Air Quality Cluster Earth Exploration Toolbook Chapter
The Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET, http://serc.carleton.edu/eet) provides educators with step-by-step instructions, in modules called chapters, on how to access specific datasets and analysis tools and conduct an analysis around specific scientific concepts. There are currently 22 chapters in the EET. The AccessData Team http://serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/accessdata) at TERC has worked with over 50 teams to make Earth science data available in educational contexts. It would be advantageous to the ESIP Federation to evolve the model of the AccessData Workshops to take advantage of its membership and semi-annual meetings to attain its goal of making its data and scientific knowledge available to a broad community.
The Air Quality Cluster has been working with various datasets to address scientific and societal needs and would like to make those datasets useable in educational contexts. Some of the datasets include
- NOAA Hazards Fire Mapping (point data)
- AIRNOW particulate matter < 2.5 microns (pm <2.5) (point data)
- OMRI satellite – Ozone Monitoring Instrument (image, grid data)
- VIEWS chemical dataset (point data), Provides chemical speciation to distinguish smoke and pollution
- Blue Sky smoke forecast – (model)
Tools that can be used to visualize, explore and analyze this data include:
- Giovanni -displays AURA, AIRS, CLOUDSAT, CALIPSO, and MODIS data. Data can be downloaded http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/techlab/giovanni/
- DataFed – site for effective use of aerosol data, http://datafed.net
- IDEA – Infusing satellite Data into Environmental Applications www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/smcd/spb/aq
Members of the Air Quality Cluster and the Education Committee have met to begin the process of identifying the case study, datasets, and analysis tools that would be used in an EET chapter on air quality. Discussions have focused on looking at the relationship between fires and their impact on air quality and identifying interesting cases that have been studied by scientists. Discussions in the immediate future will occur by email, on the Air Quality wiki, and telecon.
We will bring the EET Air Quality Team (made up of 5-6 people representing the roles of data provider, tool specialist, scientist, curriculum developer, and educator) to the Winter ESIP Federation meeting to meet for a full day to 1) fully identify the datasets and tools to be used and 2) create an outline of a storyline for an investigation and the step-by-step instructions to conduct that investigation.
