GLOBE Science Investigations are divided into five themes. Each theme consists of measurement protocols, field guides and data sheets designed to help collect accurate scientific data. Following the protocols carefully will help ensure that data from schools around the world can be used in research to better understand the global environment.

The collection of scientific data is only a part of what GLOBE offers student scientists. Data collected in the field or in the laboratory may be entered into the international database where it is used by students and scientists worldwide. The GLOBE visualization tools offer the ability to display data in maps, graphs, and tables.

 

Atmosphere

GLOBE student data within the Atmosphere investigation aids scientific understanding of spatial gaps in air temperature and precipitation coverage by weather monitoring stations, important data on aerosols and surface ozone. In addition, atmospheric data play a critical role in the calibration of satellite instruments collecting data on, for example, clouds and aerosols.

Land Cover/Biology

Land cover is a term used to describe what is on the ground or covering the land. Different terms are used to describe the differences seen when looking at the land and can be split into natural and developed areas.

Earth as a System

Understanding Earth as a system––Earth system science––requires a quantitative exploration of the connections between and among the critical parts of the system: Atmosphere, Cryosphere, Hydrosphere, Lithosphere/pedosphere, and Biosphere.

Soil

Soil makes up a thin layer known as the pedosphere and an important, yet very limited, natural resource which affects every part of the ecosystem. Soils hold nutrients and water for plants and animals. Soils also filter and clean water and can change the chemistry of water. Soils store and transfer heat and affect the temperature of the atmosphere.

Hydrology

Water covers approximately 70 percent of Earth's surface, continually circulating between Earth's surface and atmosphere as part of the hydrologic, or water, cycle and is one of the basic processes in nature. Water evaporates into the atmosphere to become water vapor where it cools and condenses into liquid water or ice crystals to become clouds. It then falls back to the surface as rain or snow, where is can filter into the soil, be absorbed by plants, percolate to groundwater reservoirs, run off into water bodies, or evaporate.

    

 

 

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