EARTH SCIENCE, SPATIAL DATA COLLECTION, AND COOL APPS: THE APPLICATIONS OF MOBILE DATA COLLECTION AND RETRIEVAL TO GEOSCIENCE PHENOMENA

The explosion in digital data storage and collection in the last 15 years combined with the availability of mobile devices presents opportunities and challenges for geoscientists across a broad spectrum of academia and the public and private sectors. This talk addresses the intersection of earth systems science, spatial data collection, and computer science. Combined with the need for greater data collection and interpretation as earth systems respond to climate change, simple, customizable programs for handheld devices such as the iPhone present opportunities in lab and field use and data collection. The talk will explore how such interfaces can be used both with: K-12 and undergraduate geoscience programs, distributed networking and cloud computing for recording of data on natural phenomena such as earthquakes, carbon accounting, and energy usage. As with some mobile apps, some can be simple database interfaces, such as one that shows proximity to the nearest hot springs.