Resolving to Begin a Regular Science Activity

Forrest M. Mims III

The arrival of 2007 is an occasion for all of us to take stock of where we stand. For me it's also a time to review my personal measurements program.

New Years Day of 1990 seems like only yesterday in retrospect. That's when I committed to begin a regular program to monitor the sky over the field outside my little office. The instruments were almost ready, for I had begun building and testing them as far back as 1988. But I had not planned on committing to making regular observations until after writing several installments of "The Amateur Scientist" for Scientific American.

That was 17 years ago, and I continue to make the basic observations begun in 1990. Many other observations are also made.

This editorial is a challenge for more amateur scientists to initiate their own measurements or observation program. This is nothing new, for hundreds of thousands of citizen scientists observe and count birds, monitor the weather, measure variable stars, search for comets and so forth. The question of the hour is what is your observation program?

Once you decide on a program of observations, you'll likely find that it will replace time wasted in front of the TV. You will also find that adding to your observations is a challenge. Who knows what you will find?

The rewards of a regular measurements program are many and unexpected. If you stay with your program for more than a few years, you just find find yourself an expert in whatever field you have selected. You might even find yourself writing scientific notes and articles. That's been my experience.

In May 1988 I designed an instrument that measures the sun's ultraviolet (UV). A NASA scientist said that a pair of these could measure the ozone layer, so I built such a gadget. It measured the ozone layer well enough to find a problem with NASA's ozone satellite.

Both ozone and haze can reduce UV, so I built an instrument that measures haze. Water vapor increases natural haze and haze from coal-burning power plants, so I built an instrument to measure water vapor.

All these instruments work by measuring sunlight. They have done this around noon on most days since February 4, 1990, at a field near Seguin that I call Geronimo Creek Observatory.

Much has happened in the sky over South Texas during these 17 years, some of which I've described in scientific journals and at www.forrestmims.org and www.sunandsky.org. Figure 1 shows a subset of the data measured at or near local solar noon on days when the sun was not obscured by clouds. The time series of data shown in Fig. 1 is for temperature and aerosol optical thickness (haze).

Figure 1. Shown here are temperatures (red) and haze (blue) measured at noon from a field near Seguin since 1990. Temperature and haze peak during summer and decline during winter. The Pinatubo volcano reduced temperature and increased haze. All measurements were made when the sun was not obscured by obvious clouds. These data are provisional and subject to revision. Graphic and data by Forrest M. Mims III.

Soon after starting to measure the sun and sky, I began detecting massive dust storms arriving from North Africa.

Then there are the regular visitations of smoke from distant places. During spring smoke arrives from Mexico and Central America. During fall smoke comes from the Louisiana sugar cane harvest. We've also received smoke from Alaska, Canada and even Vietnam.

Mount Pinatubo is a giant volcano in the Philippine Islands that erupted in June 1991. It spewed 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere.

For several years the Pinatubo cloud obscured sunlight and reduced the earth's temperature. The cloud also caused brilliant, long lasting twilights. It even left its mark in the rings of some of the trees I study. So did the 1997 El Niño, which reduced temperature at my country site more than in San Antonio.

We pollute our air when we drive to work, fly planes, make cement and burn coal to make electricity. But our contribution to dirty air can be dwarfed by massive regional pollution events. These occur when Mexico has an especially smoky burning season and when air from industries and power plants in the Tennessee and Ohio valleys blows across Texas . On some such days the air violates EPA standards before it even arrives.

All this has been measured from a field outside the tiny farm house that serves as my country office. There I've watched the ozone layer continue its recovery to the pre-Pinatubo years. Water vapor still remains lower than during the 1990s. But during 2006 we had less smoke and dust than in most years.

The main concern is an upward trend in haze, even on winter days that were formerly as clean as mountain air. This phenomenon is called “global dimming,” and it is also noticeable at Hawaii's Mauna Loa Observatory 3,400 meters (11,200 feet) over the Pacific Ocean .

The clear, blue Canadian sky that blew over South Texas on Christmas day was not quite as clear or blue as it was 17 years ago. I would never have know this or many other facts about the status of the sky over my field had I not resolved to begin this program back in 1990.

Please join the many thousands of amateur scientists who also conduct regular measurement and observation programs. After you decide on the program you plan to pursue, send a note to "Backscatter" to share your project with fellow amateur scientists. For faster feedback, post your questions and comments on the SAS Community Forum.