Project Design

As I have eluded to, the citizen science project I am working on is the Old Weather Whaling project. It is one of the projects within Old Weather that is led by Zooniverse and its many partners. The goal of Old Weather: Whaling, is to draw out weather measurements, especially interactions with sea ice, in addition to other historic data from the 19th and early 20th century whaling ships.

 Overexploitation of whales in more temperate waters from extensive harvests in the 1800's required whalers to move into more extreme conditions to pursue their quarry in the 19th and early 20th century. In this near inhospitable environment, whale ships would keep record in their voyage log of the days events; including a detailed account of the weather each day.

The landscape at this time in the artic was inundated with ice bergs, floes, and a unique ecosystem endemic to this part of the world. The reduction of sea ice in the Artic in more recent times is a major indicator of a changing climate. With little information on artic variations before satellite imagery, looking back at these old voyage log books can be a potential valuable tool for mapping a changing climate..

Since it is challenging to get computers to decipher the idiosyncratic handwriting in these historic log books, it is best to be analyzed through human judgement. Analyzing thousands of old log books presents a challenge, this would be near impossible to do in a reasonable time frame with a small group of individuals. To address such a conundrum, it takes some thinking outside the box to get the required results.

 Gaining a large volunteer base greatly helps with analyzing copious log book entries. Analysis through multiple stages by marking and transcribing helps with quality control to remove errors for ensuring accurate information. The involvement by many volunteers around the world makes it possible to further the understanding in various scientific fields. This withdrawn information is compiled and used by scientists, geographers, and historians to better educate the public. By using recorded information of weather during the course of the specific year and interactions with that weather, help to depict historic weather/ice conditions. When this is coupled with the use of super computers, it allows scientists to create accurate climate models. In addition to valuable weather data, understanding the events that occurred on these historic voyages throughout the vast north is also beneficial to historians and ecologists who are interested in expanding the knowledge of arctic organisms and anthropogenic interactions on the landscape that occurred in this period of time . 




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