Washington DC - Interested in being a volunteer climate scientist? NASA needs your help with matching clouds as they're seen from below with the satellite images from orbit

NASA's GLOBE Cloud Challenge 2022 invites you and literally everyone you know to get in on some calming cloud gazing by participating in its Clouds in a Changing Climate event, with the chance to claim the title of civilian scientist.

The job is helping the space agency by observing the kind of clouds that are tricky to identify from above.

The matches help the NASA's atmospheric scientists have access to more reliable cloud data, which is much better for research work.

To get started, all you need to do is check out the Globe Observer App on your smartphone, and then start tagging clouds (or lack of clouds), dust storms, smoke, and haziness.

You can also identify different types of clouds and any other airborne phenomena by visiting CLOUD GAZE.

"All you have to do is check out a couple of quick tutorials and then get to work – except that this doesn't feel at all like work," said Marilé Colón Robles, the main investigator at CLOUD GAZE and the program lead based out of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

"You're looking at pictures of clouds, after all. It's actually a nice break from work, and maybe even a little addictive."

The NASA GLOBE Observer is free to download.