Increasing resiliency and preparedness for weather and climate extremes now and in the future across the South-Central United States
Field Photo weekends
We all take observations of the weather each day, but have you ever wondered how the weather relates to the world around us? Our data can tell us a lot about balance. Is there enough rain or too much? Is the hailstorm big enough to cause damage? How is the snowpack doing and what will that mean for next year's water supply? But to truly understand the relationship between weather and our landscape, nothing beats a set of eyes.
We invite you to participate in an event to create a national picture of our landscapes. We would like to get as many observers as we can to take pictures of water bodies, fields, forests, or any other facet of our environment that you believe represents the conditions around you. It could be a picture of your favorite fishing hole, a nearby farmer's field, or a nice secluded spot amongst the trees. All of these landscapes are affected by rainfall, or in the case of many places this year, the lack thereof. So why are we doing this?
First of all, it is wonderful to be able to appreciate nature's beauty and to be able to see the world around us. But having everyone taking pictures at approximately the same time allows us to see this landscape as it relates to the things we measure - how it compares to the amounts of rain that have fallen or if it looks like we might expect according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Is the land around you as green as the satellite seems to think?
This is the first of what we hope will become a somewhat regular event. So while the weather around you may seem normal this year, these photos might give you (and us) a point of reference for what is maybe different next year or in another season. There is no obligation to participate in future Field Photo Weekends, so we encourage everyone to give this one a try and see how it goes.
Taking Photos
So what makes a good picture for a project like this? Photos should tell the story of the field or landscape, anything that you feel is representative of the world around you. Just as you do not find the deepest snowdrift for your snowfall measurements, you should not find the vegetation that is in the worst condition for your pictures. We want to see what it may look like walking through a field, where some things may be in better condition than others. So if you see a dead tree, a bunch of trees that are dropping some leaves, and a heavily watered tree with lush green leaves, we want the picture showing the ones dropping leaves.
Photos can be of any of the following:
- A water body, showing how much water it is currently holding and where the natural bank might be. For example, a farm pond showing the ring of bare soil around it that is usually submerged.
- A tree, showing the health of its leaves. It may be a tree in your front yard, one in a nearby park, or something over in the woods, whatever you think tells the story about how it is faring this year.
- A field, such as a pasture, meadow, or crops. After all, this is "Field Photo Weekends". The photo should show whether vegetation is brown or green, if soil is becoming exposed, if seeds are burnt up, or if vines are withering.
- A panorama, or series of pictures from a single spot looking in each direction (north, east, south, and west - and down!). The panorama is a good way to get a "big picture" of the land around you, especially if you think you might participate in another Field Photos Weekend in the future. Be sure to pick somewhere that is nearby but fairly open. A bunch of houses will not tell us about how wet or dry it is. Tips for making great panoramas.
What you need to participate
All you need is a camera. Any old camera will do, but if you have a camera with GPS capability or a smartphone, that would be even better. CoCoRaHS has teamed with The University of Oklahoma's Earth Observation and Modeling Facility (EOMF) and the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP) to collect and archive all of these photos. All you need to do is to go out,
Between February 16 and 18, snap a few pictures, and send them to us.
Smartphones or GPS Cameras
If you are using a SmartPhone or GPS camera, make sure "location services" is turned on. This will automatically encode the picture's latitude, longitude and direction you are looking. To turn on location services, go to your phone's settings and you should see "Location Services" in the menu. When you select this, you will get a list of applications that use location services, each with an on/off switch. Make sure camera and compass are both turned on. If you feel better not having your phone know where you are, you can turn these off again after taking the pictures. The embedded latitude and longitude will help us from having to estimate from a map, which could save us hours in processing time.
Submitting your photos
Simply e-mail them to fieldphotos@southernclimate.org and SCIPP will do the rest. The photos will be uploaded to the EOMF website, www.eomf.ou.edu/photos. We do need a little information from you so that we can place them properly on a map:
- Description of where the photo was taken, as detailed as possible. For example, northwest corner of Highway 9 and Jenkins in Norman, Oklahoma, looking west.
- The date the photo was taken
- Your CoCoRaHS station number (we want to give due credit!)
If you prefer to upload and manage your photos directly, visit the EOMF website and register for an account. This will let you set privacy settings, edit your photos to provide additional detail, or upload other photos from other locations or times of the year. The more photos that are in the EOMF archive, the better will be our ability to ground-truth all of the weather and environmental data that we collect. Please add #CoCoRaHS to any photos in the Field Notes section so we can identify those related to this project.
Note that your name or e-mail address will not appear with the photos or on any website. SCIPP will provide a list of those who contributed to CoCoRaHS and will not maintain any records themselves. So your e-mail is safe.
Viewing the Photos
As we upload the photos, they will appear on the, EOMF website. Select cocorahs as the user and then "submit". Anything from this project will come up. We are working on a map interface so you can click on a location and see the photos, so check back here to see when that is available.
Questions
If you have questions along the way, please e-mail SCIPP at fieldphotos@southernclimate.org SCIPP will help clarify any questions about taking, uploading or viewing photos.
We want this to be a fun experience for everyone and give everyone a chance to see what it looks like near where we all take our observations each day. We hope that you will be as excited about participating as we are in hosting this.
