way up and it rained, the ice melted and washed away.

Figure 4: Picture of the Ottawa River from a) across, b) upstream, and c) downstream

a) across

 

b) Upstream

 

c) downstream

 

 

Be sure to be safe around ice.

Dr. C

cold weather = ice

Update: January 23, 2013

The cold wave continues and ice formation has progressed nicely. The Ottawa River is now completely frozen over except for a few open spots. The open spots may be associated with warm water coming into the river from drains. The darker areas in the photographs are actually frozen. They just don’t have snow on the ice. Look at the changes from yesterday below. Also, ice is forming fast on the Great Lakes. I included another MODIS image to compare with the one further below. Finally, the frost tube I have in my yard shows that the ground is frozen to about 10 cm. This is the deepest I have seen it freeze. One reason it is freezing so deep is that there is little snow cover to insulate the ground. I’ll post a picture later today.

Upstream 1-23-2013

Downstream 1-23-2013

 

MODIS image for 1-22-2013 with some close- ups of pretty ice formations.

Lake Michigan near Chicago. Notice the wispy nature of the ice as it is being blown by the wind. Lake effect clouds are to the east of the ice over Lake Michigan.

 

Lake Huron North Channel, the North Channel is covered with ice. Notice that Georgian bay was getting a lot of ice on it on the northeast side on Tuesday, January 22, 2013.

January 22, 2013

As many of you know, I like to follow the formation of ice on ponds, rivers and lakes, especially the Great Lakes. I guess I’m an ice geek. In addition to watching the ice form and wondering when it will form, I have a more personal interest in ice. I love to ice skate and put an ice rink in my back yard each winter.

Last year was a total bust as far as ice goes. Even making ice in the back yard was hard. I only got to skate 3 times total. This year is a different story although the ice has not been too good yet. I have skated 5 times so far. The cold weather this week in the Great Lakes is aiding ice formation. The ice in my backyard is in great shape. And, ice is forming on ponds, lakes and rivers..

As part of GLOBE’s Seasons and Biomes Project, I take pictures of the Ottawa River to document ice formation. With low temperatures last night around 0 F and temps today still in the single digits, ice is forming fast. But, it isn’t forming as fast as I thought it would. I thought the river would be completely frozen over this morning. The water does not flow very fast. As you can see in the pictures below, the middle of the river is open today. I found it really interesting that I could see the ice forming in the water that is moving. There was ice in the water. I think the ice is piling up when it hits ice on the sides.

Upstream January 22, 2013

Downstream January 22, 2013

I took the pictures from a bridge on the University of Toledo campus. REMEMBER, DO NOT WALK ON ICE OVER A WATER BODY AS YOU MAY FALL THROUGH.

Lake Effect Snow

Temperatures are forecast to remain really cold for a couple more days. You may have heard that the lake effect snow has been impressive in Erie, PA and along the south shore of Lake Erie. Erie broke the most snow on any January day record yesterday, Jan. 21, 2013. We even got an inch of snow last night at my house in Temperature, Michigan that was lake effect all the way from Lake Michigan, 150 miles away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the cloud streamers coming off of the lakes in this satellite image and radar image.

I’ll be looking for ice to form rapidly on the Great Lakes this week as temperatures stay cold. The high winds tend to inhibit ice formation though because the wind breaks the ice up and also mixes the water. The satellite image below is from the MODIS sensor. NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab (GLERL) collects the images in a program called CoastWatch. You can’t see a lot in the image because of the lake effect clouds. But, this image from Sunday, Jan 20, 2013 shows that there is not much ice on the Great Lakes. The north channel of Lake Huron and Green Bay of Lake Michigan are just starting to ice up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GLOBE Surface Temperature Field Campaign Final Report

The GLOBE Surface Temperature Field Campaign was a success once again this year. Thank you to all of the students and teachers who make this field campaign possible. And, thank you to GLOBE for supporting this type of scientific investigation. A total of 17 schools have entered data so far as of January 17, 2013 and I know that several others took observations and are working on getting their observations in. This is a smaller number of participants than the last several years when between 40 and 60 schools participated. I suspect that the change over to the new GLOBE website may have caused extra confusion and challenges. The amount of errors in the reported data seemed low which shows the diligence of the students and teachers in taking these observations.

Here are the schools that have posted observations so far.

Crestwood High School, Daerborn Heights, Michigan

Taaksi Basic School, Estonia, Thanks for participating again.

Kilingi-Nomme Gymnasium, Estonia, Thanks for participating again.

Alexander von Humbolt Gymnasium, Konstanz, Germany

The University of Toledo, This is me and my children.

Westchester Area School, Hi Trenton, it is good to see your data.

Chartiers-Houston Jr./Sr. High School, Good to see you Mr. Pop.

Burlington County Institute Of Technology, New Jersey

West Union High School, Ohio

Birchwood School, Ohio – Hi Mrs. Brown.

Lakewood Catholic Academy, Ohio – Great that you got on Mrs. McGuire

Roswell-Kent Middle School, Ohio – Hi Mr. Frantz.

Mohican School in the Out of Doors, Ohio – Hi Susan and Steve

Brazil School, Trinidad and Tobago

Main Street School, Norwalk, Ohio – Hi Mrs. Burns.

The Morton Arboretum Youth Education Department, Illinois

John Marshall High School, Glen Dale, West Virginia – Hi Mrs. Clark. Thank you for having your students participate.

Here is a view of the Eastern United States from the GLOBE visualization page showing the observations on December 13, 2012. The surface temperature was coldest near Cleveland in eastern Ohio and warmest in southern West Virginia.

The school that was most diligent was Lakewood Catholic Academy near Cleveland, Ohio. The students and teacher took surface temperature observations on every day in December including Christmas and New Years Eve. That is dedication. Please look at the time series plot below that I made from the GLOBE visualization page.

There are many things that can be done with the observations. Now that the field observations are over, students can use the observations to develop inquiry-based research projects. I want to outline some examples.

In the past, students have looked at the difference in surface temperature under different cloud conditions, between schools at different elevations and latitude, and between schools in North America vs. Europe. How does land cover affect surface temperature? How does the number of condensation trails affect surface temperature? How does surface temperature change from day to day and season to season.

Dr. C

Snowstorm across US: 2012 GLOBE Surface Temperature Field Campaign

Storm Coming Across US

If you live in the United States, you probably have heard of the snow storm crossing the country right now. There will be mountain snow in the Rockie Mountains, a potential for a blizzard from Nebraska to Wisconsin and then some snow to the Great Lakes states. The National Weather Service (NWS) definition of a blizzard is:

“A blizzard means that the following conditions are expected to prevail for a period of 3 hours or longer:

• Sustained wind or frequent gusts to 35 miles an hour or greater; and
• Considerable falling and/or blowing snow (i.e., reducing visibility frequently to less than ¼ mile)”

Some of the Surface Temperature Field Campaign participating schools will be getting snow this Friday especially the lake effect regions. The jet stream causes the storm to take this type of track. I put the jet stream and the forecast storm track in the figure below. There are two ingredients that help storms (called mid-latitude cyclones) to form east of the Rocky Mountains. The first is the boundary between hot and cold air. For this storm, there is warm weather in Texas and cold weather coming down out of Canada. The second is that when the jet stream takes air over the Rocky Mountains, the air column gets bigger on the east side of the Rockies. When the air expands, it leads to low pressure. Here is a tutorial on mid-latitude cyclones. http://www.atmos.illinois.edu/~snodgrss/Midlatitude_cyclone.html

 

Week 2 Update

The second week of the GLOBE Surface Temperature Field Campaign has come to a close. The number of schools participating is slowly increasing. I have also worked with a number of teachers this past week and with the GLOBE Help Desk, to get their students access to post data. The GLOBE Help Desk has done a wonderful job of responding to individual requests. I am hopeful that even more teachers and students join the field campaign once all of the teacher training data has been migrated into the new system. That is going on this week. I can’t imagine trying to migrate the data for 20,000 teachers and trainers from one system to another. One of the big challenges is that the teachers and trainers are trained in different protocols. Not everyone is trained in all protocols.

 

Here are the schools that have posted observations so far. 13 schools total.

Crestwood High School, Michigan

Taaksi Basic School, Estonia, Thanks for participating again.

The University of Toledo, This is me and my children.

Westchester Area School, Hi Trenton, it is good to see your data.

Chartiers-Houston Jr./Sr. High School, Good to see you Mr. Pop.

Burlington County Institute Of Technology, New Jersey

West Union High School, Ohio

Birchwood School, Ohio – Hi Mrs. Brown.

Lakewood Catholic Academy, Ohio – Great that you got on Mrs. McGuire

Roswell-Kent Middle School, Ohio – Hi Mr. Frantz.

Mohican School in the Out of Doors, Ohio – Hi Susan and Steve

Brazil School, Brazil

Main Street School, Norwalk, Ohio – Hi Mrs. Burns.

The Morton Arboretum Youth Education Department, Illinois

Here are the schools that posted data so far in the United States on Dec. 11, 2012.

 

Please be careful when entering data that the universal time is correct. Also, take a look at the visualization on the GLOBE website to make sure that the location (latitude and longitude) of your sites are correct. I have seen at least one case where I think the location is incorrect.

If you or your students have taken data and you haven’t entered it yet, please do so soon. I check over the data for any errors and let the teachers know. Okay, I’m guilty. I haven’t entered my data yet either. Below is a picture of Robby and Timmy, my kids, helping me take surface temperature observations.

Doing a Project

One thing I would like you to consider is having the students do a project with the data. There are lots of projects built into the surface temperature field campaign. Below, I have a discussion about the difference in temperature between the United States and Europe. That is a great project. The question is “Why are the temperatures different between the two continents even though the observations were taken at about the same latitude? When I was in Europe this past summer, a heat wave was going on. I asked the question, How do different paving materials affect the energy budget. I share this study early next week. I have to finish writing it up. You can look at my GLOBE trip to Europe here: http://www.globe.gov/web/kevin.czajkowski/blog?p_p_id=33&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-1&p_p_col_count=1

http://satellitesk12.org/?m=201208

 

Implications of the Observations

Looking at the observations, it is very apparent that Europe has been colder than the United States even though at this time of year, that is not normally the case. In the image below, you will notice that the temperature at Uzwil School in Switzerland is colder than any of the observations in the United States. When I visited Markus Eugster this past summer in Uzwil, I was surprised when he described the weather and climate there. He said that they get snow but that it usually does not last long. His school is to the northeast of the Alps. In the Alps, the snow falls in the fall and stays throughout the winter. But in Uzwil, it does not. These observations match what I have been seeing. In Europe and Asia, snow cover is pretty extensive. On the other hand, in the United States, the snow has been confined to the northern most states. On the day shown, Dec. 4, 2012, the surface temperature in Uzwil was 1.6 C while in the eastern United States, the schools all reported about 10 C. By Dec. 6, 2012, surface temperatures had fallen in all locations. Uzwil fell to -4.3 C while the schools in the United States reported temperatures between 0.9 and 7.2 C. The surface temperature at Brazil High School in Trinidad and Tobago on Dec. 4, 2012 was much higher than any of the others, 36.8 C.

It will be interesting to see if this pattern of cold in Europe and warm in the US persists throughout the winter. That was the pattern last winter where in the eastern United States it felt like there was no winter at all. Here is the figure of snowfall in the United States and in Europe. You can see though that since Dec. 6 there has been a lot of snowfall in the United States especially in the northern states and, most recently, in the western states. But, will it snow at my house? That is what I want to know. Will it get cold enough to make the ice rink in the back yard so we can skate?

 

Ask your students, Why is snow cover so important for the Earth? How does it affect the surface and air temperature during the day and night? How does it impact the energy budget? I get pretty geeked when there is now.

Living in southeast Michigan, the weather has been pretty warm iwht high temperatures in the 40s that last couple of days. Even with that, ice is forming on the cover of our swimming pool. The average temperature for the days has been below freezing which is forming the ice. Even though the temperature during the day goes above freezing, it is that warm for only a short period of time. The night is very long.

Keep up the great work!

Dr. C

 

 

Week 1 Update

The GLOBE surface temperature field campaign started this week with some record warm temperatures in the United States. Students in much of the United States enjoyed short sleeve weather for several days.

Schools have started to post observations on the GLOBE website. The GLOBE website has been changed dramatically over the last year. The GLOBE Program Office will be adding all teachers in a bulk transfer from the old database in the near future. Many teachers have also signed up on the GLOBE webpage http://www.globe.gov and the help desk has set them up so they can enter data. The help desk has been doing a great job managing everyone.

Here are the schools that have posted observations so far.

Burlington County Institute Of Technology, New Jersey

West Union High School, Ohio

Birchwood School, Ohio – Hi Mrs. Brown.

Lakewood Catholic Academy, Ohio – Great that you got on Mrs. McGuire

Roswell-Keny Middle School, Ohio – Hi Mr. Frantz.

Brazil School, Brazil

Main Street School, Norwalk, Ohio – Hi Mrs. Burns.

The Morton Arboretum Youth Education Department, Illinois

This is a map from the GLOBE website that shows the schools that entered surface temperature data so far on Dec. 3, 2012. Please try to have your students get your data online as soon as possible so we can trouble shoot any problems. Let me know if you run into any problems. kevin.czajkowski@utoledo.edu

As many of you know, I love snow. I love to ski and ice skate and sled. So far this winter has been a dud. There hasn’t been a lot of snow. Last winter was so warm, there was very little snow as well. As you can see in the attached figure, there is very little snow today in the lower 48 of the United States. That is the part of the United States that does not include Hawaii and Alaska. A storm recently laid down snow in Europe. The weather pattern is going to change in North America and bring the cold air from Alaska and northern Canada into the lower 48.

Seasons and Biomes Frost Tube

I have taken frost tube observations for the Seasons and Biomes GLOBE project for the past 3 years http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/spotlights/2012/globe-workshop. I tried to take an observation this morning only to find that the tube had broken and all of the water drained out. I wonder if the plastic had gotten brittle and when it froze it broken when the ice expanded. I’ll have to fix it this weekend before consistently cold temperatures arrive next week.

I hope to see your data soon.

Dr. C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GLOBE STAR of Finland Training

GLOBE recently made a STAR out of my trip to Finland to work with GLOBE teachers and trainers there. http://www.globe.gov/news/globe-stars/starsdetail/globe/2012-finland-training

It was a great experience. If you ever have a chance to go to Finland, I think you will enjoy it.

2012 GLOBE Surface Temperature Field Campaign

GLOBE Surface Temperature Field Campaign

December 1 to December 31, 2012

The GLOBE Program will host the annual surface temperature field campaign from December 1 to December 31, 2012.  This is a great opportunity to work as a community with schools around the world on a common research project.

I will be blogging during the field campaign about the weather and also the student data. You won’t want to miss it. The blog is located at: http://satellitesk12.org  There is other information about the field campaign and past ones on the blog site as well. http://satellitesk12.org/?m=201111

For resources, go to the GLOBE website.
The GLOBE teacher’s guide has the how’s and what’s about the surface temperature protocol.

http://www.globe.gov/web/atmosphere-climate/protocols

and field guide

http://www.globe.gov/web/atmosphere-climate/overview/field-guides

The data sheets can be found off of this page.

http://www.globe.gov/web/atmosphere-climate/overview/data-sheets

Some teachers find it hard to get an infrared thermometer (IRT) to do the protocol. In the past, we have used Fluke 63. We have used Fluke 561 most recently. If you can’t find one of those, you may used a lower cost instrument. When you set up your surface temperature site, please specify the type of IRT you are using. Also, you may be able to borrow one from a heating and cooling specialist or an auto mechanic. They use them for their jobs.

As many of you know, I like to see how snow on the ground affects the surface temperature. But, that is not the only reason to participate in the field campaign. The main research question that needs to be answered is “How does surface cover affect surface temperature?” Students can set up research studies at their own school such as looking at the difference between paved and unpaved areas such as a grassy area. Or, since there will be so many schools taking surface temperature observations, students can investigate how surface temperature changes between schools. They could look at elevation, latitude and longitude, urban versus rural, proximity to water, etc. There are many research questions possible with surface temperature. Students could also look at how cloud cover or humidity affect the surface temperature.

Questions? Contact Kevin Czajkowski, 419-530-4274, kevin.czajkowski@utoledo.edu

 

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