With a presence in the Guthrie, Oklahoma area for the next several months for the RACORO field campaign, science and infrastructure staff took some time to reach out to the local community. On February 24, Pete Lamb attended a board of director’s meeting for the Guthrie-Edmond Regional Airport to provide an overview of RACORO and the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. A few weeks later, John Hubbe visited two schools in Guthrie to talk with kids about weather and climate, and demonstrated a few hands-on activities. These outreach efforts help create goodwill in the communities where ARM field campaigns are underway.
Approximately 25 people attended the airport board meeting, including several community members and a reporter from the Edmond Sun. Pete, site scientist for the SGP site, explained that the airplane for RACORO–stationed at the airport–was taking measurements from the sky above the region to improve the computer models used to predict future climate. He also described how the same measurements were being made on the ground at the SGP site. He then summarized the history of the ARM Program and answered a few questions from the audience. Meeting attendees were left with information packets containing additional information about the ARM Program. The discussion resulted in several interviews by the Sun reporter and an article in the March 2 edition of the paper.
During a rotation as flight operations lead for RACORO, John talked with 3rd graders at St. Mary’s Catholic School and 2nd graders at Fogarty Elementary School about weather, climate, and the campaign underway in their community. John explained the “building blocks” of clouds and then demonstrated the concept by creating a “cloud in a bottle.” He also talked about water vapor and other gases in the atmosphere and demonstrated another activity with carbon dioxide from a soft-drink bottle. He followed this by explaining the RACORO campaign and describing how scientists make measurements from the airplane. John left behind copies of the ARM activity books, and said all the children were well engaged and asked some very good questions and everyone had fun. John has been invited to visit a 9th-grade class when he takes another rotation leading RACORO flight operations later this spring.