Student/Teacher Page for GoMACCS Projects

This Web page is provided for the benefit of participants in the workshop held at the University of Houston in August, 2006, under the sponsorship of NOAA and the University of Houston. For questions and/or comments, please contact David Brooks.

Current Data Reporting Sites

School	Contact	Latitude	Longitude
Bellaire High School	Ann Linsley	29.717	-95.353
The Chinquapin School	Brian Lamore	29.82	-95.02
Our Lady of Fatima School	Barbara Brehmer	29.738693	-95.238925
Paul Revere Middle School	Cathi Jack	29.748342	-95.560489
University of Houston, Moody Tower (AERONET site)	Barry Lefer	29.7177	-95.3416

Calibration Constants for GoMACCS Two-Channel Sun Photometers

Serial Number	V_0,green	V_0,red
RG8-612	1.1004	2.1974
RG8-619	1.8361	2.1110
RG8-620	1.7667	1.2206
RG8-621	1.9905	1.6350
RG8-622	1.9419	1.4537
RG8-623	2.5951	1.0707
RG8-624	1.9019	1.9212
RG8-625	2.3944	1.6144

Link to instructions for viewing and downloading AERONET data:
Link to sun photometer training PowerPoint file.

Barbara Brehmer has recently told me about the simple particulate sampler she is using with her students -- just an index card smeared with petroleum jelly. This is a very useful supplement to sun photometer measurements, and should help maintain your students' interest when the weather isn't cooperating. I have provided some additional thoughts about making a particle collector, here.

AOT Results

These graphs shows AOT results from all data reported, unless there were obvious problems in the data or problems reported by the observers, along with AERONET data from the University of Houston. The handheld sun photoemter results include an average ozone optical thickness correction of -0.01 for the green channel and -0.03 for the red channel. There are a lot of missing AERONET data, which indicates that this is a difficult location for sun photometry during this time of year. The GLOBE sun photometer data for the green channel (505 nm) should be essentially the same as the nearest AERONET channel (500 nm), and the GLOBE red channel (625 nm) should be a little higher than the nearest AERONET channel (675 nm).

AOT results from RG8-619

These results are provided by Barbara Brehmer, with the same ozone corrections. I have eliminated some data where there were obvious reporting problems. The data on 7 September are in excellent agreement with AERONET.

AOT results from RG8-620

These data are provided by Brian Lamore. They sometimes track very nicely the limited AERONET data available starting on the 19th. The very tightly clustered AOT values indicate both good technique and appropriate viewing conditions, with no clouds moving around the sun. Because of the apparent quality of these handheld data, the AOT differences with AERONET on September 23, 25 (major disagreement!), and 30 should be investigated further. These data may indicate significant real differences on a relatively small spatial scale, which is exactly what this project is looking for.

AOT results from RG8-625

These data are provided by Ann Linsley-Kennedy In some cases the agreement is quite reasonable, but in other cases there is too much "scatter" in the handheld sun photometer data. It may be possible to apply some more restrictive quality control criteria to the handheld data. The most likely source of this scatter is cloud contamination. Note that there are some handheld sun photometer data at times when AERONET declined to do the AOT calculation. Although it is possible that AERONET data might be added as a result of future processing, it is much more likely that some existing AERONET data would be removed. In any event, the problems with the handheld sun photometer data, whatever their source, are consistent with the fact that AERONET is also having problems deciding when it should and shouldn't calculate AOT.