Forrest Mims' Science Experiments

Chapter 19 Record Your World from a Picture Post

Scenic photos of storms, clouds, sunsets, mountains, and beaches are loaded with data about the natural world. Even pictures of backyards and parks can provide valuable environmental information.

For decades, NOAA and NASA satellites have collected images of the Earth from space. In recent years, ground-based webcams have captured views of scenic sites around the world. But organized sequences of high-resolution landscape and sky photos taken of the same scene over several years or more are not that common. This lack provides an important opportunity for amateur scientists to fill a huge data void. All that’s necessary is a digital camera and a platform to place it on, so that it can be used ...