NASA GLOBE Observer’s Weekly Roundup: 12-18 August 2018

The summer is just flying by. And it has been a hot one for many parts of the world. Fires, clouds and more in this week's edition of the roundup.  

1. CALIFORNIA FIRES: Fires are blazing in California and causing large clouds:

"The heat generated by intense wildfires can churn up towering pyrocumulus and pyrocumulonimbus clouds, which lift smoke above the boundary layer, the lowest part of the atmosphere. “The hotter a fire burns, the higher up smoke can go, and the farther it can spread,” explained Amber Soja, an atmospheric scientist with the National Institute of Aerospace who is based at NASA’s Langley Research Center." Keep reading the article in the link below.

• Read More

2. AIR QUALITY: The fires are also affecting the air quality within the state of California. Levels have settled down somewhat for some areas, but keep monitoring the skies by checking out the Air Quality Index's website "Air Now" (Part of the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA]) to see if it is safe to be outdoors, especially for recreation. Several areas are still at unhealthy levels. Also, keep your loved ones and pets indoors (especially the elderly) if the levels become hazardous where you live.

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies have reported airborne particulates at levels up to 990 micrograms per cubic meter—about 80 times higher than air quality guidelines consider "good," according to Pawan Gupta, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center."

• Learn More

3 REPORT IT: You can use the GLOBE Observer app and the Clouds tool within the app to observe and report on sky color.  The sky's opacity tells us about air quality. Check it out today.

• Get the App 

4. WEEKLY VIDEO: Here are our favorite cloud observation submissions from the past week from all around the world. 

• Video

Comments