NASA Wants Your Cloud Photos to Help Check What Its Satellite Sees
If you are always taking pictures of interesting clouds, NASA actually wants to see them. Your photos could help scientists check what one of its satellites is seeing from space.
NASA is asking people around the world to participate in the PACE Clouds Challenge through October 15. All you need is a smartphone, the GLOBE Observer app, and a decent view of the sky.
There is one thing to know before you head outside. NASA wants you to take your pictures right around the time its PACE satellite passes over your area.
Luckily, you don’t have to figure that out yourself. The app can alert you when PACE is about to fly overhead, and depending on where you live, you may get a chance to participate more than once in a day.
Wait For PACE To Fly Over
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GLOBE asks people to get outside about five minutes before PACE arrives. Don’t open the Clouds tool until you’re actually ready, though, because that’s when the app timestamps your observation.
Then you take all six cloud photos requested by the app. If PACE happens to pass over twice during daylight hours, you can send in more than one observation that day.
NASA Will Compare Your Photos To PACE
PACE has been circling Earth since 2024, about 420 miles above us. One trip around the planet takes about 98 minutes.
For this project, NASA scientist Andy Sayer is looking at how well PACE can pick out clouds, especially around their edges and when the sky has patches of clouds instead of one solid layer.
NASA says the ground photos give scientists something to compare with what PACE saw from above at almost the same time. PACE only joined GLOBE’s satellite-matching program in August, so this is a relatively new option for app users.
You Might Get A Satellite Photo Back
If your observation lines up with a satellite pass, you can get an email with satellite data and imagery from the area where you took your photos. GLOBE was already doing quite a bit of this before PACE joined. As of August 25, NASA had matched more than 1.75 million GLOBE observations with satellite data.
For this challenge, anyone who submits all six photos within the five-minute window can also receive a certificate of recognition. The PACE Clouds Challenge runs through October 15, and you can submit daytime observations from anywhere in the world.
