David R. Brooks, PhD

President Institute for Earth Science Research and Education 2686 Overhill Drive Eagleville, Pennsylvania 19403 USA Phone: 610-584-5619 E-mail: brooksdr@instesre.org

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.

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!

You can now use your PayPal account to purchase instruments from IESRE.

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.)

Opportunity to Publish Student Climate Research

Another venue for publishing student articles, including original research as well as other kinds of articles about science topics, might also be of interest: Journys: Journal of Youths in Science

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.