The space agency recently added a new feature to its public GLOBE Observer app called GLOBE Trees that allows people to measure trees on the ground using their smartphone. To do so, users stand 25 to 75 feet away from a tree and, holding the phone in front of their face, aim the camera first at the base of the tree and then its top. Then they take a picture, count their steps to the tree and log their position. The app then uses all of this information to determine the tree’s height, which NASA can compare to its own data to see if its satellite is correct.
Why does NASA want people to take pictures of trees?
Answer: Because the agency would like help checking its work.
Rather than flooding our Instagrams with pretty tree pictures until they all start to look the same, how about we flood a different app with them to benefit science. NASA could use a hand making sure its ICESat-2 satellite is correctly measuring tree height, and its turning to the smartphone-wielding public masses to do so.
The space agency recently added a new feature to its public GLOBE Observer app called GLOBE Trees that allows people to measure trees on the ground using their smartphone. To do so, users stand 25 to 75 feet away from a tree and, holding the phone in front of their face, aim the camera first at the base of the tree and then its top. Then they take a picture, count their steps to the tree and log their position. The app then uses all of this information to determine the tree’s height, which NASA can compare to its own data to see if its satellite is correct.
The space agency recently added a new feature to its public GLOBE Observer app called GLOBE Trees that allows people to measure trees on the ground using their smartphone. To do so, users stand 25 to 75 feet away from a tree and, holding the phone in front of their face, aim the camera first at the base of the tree and then its top. Then they take a picture, count their steps to the tree and log their position. The app then uses all of this information to determine the tree’s height, which NASA can compare to its own data to see if its satellite is correct.
