A Data System in Support of Citizen Science and Education - GLOBE

The GLOBE Program is a partnership among teachers, students, scientists, and other citizens involving observations of the environment and recording and using those observations for the understanding of the Earth system. Employing defined protocols and instrument specifications GLOBE has achieved 20+ years of known quality data that is comparable over space and time. This data is of a wide range of measurements of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and pedosphere. To accommodate this diversity, protocols are proposed by scientists where the purpose and needs of the measurements are conveyed. Once approved, mockups of data entry forms are created along with designs of the database schema. In this process, many factors are considered including proper quality control measures, mechanisms for making data publicly available, and requirements for (pre/post)processing of the data. The frequency and quantity of data on varying time scales plays a role too both for ingestion and presentation of the data for the support of student and professional research.