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my land covered career really started in

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2002 with biggest wildfire in oregon's

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history and that was the biscuit

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wildfire i at the time was doing botany

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surveys and looking for rare plants or

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rare mushrooms and so i was spending a

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lot of time out on the on the forest

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looking at and taking photos and doing

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the documentation that a scientist or

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land manager does when that fire

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happened

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it changed everything because we all had

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to react to this fire that was burning

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up some of the places that i'd literally

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been the day before

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and it was mapping what was there and

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what was under threat but it was also

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mapping the effects of the fire we

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needed to find a way to look across 500

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000 acres and the only way that we could

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really do that was satellite data

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if we can't get out and actually measure

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every single thing what are we missing

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and that's where citizen scientists can

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actually come in and really help

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traditional scientists to better

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understand what is happening around them

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the global learning and observations to

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benefit the environment program is an

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international science and education

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program

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it provides students and the public with

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the opportunity to participate in data

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collection and the scientific process

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the globe observer app is one of these

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opportunities allowing citizen

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scientists and students to take land

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cover observations around the world and

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but what exactly is land cover

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dr eric brown to colston of nasa's

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goddard space flight center explains

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land cover is really the basic form of

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the landscape that we have around us

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so whether it's a forest or a desert

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but it's really one of the components of

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the landscape that we can study from

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space

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peter nelson is a scientist who uses

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land cover imagery in his research i am

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a remote sensing scientist who studies

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land cover across the globe

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i use satellite imagery to make maps of

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land cover and try to quantify what

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covers the earth

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sometimes the satellite can't see what's

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happening underneath a tree canopy or

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what's happening underneath cloud cover

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and so we really need people to go out

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there and to take these photos to do

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these observations to help fill in where

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a satellite can't actually make some

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observations just like any digital

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photograph land cover images are made up

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of a series of pixels to show what

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covers the earth a pixel or picture

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elements is the smallest unit of a

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digital image when combined with

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thousands of other pixels

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a picture is formed

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each pixel color shown represents a land

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cover type

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it's from these pixels where ground

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verification or ground truthing come

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into play

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you see depending on what satellite is

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taking images a pixel can cover roughly

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an area 30 to 500 meters squared

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for imagery captured by landsat a pixel

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is 30 meters squared or about the size

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of a baseball diamond

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however part of the pixel showing forest

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by taking land cover observations

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citizen scientists can help answer these

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questions when it comes to land cover

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maps

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so why are these land cover observations

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why are they taken in the first place

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we also are looking at how these

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components are changing over time so

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deforestation in the amazon or across

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the world our city is expanding

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a lot of different things to study and

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and really the view from space is the

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way that we do it here in nasa we have

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big supercomputers that simulate

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the physics of the atmosphere and the

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land the interaction between the earth's

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systems

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it's important to have that

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you know the that land cover map it sets

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certain parameters

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those models can actually be used to

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look at

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current day conditions and weather so

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based on these current conditions

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what might

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the earth look like

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50 or 100 years from now

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there's an element of

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understanding

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but then also being able to predict

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into the future

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you know what that might be like what

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what these changes may mean for us

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each point shown here represents a real

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world measurement of environmental

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conditions

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scientists use computer models to fill

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in information where measurements may

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not exist

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by verifying the satellite imagery and

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using the data for these models

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scientists can predict changes in our

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environment more accurately

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one of these scientists using land cover

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maps to track urbanization as part of

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her work is dr amita mehta of nasa's

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goddard space flight center

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so urbanization changes terrain as well

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as characteristics of the surface itself

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and so impervious surface is what we

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look at when we are monitoring flooding

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when there are say parking lots or

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cement and concrete surfaces they

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increase so previously if it was a

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farmland or

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something which was not built

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and if that is built now

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that water previously that could go or

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percolate in the soil and in the

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ground now cannot go in and it stays

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there

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monitoring helps you to plan for it

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if you see

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land cover changing even then you know

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that you know how water is going to flow

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in that region might change if you have

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to send rescue out or to plan for relief

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activities then if you know land cover

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then you know

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where there might be help needed

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by using land cover maps and models that

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reflect changes over time

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scientists can predict where flooding

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with a changing climate these

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predictions from models and land cover

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maps can help scientists better

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understand these changes and help

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communities prepare for them

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but perhaps a more important reason as

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to why take land cover observations is

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you get to participate in a community of

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scientists citizen scientists and

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students

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so it's a very important component that

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the citizen science and students of the

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globe program and globe observer can

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contribute to

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is by really giving us

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the information on the ground of what

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they're seeing

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around them and in front of them and we

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hope over time as well how maybe some of

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these things are changing because those

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would be very valuable for science

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i saw the value of having information

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before a hazard happens because once

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that fire went through an area we could

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never recreate that data

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this is all important for us to share

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and put together because that's how we

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understand earth as a system

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all of these things end up affecting

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where we live why we live where we do

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and why we make some of the choices that

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we do

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to learn more about globe observer check

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out the website at observer.globe.gov

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and download the app to start taking