For Release: Oct. 5, 1997
Release No. 97-119
1981 East Lansing High School Grad Now NASA Scientist
Scientist Teaches Local Students to Observe Clouds for NASA
NASA scientist Dr. Lin Chambers, a1981 graduate of East Lansing High School, is returning to her hometown to teach local students how to observe clouds for NASA's latest Earth-observing satellite project. The Students' Cloud Observations On-Line (S'COOL) project is part of a satellite experiment that will begin later this year with the launch of an instrument developed by researchers at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., where Chambers is stationed.
From Oct. 6-8, Chambers will work with students at Marble School in East Lansing; Murphy Elementary in Haslett; Galewood Elementary and Charlotte High School in Charlotte; and the Potterville Junior and Senior High Schools. Chambers will teach students how to observe the weather and various types of clouds that form over their school, and how to send their observations to a NASA computer in Virginia. Early next year, the fully-trained students' will make cloud observations that NASA can compare to its new satellite instrument. Chambers and her NASA Langley colleagues are training students worldwide to observe clouds for the project.
The new NASA satellite experiment, the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument, will provide global data on the Earth's clouds and energy budget. CERES will be launched in late 1997 aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission observatory as part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program. Scientists are trying to determine what effects clouds have on the balance of incoming solar energy and outgoing heat energy from the Earth. The CERES measurements will help scientists better understand this balance and determine any future changes that may occur.
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