Happy 2nd Birthday CycloneCenter.org

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Birthday on this second anniversary of CycloneCenter.org. Two years ago today, citizen scientist “parrish” provided the first classification. Here’s what we get from that first one:

1,parrish,Td0721(1981),1981-07-22 09:00:00 UTC,2012-09-26 18:57:45 UTC,1981202N24123.TD0721.1981.07.22.0900.37.GMS-1.034.hursat-b1.v05.png,,,,,,,,,band-2.0,,,GMS-1,same,curved

To most, it is a bunch of comma-separated gobbledygook However, to our science team, it is a treasure trove of information — especially when you consider we have 350,000+ lines of this data.

Looking back, I didn’t really think too much about where I saw this project two years removed from the launch. But having seen where we’ve been, I am encouraged that we’re on a great track:

• We have an accepted peer-reviewed manuscript (which shows continued support by the science team) with more manuscripts in preparation.
• We have new funding that will provide for continued science support.
• We have an upcoming site improvement (which shows continued support from a great partnership with CSA).
• We have some really great citizen scientists who have come alongside of us and made tons of classifications (I never thought we’d have scientists with 20,000+ classifications!!)
• We continue to get a good stream of classifications.

So all in all, it has been a great two years since we started! I still would like to visit Chicago and the Planetarium sometime (not sure how I’ve never been to the U.S.’s 3rd most populous city yet). I still would like to complete a full year of data (2005 is getting progressively closer). I would still like to complete the entire period of record.

So enjoy the weekend and make a few classifications at CycloneCenter.org for old times sake. Can you do 24 more images? (One for each month?)