It is that of "Citizen Scientist", and refers to a person who contributes to a piece of research, gathering and analysing data on a part time or casual basis whilst holding down another mainstream job, vocation or form of employment.
It is not,as some cynics may claim a cost saving exercise for what can be quite monotonous and labour intensive projects but rather the means to amass an informed and enthusiastic army of volunteers to allow full time scientists and their staff to concentrate on, well scientist things.
In this way perfectly ordinary members of the public have made their way to the steep sides of grumbling volcanoes to record seismic activity, perhaps with some element of personal risk and peril although this is a rather extreme example.
One particular project in which anyone can participate is "Old Weather".
This involves the gathering of information on historical weather through the studying of ship's logs, in this case the records found in the paperwork of United States whaling ships from the 19th century.
The overriding goal of the Old Weather initiative is not to prove or even disprove global warming but through the analysis of data of archived weather variability to improve models of prediction of weather and climate in the future.
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| image from the New York Public Library |
Over the past centuries the vast distances covered under sail and marine engine and reaching across the globe have provided a huge back catalogue of accurate records on weather. It was in the halcyon era of sea travel, for exploration, trade or conquest that it was a legal obligation to keep such records and equally an offence to falsify information.
Until recently there was no central data-bank for such a resource.
Ships Logs, as handwritten documents, were dispersed either in national collections or in the hands of individuals from a family bequest or as part of a collection.
In careful copper plate print or wave rocked induced scrawl these scripts cannot be scanned and read by computers making the human involvement of Citizen Scientists essential.
After registering with the Old Weather Project there are tutorials and general guidance for new participants on how to analyse the on line produced ships logs and input data from each page. These inputs are cross checked and validated for accuracy and authenticity and to date this has worked very successfully on getting through the volumes of documents in the public domain.
Under the Whaling Ship section there are logs from such vessels as the Betsey Willams from 1851 to the Milo from 1863 and many other pre and post dating these examples.
It is a case of just selecting a ship and taking time to study and record findings.
I briefly looked into the 600 plus pages of the voyage of Horatio from the Western United States to the North Pacific during the whaling season of 1896 and found the detail fascinating.
There are other major areas of interest where ships logs provide an invaluable record on weather and climate. Half of the logbooks in the British Library for ships of the East India Company covering the 1780's to 1830's contain instrumental measurements for the regular trade routes between the UK, India and China and are proving to be of significance to climate studies.
I hope to set aside some time in my busy schedule to contribute to this admirable project if only to get a better understanding of why the weather in Britain is, frankly, pretty crap on most days.
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