Cadets Collect Atmospheric Observations With GLOBE Observer App

The Civil Air Patrol and NASA collaborate in the agency’s Aviation Weather Mission team to lead a nationwide project to advance scientific understanding of weather in the atmospheric layers where aircraft fly.

More than 3,800 CAP volunteers in 48 states and two U.S. territories collected atmospheric data and documented aircraft flight information using the GLOBE Observer app to provide NAS researchers with data that satellites alone cannot capture.

Using observations of how aircraft interact with the atmosphere, the volunteers are able to observe phenomena like the different types of contrails to enable NASA scientists to estimate temperature, humidity, and wind conditions at different levels of the atmosphere.

Capt. Shannon Babb, Rocky Mountain Region deputy chief of staff for aerospace education. “This is the type of data that NASA uses to improve the aviation weather forecasts that pilots rely on. But studying the layers of the atmosphere where aircraft fly is notoriously difficult and requires a high level of teamwork on a national scale.

“Luckily, Civil Air Patrol volunteers were uniquely suited to conduct this mission.”

The Aviation Weather Mission was conducted from April to July 2025 as a collaboration between the Civil Air Patrol and the NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative. CAP members from all eight national regions participated by tracking airplanes, reporting airport conditions, and collecting atmospheric observations including clouds and contrails.

During four four-hour observation periods, CAP members used the GLOBE Observer app’s cloud tool to record sky conditions, classify cloud types, and identify contrail types as they also gathered commercial aircraft details like registration numbers and altitudes.

Cadet 1st Lt. Kevin Reyes of the Puerto Rico Wing’s Ponce Cadet Squadron said, “Taking part in the Aviation Weather Mission with Civil Air Patrol was an experience I’ll never forget, one of those rare opportunities where passion, purpose and service all come together.

“With the GLOBE Observer app, I was able to use something as familiar as my phone and turn it into a scientific instrument, spending hours scanning the skies for aircraft and capturing them in motion. My efforts, combined with those of volunteers across the country, became part of a much bigger picture, contributing to scientific understanding that could have a global impact.”

The preliminary data captured during the collaborative mission is being processed and analyzed by the NASA GLOBE Clouds team at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

FMI:  www.cap.news/