“Help scientists transcribe Arctic and worldwide weather observations recorded in ship’s logs since the mid-19th century.”

We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some neat science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

This is an interesting citizen science project, contributing the work only humans can do: reading hand written ship logs and transcribing them so computers can read them, and scientists can access the information! It may not be the glamorous side of research, but provides a valuable link between data collection and data analysis. And who knows what you might have the chance to read? You could find some unknown excitement in this material!

“The Project

Old Weather volunteers explore, mark, and transcribe historic ship’s logs from the 19th and early 20th centuries. We need your help because this task is impossible for computers, due to diverse and idiosyncratic handwriting that only human beings can read and understand effectively.

By participating in Old Weather you’ll be helping advance research in multiple fields. Data about past weather and sea-ice conditions are vital for climate scientists, while historians value knowing about the course of a voyage and the events that transpired. Since many of these logs haven’t been examined since they were originally filled in by a mariner long ago you might even discover something surprising.

About the Science

Millions of weather, ocean, and sea-ice observations recorded by mariners and scientists over the past 150 years are being recovered by Old Weather. These data are made freely available in digital formats suitable for climate model assimilation, retrospective analysis (reanalysis), and other kinds of research. The performance of data-assimilating modeling and extended reanalysis systems is greatly improved, the uncertainty of results (especially in sparsely observed regions like the Arctic) is reduced, and new long-period calibration and validation data sets are being created. As the historical data resource is extended farther back in time it will be possible to study a wider range of weather and climate phenomena and to better understand their impact on the Arctic and global environment, now and in the future.”

How can you bring this into your library, beyond just reading about or participating in this project? We have a few ideas to help you get started:

• Set up a display of books on weather, meteorology, and weather forecasting
• Set up a display of books on ships, boating, and ocean explorers
• Write a report on an interesting ocean explorer or mariner
• Look up the weather forecast for your area over the next week; write it down, then check it later to see how accurate it was. What are some factors that might have changed to alter it?
• Make a chart of your weather each day
• Find some maps of water in your area. Can you plan out a trip across a lake?
• Draw a ship; any kind is okay, but sailboats are good practice
• What kind adventure could you plan out yourself? Can you take an adventure across town? Across the state? To a park? Something interesting in your area?