As
the Deep Impact spacecraft nears its intended target, comet Tempel 1, this month,
people around the world are climbing atop their roofs equipped with high- and
low-tech telescopes to see if they, too, can witness the comet collision. What
they observe or, better yet, capture on film both during the event and in the
weeks before and after, could prove useful to the team of NASA scientists trying
to understand the comet and the effects of the impact (see related
story).
University of Maryland sophomores Brad Poston and Rob Cullen try to capture
images of comet Tempel 1 from the university’s observatory in College Park,
Md. NASA has asked amateurs around the world to photograph the comet before,
during and after its collision with the Deep Impact spacecraft.
As the world becomes more interconnected by the Internet, members of the public
are increasingly helping scientists with their research — through personal
observations of everything from birds and weather to the stars, as well as by
allowing scientists use of their home computers for projects ranging from searching
for extraterrestrial life (SETI@Home) and gravity waves
(Einstein@Home), to predicting the changing global climate
(climateprediction.net; see Geotimes
Web Extra, Feb. 7, 2005). These new partnerships not only help the scientists,
but also keep the public interested and involved in current scientific research.
NASA has long involved amateurs in the observation process for its missions,
says Elizabeth Warner of the University of Maryland, and has designed two programs
related to Deep Impact: the Small Telescope Science Program
and the Amateur Observers Program. NASA formed the two
programs to “get people involved,” Warner says. “Telling people
to go to the nearest observatory doesn’t fly — they want to do it
themselves, which we encourage.”
The Amateur Observers program is designed to involve anyone who wants to observe
the comet collision and submit their observations, whether a photograph, sketch
or text description, Warner says. The Small Telescope Science Program is more
aimed at technically proficient amateurs who can collect scientific data with
their telescopes and charge-coupled-device (CCD) cameras. Both programs, but
especially the small telescopes program, are designed to complement data collected
by large telescopes, Warner says.
Comet Tempel 1 is “not very bright or easy to see, so it takes a good telescope
and a good CCD camera,” Warner says. The small telescopes program focuses
on continuous monitoring of the comet before, during and after impact, looking
for changes in the brightness of the dust-covered head of the comet and tail,
and changes in behavior or movement, she says.
Large observatory telescopes only capture the comet once a month on average,
so the hope is that amateurs can fill in any gaps that the observatories miss,
Warner says. “Amateurs can go out every night if they want and get good
time-lapse photos,” she says. “They can really help the scientific
process.”
To participate, people log on to either program’s Web site, create a profile
that includes the type of equipment they used, their location and weather conditions
at the time of the observation, and then upload photos or fill in observations.
In a similar program, through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s
Citizen Science program, birdwatchers around the world help scientists collect
data to learn about birds. Simple projects allow amateurs anywhere to participate,
for example, by counting nests or observing migration and mating patterns.
People sign on to the lab’s Web site and pick a project with which they
would like to help, based on where they live and how much time they want to
spend. There are year-round projects, such as studying what types of birds live
in urban environments, as well as seasonal projects, such as the Great Backyard
Bird Count, where people count all the birds that visit their backyards over
four days in the winter. This year, more than 51,000 checklists were submitted,
including observations of more than 6.5 million individual birds and 613 different
species.
Whatever project people choose, they receive a detailed set of instructions
along with a list of further resources. Like the Amateurs Observers Program
for Deep Impact, the Cornell Citizen Science program is designed so that anyone
of any age, experience or education level can participate and help scientists
with research.
The
Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network, based
at Colorado State University, is also designed for anyone. Many of the participants
are retired professionals, but the ages vary widely, with the youngest only
five years old, says Nolan Doesken, a climatologist at Colorado State who created
and runs the program. “Citizen volunteers have a long history in weather
and climate studies,” he says, dating back to before the Civil War. Since
the 1880s, climatologists and meteorologists have utilized citizens to monitor
day-by-day weather as well as long-term climate patterns and variations. And
today, most television stations have local “weather-watchers” that
they rely on to report what is happening, he says.
Climatologist Nolan Doesken places a Styrofoam hail pad, covered with aluminum
foil and measuring 1 square foot, near a rain gauge in Colorado. The instruments
measure the size of hail and the amount of rain or snow, as part of a six-state
public participation program to track weather and climate. Inset: This damaged
hail pad shows hail ranging from pea-sized to greater than 1 inch in diameter.
Images courtesy of Henry Reges.
But for the weather in Colorado, meteorologists needed to design a more sophisticated
observations program. Most major thunderstorms include hail, which causes millions
of dollars in damages each year. The severe weather is so localized, however,
that existing weather stations don’t pick up on it, Doesken says.
So in 1997, Doesken and a pair of high-school volunteers set out to see if using
low-cost measuring instruments could better track where hail was hitting. In
the middle of their testing, a “highly localized” flash flood occurred
at the university, Doesken says. With the help of hundreds of volunteers, they
were able to piece together what happened. Suddenly, their little pilot project
took off, he says.
In just over five years, more than 2,000 volunteers have participated throughout
Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas. In 2004, they logged
18,000 hours of volunteer time. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
National Weather Service has also begun using the citizens’ data, Doesken
says.
Getting involved is easy, Doesken says, and staying involved does not take a
lot of time. People sign up on the Web site and receive a station identification
number and a supply kit. Supplies cost about $40 per station, which participants
are asked to pay if they can, he says, but no one has to pay to participate,
as several sponsors help cover volunteer costs.
The equipment includes a 4-inch-diameter rain and snow gauge that measures to
the nearest 1/100th of an inch, a mounting bracket, and a bag “with lots
of brand-new hail pads,” Doesken says. The hail pads are 1 square foot
of Styrofoam wrapped with heavy-duty aluminum foil, shiny side down (to prevent
excess bird attraction). People mount the rain gauges and hail pads in their
backyards, and then check them every morning to record any precipitation that
fell. They then empty the rain gauges and bring in damaged hail pads.
Doesken says that working with the public is both rewarding and challenging.
“You have to be a people-person and a fast typist to enjoy the consequences
of this project,” he says. “We get a ton of wonderful scientific data
every day, but also an e-mail box full of questions and correspondences from
our volunteers.” But, he says, by “engaging the people and stimulating
their thoughts, they get even more engaged — it’s public education
as well as scientific research.”
Indeed, public observation projects allow people to take a more active role
in scientific research, says Bruce Allen of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Allen leads Einstein@Home, a computing project that uses idle time on participants’
computers to look for gravity waves by searching for spinning neutron stars
(called pulsars), the finding of which could prove the last remaining prediction
of Einstein’s theory of gravity.
“These projects allow people to discover science and work on it themselves
instead of just reading about it,” Allen says. “And if we discover
something, they would have played a very active role in it. It’s exciting.”
Megan
Sever
Links:
"Collision
Course: Deep Impact," Geotimes, July 2005
SETI@Home
Einstein@Home
ClimatePrediction.net
"Virtual climate
experiment's results," Geotimes Web Extra, Feb. 7, 2005
Small
Telescope Science Program (Deep Impact)
Amateur Observers Program (Deep Impact)
Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Citizen Science program
Community
Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network
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