In April this year, the West African nation of Benin celebrated six years of strong growth in the GLOBE program as host of the First GLOBE International Atmosphere Symposium.

In April 1995, eight Beninese schools joined GLOBE. This year, Benin supports more than 75 schools that regularly report GLOBE data and conduct GLOBE activities.

Benins Minister of Education, Mr. Damien Z. Alahassa, and United States Ambassador to Benin, Ms. Pamela Bridgewater, a former teacher, joined representatives of the Ministry of Environment and the United States Agency for International Development in opening the symposium April 12.

Ms. Alidjennatou Aliou Emmanuel, the GLOBE Country Coordinator in Benin, called the Symposium educational and exciting. GLOBE scientists and representatives from the Washington office worked closely with conference participants, she said. And the events with Minister Alahassa and Ambassador Bridgewater were very exciting, very warm.

Everyone wanted to learn as much as possible, Ms. Emmanuel said. I am very pleased and proud of such active support. It was very encouraging for all participants.

The hot, humid and hazy weather in the port city of Cotonou seemed to an apt setting for learning atmosphere protocols. Beninese teachers, members of the countrys GLOBE coordinating team, outstanding Beninese GLOBE students, local university faculty, representatives from Cameroon, Ghana and Madagascar, and U.S. Peace Corps volunteers who work with Beninese teachers were among those learning new and existing atmosphere protocols.

Susan Postawko, Ph.D., GLOBEs Principal Investigator (PI) for Atmosphere (Temperature and Precipitation) and a scientist at the University of Oklahoma, and David Brooks, Ph.D., the PI for GLOBEs Haze/Aerosols Project and a scientist at Drexel University, demonstrated the protocols and explained their importance. The scientists trained participants in haze, ozone, aerosol, barometric pressure and relative humidity protocols. Both agreed that collecting data in Benin and the surrounding region will be important to scientific research.

"The GLOBE team in Benin is very eager to begin participating in these new protocols," said Dr. Brooks. "Because parts of West Africa are so remote, it has been difficult for countries there to establish an air monitoring network, even though the people in the region are very aware of how important it is to monitor air quality. The GLOBE schools' contribution would be very significant because they would be among the only monitors of the atmosphere in that part of the continent."