First SMAP School in NJ – GLOBE/NASA
Thomas Edison EnergySmart Charter School participated in the GLOBE-SMAP Program. TEECS is a registered GLOBE school. NASA launched an Earth-observing satellite called Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) on January 31, 2015, and students from TEECS actively participated to contribution to the protocol. Its purpose is to measure soil moisture globally with a high level of accuracy. However, ground measurements are needed in order to validate the satellite remotely sensed measurements. To do this, the SMAP Team compared GLOBE in situ (on the ground) soil moisture data with satellite data to determine how close they were to each other. If the two datasets agreed then the SMAP Team could have confidence that the satellite measurements were correct. Students collected soil from different sites around Franklin Township to determine soil moisture data following the GLOBE SMAP Block Pattern Soil Moisture (Volumetric) Protocol and entered their data into the GLOBE science database. SMAP scientists and GLOBE students can view the student-¬collected data, through the GLOBE visualization tool, comparing them to the SMAP satellite data.
