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.

David Brooks has written two online applications for accessing and displaying hourly data from any site in NOAA's Climate Reference Network. All data through the end of 2012 are available. The first application accesses CRN data in the publicly available data sets available online. Click here to use this application.       The second application provides text output and graphical displays for solar insolation data, including standard deviations which are not available in the CRN datasets. (We thank NCDC for providing IESRE with these data.) See links on the application regarding the interpretation of "standard deviations." The application also calculates clear sky insolation using a simple model available elsewhere on this website. Click here to use this application.       For information about the USCRN project, go to this NOAA website. You can find a PDF version of a PowerPoint presentation about these data HERE. If you have questions about these applications, please contact David Brooks.

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.

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
• (for information about monitoring surface radiating temperature, see this link.)