space odyssey
09.05.14 volunteer update
Click below for quick access to:
Trainings and Meetings
Space Science Lectures & Events
Storytelling with Uniview
Volunteer Enrichment Committee (VEC) Events
Museum News and Lectures
space odyssey news
THANK YOU!
Thanks to all those who made it to the 2014 Space Odyssey dinner Thursday night! Thanks to all of you for your amazing work over the last year! And for those who couldn't make it, you were missed but we hope to see you next year.
CHANGE IN STAFF SCHEDULE IN SPACE ODYSSEY
Starting September 1, weekday staff will be checking in with you all at your morning briefings, then again at 1 PM to check-in with the afternoon team. Weekends, staff will check-in with you all at 10 AM and 1 PM. Here's the detailed schedule, please note that the "show" listing doesn't preclude volunteers from doing a show(s): Fall 2014 Staff Schedule in Space Odyssey
HELP NEEDED: FREE DAY MONDAY SEPTEMBER 8
If you're interested in helping out this day, please come on down, thanks in advance!
HELP NEEDED: NEW MEMBER NIGHT OCTOBER 2nd
These events are a ton of fun. We'll need help in Space Odyssey as well as with Telescopes. Please let me know if you're able to help out. The event will run from 6 PM to 9 PM, with briefing at 5 PM. Thanks and let me know!
SOS UPDATES
New: The two floor inputs near the SOS and the one near the Space Screen are mostly finished and ready for use. The video inputs work and can be utilized via the AMX control panel at the column near the SOS. The AMX panel at the SOS will be reconfigured in the near future to have a new, spacey look.
NOAA hopes to have the new SOS dataset library reorganization done by early 2015. If you'd like to see what the dataset Library might look like, click here: NOAA Proposed SOS Data Catalog
New: MAVEN playlist on the SOS: We've added a new playlist to the SOS thanks to Tom Kimball on the Wednesday PM team, and we'll have a portal page to go with it. It's a scripted show that can also be facilitated. If you'd like to learn about it, you can click here to visit the page on the NOAA site: ftp://public.sos.noaa.gov/extras/live_programs/maven/InvisibleMars_Final.pdf
New datasets on the SOS: The SOS NOAA folks have been busy adding loads of new great datasets to the catalog that are worth checking out. The majority of them fall under ecology, history, and human impact themes.
Remember you can always sort by "recently added" on the website to find them all quickly.
ClimateBits: Air Quality - 1:58 narrated overview of Earth's air quality from satellite measurements showing global maps of nitrogen dioxide pollution hot spots globally as connected to the source: electricity, transportation, etc.
Dams and Reservoirs 1800 - 2010, of the Mississippi, of the Yangtze (3 different datasets) - Humans have manipulated rivers for thousands of years, but over the last 200 years dams on rivers have become rampant. Reservoirs and dams are constructed for water storage, to reduce the risk of river flooding, and for the generation of power. They are one of the major footprints of humans on Earth and change the world's hydrological cycle.
Fisheries Species Richness - Species richness is a count of the number of different species in an ecological community. This map shows global distribution of 1066 commercially harvested marine fish and invertebrates. The places that are brightest in color are most rich and diverse. These are also the places moving forward will be watch closely for the health of the coral.
Fisheries Catch Model 2005 vs 2050 - With climate change, the health of our fisheries are threatened. This map shows percent change in global fisheries catch projected to occur by 2050 due to climate change.
Real-time FIM Chem Model - Three Aerosol Species - Using the FIM Chem model, we've been educating the public about black carbon and particulate atmospheric aerosols, paying particular attention to where the bright colors originate - pollution sources. NOW we can show them a forecast model of the next week by using the Real-Time version. Where might the air be clean or dirty in the week to come? Find out here.
Our Pale Blue Dot - The latest film by Victoria Weeks, featured at the SOS Users Collaborative Network Workshop. An SOS narrated movie serves as an introduction into looking at Earth from space and it inspires us to consider the value of doing so in light of our changing planet. Movie length: 7:38.
SOS Boulder's summer student intern made a few datasets using Q-GIS including some with multiple KML layers: Maps Across History,Marine Life Track, Earthquakes and Nuclear Power Plants, Global Statistics
El Nino and La Nina Impacts - We're coming up on our first El Nino year since the winter of '09-10. What does this mean for you where you are? This dataset will help you simply explain typical effects in both winter and summer from ENSO.
Aquaculture - A narrated movie made possible by AOP, this 5:44 movie addresses the importance of aquaculture - farming of aquatic species - as consumer demand of seafood increases with a growing global middle class, with the goal of revitalizing our over-fished oceans.
Real-time: Global Protests and Violence Against Civilians - The GDELT Project is "an initiative to construct a catalog of human societal-scale behavior and beliefs across all countries of the world, connecting every person, organization, location, count, theme, news source, and event across the planet into a single massive network that captures what's happening around the world, what its context is and who's involved, and how the world is feeling about it, every single day." Essentially the GDELT Project monitors the world's news media each day and uses sophisticated computer algorithms to compile from it a daily catalog of over 300 categories of events from attacks and protests to peace appeals and diplomatic exchanges. Dots pop up in places where violence is prevalent - the bigger the dot the larger the conflict.
Real-Time: Sea Surface Salinity Monthly - Aquarius, a space-based tool that studies the Earth's oceans, has been mapping surface salinity levels allowing unparalleled view of the global ocean circulation processes.
Real-Time Ocean Color Monthly - For a long time we have been using the Sea-Wifs dataset to demonstrate primary productivity in the ocean throughout the seasons. We now have a real-time (once monthly) version. Although the time resolution is once per month, the frames go back to 2002.
EXPERIMENT BAR UPDATE
The Olympus Mons/Hawaiian islands model has been spruced-up and we'll see how long it stays that way.
DMNS LANGUAGE SURVEY
What languages do you speak? We'd like to know, even if you only speak English. Please take this survey to let us know: DMNS Language Survey
MARS DIORAMA UPDATES
The Mars diorama will have a new computer input available soon to send laptop images up to the monitors there, not sure if audio will be available as well, stay tuned.
MOON PHASES CART REDUX
Still in progress...The Exhibits department wizards are working on reconfiguring the moon phases cart so that it's easier to set-up. So, you might walk into the storage room one day soon (not sure which day yet) and find it missing.
COLLEGE MATCH SCHOLARSHIP FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
SCFD COMMUNITY FREE DAYS
As part of the Museum's agreement to receive funds from SCFD, which account for a significant portion of the Museum's operating budget, the Museum offers "community free days" throughout the year to allow those who can't afford admission the privilege to visit DMNS. Below are the dates for the 2014 free days.
The Museum is offering 12 Community Free Days in 2014, made possible by the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District. For more information, click here.
- Monday, September 8
- Sunday, September 28
- Monday, October 27
- Monday, December 1
trainings and meetings
SCIENCE ON A SPHERE USER GROUP MEETING
Monday September 8
5:30 to 7:30 PM
Galaxy Stage and SOS
Food and drink provided
RSVP to Dave Blumenstock
On Monday at 5:30pm we willcoverSSUG's new directionsin light of NOAA's significant spring release.
Agenda:
SoS Core Team direction
Core team meeting update Ka Chun Yu
Demo: PC connections to back screens Matt Brownell
NOAA Spring release: Discussion
DatasetLibrary re-org, re-naming, iPad app ""
Directions for SSUG, next 6+ months ""
SoScontent development:
How to present growing body of SoS content?? Big questionDiscussion, recommendation to SoS Core Team
Completed Playlists ...
- normal-demo
- Tale of 3 Planets
- See The Seas
- Earth Cycles
- Plate Tectonics (informally)
- Climate ChangeKen Burke, Paul Belanger
- NOAA30 Education playlistsTom Kimball
See The People (Humans and the Earth) Bob Raynolds
See the Species(Animals and Plants) Bob
Human Migration on the Globe Mike Hitchcock, Mary Dowling
The Solar System, coord. with to Planetarium show Tom, Dave Romero
Air Qualityand other NOAA Education playlists Oriole Hart
Evolution & Mass Extinctions Jan Lyons, Sara Louviere
Monthly River of Datasets from NOAA Tom (latest arrivals)
NOAA SOS WEB-BASED TRAINING SEPT. 9
You're invited to join the American Museum of Natural History's upcoming Google+ Hangout about atmospheric carbon dioxide, featuring NOAA ESRL scientists Pieter Tans and Andy Jacobson and datasets from NOAA and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. We've developed a flat-screen visualization on Charles David Keeling's historic discovery of CO2's annual and long-term patterns,Keeling's Curve: The Story of CO2, and adaptedone year ofCO2 data for Science on a Sphere
DATE September 9, 2014 from 3:30 - 4:15 p.m. E.D.T.
RSVPEvent page on Google+
Hope to see you at the Hangout!
Laura Allen, AMNH
FULL DETAILS:
Keeling's Curve-The Story of CO2: A Google+ Hangout for Educators
Hang out with us-and NOAA atmospheric scientists-to learn more about the leading greenhouse gas. On September 9, 2014, from 3:30 - 4:15 p.m. E.D.T., AMNH Science Bulletins will host a Google+ Hangout about the past, present, and future of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The event will highlight a new AMNH data visualization,Keeling's Curve: The Story of CO2.
Participate to meet:
Pieter Tans, Senior Scientist at NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
Andy Jacobson, University of Colorado research scientist and NOAA lead for CarbonTracker at ESRL
AMNH Science Bulletins Editorial Producer Laura Allen will moderate.See CO2's patterns around the globe, learn how its rise was discovered, and hear about the significance of passing an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 400 parts per million.
The data visualization is designed for informal education at museums and science centers. Some of its datasets have also been formatted for NOAA'sScience on a Sphere(SOS)® spherical display system.The Hangout will also offer strategies for interpreting the visualization for educational audiences.
This visualization and professional development training is supported by NOAA.
space science lectures & events
MAVEN Arrives at Mars-Live!
Sunday
September 21, 2014
7:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission (MAVEN) will reach the end of its 10-month journey to Mars on September 21. Join Steve Lee, curator of planetary science, for live NASA TV coverage, commentary, and discussion as MAVEN performs an essential 38-minute "braking burn" of its thrusters to ensure the spacecraft is captured into orbit around the Red Planet. Over the next two years, MAVEN will look for clues to how the early warm, wet, and much thicker atmosphere on Mars evolved into the cold, dry, and thin atmosphere observed today-turning a planet once possibly habitable for microbial life into a frozen and inhospitable desert world.
All sales are final unless the Museum cancels the program.
RESERVATION INFO
Volunteers have the opportunity to attend most After Hours programs priced at the $8 member/ $10 nonmember rate for free on a space-available basis! Volunteers always receive the member rate for all other Adult Programs. As of May 12, please call Guest Services at 303.370.6000 to make a reservation.
Guest Services is open daily, 9:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Admission to 60 Minutes in Space is free and is on a first come, first seated basis.
On the evening of the program, please enter through the same entrance as our guests and pick up your ticket from the will-call cashier. Thank you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm for Adult Programs!
storytelling with uniview
by Dr. Ka Chun Yu, PhD Curator of Space Science DMNS
Ka Chun is not able to send in a new column this week, but you can read all of Ka Chun's previous columns on the Portal Training page under Storytelling with Uniview:
NOTE: If you're having issues viewing this column in Firefox, try using Safari or Explorer as those seem to show the column in the best quality. I'm not sure about Chrome.
volunteer enrichment committee
Click here for more information about VEC events:
Or see the bulletin board in the Volunteer Lounge for more info.
museum news
RESERVATION INFORMATION
Volunteers have the opportunity to attend most After Hours programs priced at the $8 member/ $10 nonmember rate for free on a space-available basis! Volunteers always receive the member rate for all other Adult Programs. As of May 12, please call Guest Services at 303.370.6000 to make a reservation. Guest Services is open daily, 9:00 - 5:00 p.m. Admission to 60 Minutes in Space is free and is on a first come, first seated basis.
On the evening of the program, please enter through the same entrance as our guests and pick up your ticket from the will-call cashier. Thank you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm for Adult Programs!
Click here for Evening Lectures
Click here for Museum IMAX information
Click here for Museum Planetarium Information
DaveBlumenstock
Coordinator of Volunteers for Space Science
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Phone 303.370.8344
Fax 303.370.6005
Join the Museum's Online Community