GLOBE collaborates with scientists and educators internationally to create opportunities for people of all ages to collect, submit and analyze data about Earth’s environment. As one of the instructors trained in the GLOBE program, I boarded the MIRAIE, a companion ship for the Japan-Palau Friendship Yacht Race 2024, and instructed young people in ocean literacy, leadership and collecting GLOBE data. The trainees and I were able to grow through this Tall Ship voyage while learning to sail and conducting meteorological observations and marine environmental surveys.

Two days anchored in Mikawa Bay on the Tall Ship MIRAIE taught me what sailors have always known: watch the clouds. Weather can change quickly. When the crew, instructors, and 20 young trainees from 12 countries set sail from Yokohama, Japan to Palau on 10 March 2024, the sky was clear. Mount Fuji glistened over the Yokohama skyline. During the next day, the youth recorded observations of thin and wispy cirrus clouds high above, with a halo around the sun. Quickly, a cumulonimbus cloud towered above Mount Fuji, winds shifted, and a line of towering clouds warned of a “squall line,” signaling unsafe seas. With the sky changing before our eyes, it was time to teach the cloud types using the GLOBE Program’s app, GLOBE Observer, and why sailors watch the sky. Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) is an international science and education program that engages people of all ages in earth observations, on land and at sea[1].
 
The Ocean Policy Research Institute (OPRI) of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation brought me and Cheryl Williams along as GLOBE instructors for the 2024 International Ocean Human Resource Development Project, a youth program for ocean literacy and leadership. GLOBE and OPRI have a common goal of promoting scientific literacy and building connections between people who care about our environment, including the ocean. With the support of United States agencies National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of State (DOS), GLOBE collaborates with scientists and educators internationally to create opportunities for youth and adults to collect, submit and analyze GLOBE data. The GLOBE Observer app, which trainees used to identify and photograph clouds and enter data, is downloadable and functional in countries including Japan that have signed a bilateral agreement with NASA.
 
As we sailed nearly 2,000 nautical miles from the Yokohama port to the Koror Port in Palau on  the MIRAIE, a companion ship for the Japan-Palau Friendship Yacht Race 2024, Ms. Williams and I learned to sail and led youth in collecting GLOBE data on clouds, barometric pressure, relative humidity, atmosphere and sea surface temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, nitrates, phosphates, chemical oxygen demand, and microplastics. All of the 119 data points have been entered into the GLOBE database and are retrievable from OPRI’s GLOBE page[2].

While swaying from side to side anchored in Mikawa Bay, the Sailing Master suggested that I give a lecture to the students who were not seasick. I taught how to interpret GLOBE cloud observations, read weather map symbols and make sense of why we were waiting out the storm. Using GLOBE lesson plans, lecture slides I had made in advance of the journey and the International Sail and Power Academy (ISPA) Tall Ship Novice Crew/Competent Crew manual, I had the tools I needed to teach clouds, weather and sailing.
 
In the back of the ISPA manual, the reference guide showed what to expect from different weather patterns. It outlined in precise order the clouds and weather changes the students had observed. Ahead of a cold front, a sailor would expect warm temperatures, south-southwest winds, falling barometer readings, high thin cirrus clouds that change to cirrostratus with a halo around the sun. As the front nears, towering cumulonimbus clouds form a squall line that looks like a wall. From the ISPA manual, the trainees and I learned that sailors need to read the sky.
 
We also learned that sailors need to read weather and wave forecast maps. Near the stairs leading to the bridge, a weather map confirmed what the clouds were showing us. A low-pressure zone centered on our location was flanked by two high-pressure zones far to the East and West. The wind barbs on the map pointed in the direction the wind was coming from and the number of lines indicated the speed of the wind. With wind speeds of 30 knots from the west and waves coming towards us, it was best to wait out the storm under the protection of the Chita-hanto Peninsula and the Atsumi-hanto Peninsula.
 
Studying the ISPA manual and reading weather and wave maps seemed daunting while keeping seasickness at bay during the two-day cold front. Soon, puffy cumulus clouds marked fair weather and the MIRAIE journeyed forth. Within a week, the ISPA manual made sense; the trainees and I were able to not only measure apparent wind speed and direction, we could chart a course and set sail.

The MIRAIE came equipped with the equipment needed to collect water quality data. The trainees, Ms. Williams and I used a dissolved oxygen probe, pH meter, salinity meters, kits to measure nitrates, phosphates and chemical oxygen demand, and a plankton net and funnel to collect and filter plankton and microplastics. I also brought a calibrated thermometer and digital thermometer probe.
 
Most instructions were in Japanese, so the trainees had to translate. Reading and translating the directions taught the trainees what the water quality parameters meant and how to use the equipment properly. For example, the dissolved oxygen probe needed to sit in the open air for 3 minutes before being placed in water samples. The trainees were diligent in following the directions and the GLOBE field guides for water sample collection, which had been provided in Japanese by the GLOBE Country Coordinator of Japan.
 
On most days, when the MIRAIE slowed to 2 knots for 30 minutes, the trainees would collect data from the bridge, use the GLOBE Observer app to photograph clouds, and collect samples by throwing a bucket connected to a rope. They entered the data in a spreadsheet and on the GLOBE Observer app. A website called a StoryMap by Ashlee Wells shows a video of towing the plankton net and collecting the data[3].
 
At the conclusion of the journey, the youth, Ms. Williams and I celebrated our certifications from the International Sail and Power Academy as Tall Ship Novice Crew Members and from GLOBE as student atmosphere and water quality scientists. In 2000 nautical miles on the tall ship MIRAIE, twenty young people from around the world have advanced from being trainees to leaders, and from strangers to friends.
 
Get involved. The GLOBE International STEM Network (GISN) works to connect today’s ocean researchers with the GLOBE Program. Learn more at https://www.globe.gov/web/globe-international-stem-network