NASA Wants You to Take Pictures of Clouds

NASA has its head in the clouds. The agency just put out a call for help to smartphone users and cloud enthusiasts around the globe, asking them to collect data on clouds.

The new CloudSpotter app allows users to capture photos of clouds and try to identify their type. Eventually the data is used to adjust NASA’s Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument. Once saved in the app, the information is zipped off to the Cloud Appreciation Society (yes, there is an entire society dedicated solely to appreciating clouds), where the cloud type is correctly identified and the information passed to CERES.

“NASA needs to compare ground observations of the clouds with the ones their CERES instruments make from above in order to calibrate the satellite equipment and improve the accuracy of the inferences it makes about the cloud cover as it passes over,” Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society and co-creator of CloudSpotter, told me.

The team at NASA will use the information in conjunction with satellite images of clouds to observe trends. CERES can download the anonymous data from CloudSpotter that corresponds to the locations and times the satellite equipment passes over.

“The connection [with CERES] wasn't the reason for creating the app — we made it just for the fun of cloudspotting and learning about the sky — but we realized that it would be a shame not to put the growing collection of data to some sort of scientific use,” Pretor-Pinney said. Photographer Kai Goldmann is the other mastermind behind the app.

Of course, app users aren’t just left on their own to be cloud experts. The app handholds users through all the steps so they can make informed decisions about cloud type. One feature is the Cloud Library, which offers reference images and descriptions of different types of clouds. Users can also get hints with the Cloud Identifier, a tool that spits out possible cloud types based on a series of questions about the sightings.

Cloudspotter offers 40 different cloud species and light phenomena (including descriptions and photos) as a way to further our understanding of global weather patterns and climate change. Low clouds--cumulus, stratus and stratocumulus, for example--reflect away the sun’s heat rather than trap in warmth. Higher sitting clouds--cirrus, cirrostratus and cirrocumulus--have more of a greenhouse effect, trapping in more of the Earth’s warmth compared to how much they reflect.

“What is going to happen as global temperatures continue to rise?" Pretor-Pinney asked. "Will there be more clouds or fewer? The answers are unclear and so clouds are the 'wild cards' in climatologists’ attempts to model our changing climate."

I took the app for a quick test run to see just how it plays. Although it's criminally gorgeous in New York City this afternoon--not a cloud in the sky--the interface is smooth and easy to navigate, the photos are clear, the descriptions detailed and the return speedy. Within seconds the app was able to tell me that the small cloud I captured belonged to the cumulus family. The best part was seeing photos of clouds snapped by other users, so I got a chance to see just how shitty my own photography skills are. But hey, at least now I can say I've contributed to NASA.