Dr. Rogers with students.

NASA Help with homework

NASA scientists visited Auckland’s Henderson Valley Primary School on February 15 to assist students with their science class weather observations. Scientists Matt Rogers and Peter Falcon are working on NASA’s CloudSat mission, a programme studying the properties of clouds using space-based cloud radar.

“The mission involves a global network of schools all sharing their observations with our team of scientists,” said Matt. “School children are trained to make accurate cloud and weather observations; they make these observations on days when the CloudSat satellite passes over their schools and then send in their data to our collection site in the US.” The data provided by schools is then checked against the satellite observations to gauge its accuracy. The NASA team has already visited schools in Dunedin and Gisborne during their trip to New Zealand, which is being coordinated by the Royal Society of New Zealand … (photos)