The GLOBE/Netherlands office is in Utrecht, famous for its medieval Dom Tower and its beautiful canals. In April, 2002, I had the opportunity to visit three GLOBE schools in the Netherlands. The weather was (so I was told) unusually cooperative, with good conditions for making sun photometer measurements when I was at two of the three schools. At these schools, we were also able to check the calibration of sun photometers against a reference instrument.
The schools we visited were the equivalent of U.S. middle and high schools. Each has several hundred students and is located in an urban area. Air quality and other environmental concerns are important in each of these cities.
In this picture, I'm working with students at College Blaucapel, Utrecht, to check the calibration of their sun photometer. These students are at level 4, equivalent to a sophomore in US high schools. The student with her back to the camera is planning to make aerosol measurements until she graduates, to fulfill the school requirement for a three-year(!) individual research project.
Although you can't see the logo in this picture, I'm wearing a very cool GLOBE/Netherlands shirt given to me by Yvette Bellens, Assistant GLOBE Coordinator for the Netherlands. Yvette and Stephanie Stockman, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, accompanied me on this trip.
In this picture, on the rooftop observation site at Christelijk College
de Populier, Den Haag, students are making sun photometer measurements
while GLOBE teacher Arjan van der Meij and I look at landmarks on the
horizon that students can use to determine the clarity of the sky.
I'm holding the reference sun photometer I used to check the calibration
of school instruments in the Netherlands. At this school, Drs. Meij will
teach the same class, now at level 4 (equivalent to sophomores in U.S.
high schools), until they graduate, and they will
continue to be responsible for aerosol and other GLOBE measurements during that time. (The "Drs." title means that Mr. Meij is a doctoral degree candidate.)
Folkert Boersma, from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), organized this trip. The students at College De Populier, who gave a very well-organized PowerPoint presentation on their work, in English, have a web page describing our visit, with text in English and many pictures.
At Bernard Nieuwentijt College in Amsterdam, GLOBE teacher T. Reckman explains how his
students record sun photometer measurements through an open window in their classroom.
When everyone is ready, the student holding the sun photometer (wearing purple shirt,
partially hidden) points the instrument at the sun and keeps the sun aligned on the rear
bracket's alignment spot while another student records the voltage readings. (The yellow voltmeter is sitting on the table.) At this school, GLOBE measurements are done by a "GLOBE club" of volunteer students.
When I looked at the information about this school on GLOBE's web site, my first reaction was that the site elevation of -1 meter must be a mistake. I then remembered that much of Amsterdam really is below sea level!