David R. Brooks, PhD
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President
Institute for Earth Science Research and Education
2686 Overhill Drive
Eagleville, Pennsylvania 19403 USA
Phone: 610-584-5619
E-mail: brooksdr@instesre.org
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Much of the work described on this site has been made possible by support from the National
Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Oceanic
& Atmospheric Administration. Click here for policy statements concerning this website. |
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Praying Mantis, Sphodromantis viridis (?)
September 21, 2012. It's praying mantis season,
with many of these creatures around our house
and garden. This one, on a window frame, is
eating a stinkbug, which we consider to be an
especially useful task!
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 | You can now use your
PayPal account to purchase instruments from IESRE. |
Notes from a Temperate Climate. A site dedicated
to students, teachers, and my friends living in Thailand's tropical climate.
PDF versions of Brooks' PowerPoint presentations from June 2012 GLOBE/Europe-Eurasia Annual Meeting, Utrecht, The Netherlands:
• A History of Student Sun Photometry
• Student Pyranometry
• Cell Phone Application to Analyze Black Carbon
• (for information about monitoring surface radiating temperature,
see this link.)
NEW!
| Opportunity to Publish Student Climate Research |  |
A collaboration between Harvard University's Journal of Emerging Investigators (http://emerginginvestigators.org/) and the NASA/NICE Climate Science Research for Educators and Students project directed by the Institute for Earth Science Research and Education (http://www.instesre.org/GCCE/GCCEHome.htm) provides a new opportunity for middle- and secondary-school students to publish their original climate research.
JEI is an open-access peer-reviewed online journal whose mission is to encourage authentic student research. In addition to standalone research papers, JEI also encourages students who are developing science fair projects to submit journal articles based on these projects. More information, with guidelines for submitting manuscripts, including some practical suggestions for converting a science fair project into a journal article submission, can be found
HERE.
For more information, contact David Brooks (brooksdr@instesre.org) at IESRE or
Sarah Fankhauser (questions@emerginginvestigators.org) at JEI.
Links to some other useful and interesting sites:
In light of recent controversy surrounding poor siting of many "official" weather stations
around the country, this link to information about sites in Pennsylvania, with photos from 1983
and 2003, is very interesting: http://pasc.met.psu.edu/PA_Climatologist/cooptan/.
Almost without exception, the quality of these sites is good and the surrounding environment has not
changed significantly.
| This graph of barometric pressure recorded during Hurricane Irene in 2011
and "super storm" Sandy in 2013 dramatically illustrates the passage of
these storms through our area. Many sites, including a small airport site near IESRE were
not operational during the height of Sandy. Amazingly, we did not lose electrical
power during either of these storms even though both storms resulted in widespread
power losses – millions of people throughout the northeast lost power
during Sandy. | 
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Intute, a site maintained by a consortium of UK universities, is an excellent site for searching for
information about science topics, among other things. It contains brief but helpful
descriptions of each site referenced.
Presentations from the Asia-Pacific Regional GLOBE Learning Expedition, Hua Hin, Thailand, 13-18 November, 2007:
Student Climate Change Research, 2008-09 version (9.4 MB PowerPoint document)
Spreadsheet model for "designing" your own planet
Our Fox Family, 2006
Calculate solar
position and the time of solar noon at your coordinates.
Set your watch or clock
accurately. Use the UTC "time zone" to display the internationally accepted time for
reporting scientific data.
Link to current
weather conditions in Pennsylvania (Get other states by changing "pa"
to another two-letter state code.)
Link to weather during past 24 hours at Wings Field, Blue Bell, Montgomery County, PA
Link to an excellent local weather and climate site.
My local weather and forecasts
(Look here for weather during past 24 hours at other places.)
Historical weather data
around the globe
More historical climate data around the globe
Link to satellite overpass predictor
Link to
DEP air quality monitoring information for Pennsylvania
Naval Research Lab's Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System Global
Aerosol Model (NAAPS)
NOAA description of
meteorological station model symbols (a interesting example of how to use clickable images)