Project S´COOL

The Students´ Clouds Observations OnLine or S´COOL project was piloted in 1997. It was created with the idea of using students to serve as one component of the validation for the Clouds and the Earth´s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument which was launched with the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) in November, 1997. As part of NASA´s Earth Science Enterprise CERES is interested in the role clouds play in regulating the climate. Over thirty schools became involved in the initial thrust of the project. The CERES instrument detects the location of clouds and identifies their physical properties. S´COOL students coordinate their ground truth observations with the exact overpass of the satellite at their location. Their findings regarding cloud type, height, fraction and opacity as well as surface conditions are then reported to the NASA Langley Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). The data is then accessible to both the CERES team for validation and for educational application via the Internet. By March of 1998 ninety-three schools, in nine countries had enrolled in the S´COOL project. Joining the United States participants were from schools in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The project is gradually becoming the global project envisioned by the project´s creators. As students obtain the requested data useful for the scientists, it was hoped that students with guidance from their instructors would have opportunity and motivation to learn more about clouds and atmospheric science as well