NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

On October 13, NASA and GLOBE invite K-12 students and teachers - as well as interested members of the public - to join in a scientific experiment to observe the presence or absence of contrails in the sky in honor of Earth Science Week. Sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation, GLOBE is a student observation campaign in which participants record measurements of the atmosphere, land, water and plant and animal life, for use by students and scientists around the world.

Image to right: Count the contrails for GLOBE Oct. 13, 2005. Credit: NASA.

Contrails are the cloud streaks formed from water vapor in aircraft exhaust. Scientists are interested in studying contrails because of the effects they might have on Earth's climate. Knowing when and where contrails occur is important to predicting their potential impact on climate.

To participate, visit the GLOBE Earth Science Week 2005 Contrail Count-a-Thon Web site. Those already registered with GLOBE should report contrails and clouds as they normally do.

Image to left: This image, from January 29, 2004, shows contrails over the southeastern US as seen by the Terra spacecraft. Image credit: Louis Nguyen, NASA Langley.








Related Resources

To participate in the Count-a-thon, visit:
+ http://www.globe.gov/earthsciweek2005

To learn more about Earth Science Week on the Internet, visit:
+ http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/earthweek.html

To learn more about GLOBE on the Internet, visit:
+ http://www.globe.gov

GLOBE Contrail Education:
+ View site

Cloud Match Game:
+ View site