Be A Citizen Scientist

Volunteer opportunities

Observe your world. Help the planet. Be a citizen scientist for NOAA.

By NOAA.

Help NOAA predict, observe and protect our changing planet by making your own contributions toward a greater understanding of our Earth and its diverse systems. Whether it’s helping count whales in Hawaii or reporting on weather right outside your window, we’ve got a volunteer opportunity for you.

We work with a diverse set of partners to coordinate the citizen science opportunities we offer. See these links below for some of our citizen science programs or search this siteoffsite link (select NOAA under “Agency Sponsor”) to find both national and local NOAA volunteer opportunities.

Weather

Trained storm spotters and weather observers support NOAA’s mission of climate monitoring and protecting life and property through accurate weather and water forecasts and warnings.

  • SKYWARN® Storm Spotter: Help keep your community safe by volunteering to become a trained severe storm spotter for NOAA’s National Weather Service. There is even an easy-to-use online community reporting tool, NWS StormReporter, which promotes the rapid delivery of coastal storm damage information to emergency management personnel and others across New England.
  • Daily Weather Observer: Join a national network of Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) volunteers who record and report weather and climate observations to the National Weather Service on a daily basis over the phone or Internet. The National Weather Service provides training, equipment, and additional support through equipment maintenance and site visits. Not only does the data support daily weather forecasts and warnings, but they also contributed toward building the nation’s historic climate record.
  • Precipitation Reporter: If you like to track rain, hail and snow, you may want to join the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Networkoffsite link (CoCoRaHS), a nationwide community-based network of volunteers who measure and help map precipitation. NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory has a similar program, the Precipitation Identification Near the Ground project (PING), where you can report on the type of — but you do not need to measure — precipitation you are encountering at any given time or location. PING volunteers can spend a little or a lot of time making and recording ground truth observations using the PING project website or mobile phone app.

NOAA also needs your help in analyzing historic weather and other environmental data:

  • Old Weather Arctic Project: Since 2010, NOAA, National Archives and Records Administration, and other partners have been seeking volunteers to transcribe a newly digitized set of ship logs containing weather, sea ice and other environmental observations dating back to 1850 and the World War II era. The project will improve understanding of our global climate and appeal to a wide array of scientists from other fields – historians, genealogists, as well as current members and veterans of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard.

READ more at https://www.noaa.gov/work-with-us/volunteer-opportunities-citizen-scientists