MBCL

The Mount Baker Climate Laboratory (MBCL)

Mountain climate science co-created by citizen and professional scientists

Our mission is to inclusively and openly answer climate questions about Mount Baker relevant to local and regional communities.

MBCL_Overview

WHAT IS THE MBCL?

This is a collaborative project in which citizen scientists and professional scientists co-create understanding about the climate of Mount Baker using a combination of in situ and satelitte measurements. We ask provide data and ask questions relevant to the hydrologic health and welfare of this important environmental system.

How does the MBCL work?

The MBCL is a result of ongoing partnerships between several organizations (Table 1). Its foundation comes from ongoing measurements of temperature at nine sites along the southern ascent of Mount Baker. These temperature measurements are made in distributed arrays from which we can derive much more than simply an understanding of local temperature patterns and trends. The arrays of temperature

Table 1. MBCL Institutional Partners

Institution	Role
Adventure Data	In situ snow measurements
Earth and Space Research	Lead institution, data analysis, citizen scientist education
Lakeside School	In situ temperature measurement deployment and collection

CONTRIBUTORS

Click here for a list of our contributors.

SCIENCE QUESTIONS (please help us ask more!)

What are Mount Baker temperatures and lapse rates?
- Are important ecosystem thresholds being reached?
- How have the lapse rates changed over time?
- How are these variables represented in Reanalysis or other products?
What are the temperature impacts on the ecosystem of Mount Baker?
- click here for more information
What is the seasonal snow extent on Mount Baker?
- Does this change interannually?
What is the seasonal snow height at Schriebers Meadow, on Mount Baker?
- Can we connect this seasonal snow height to other more long-term measurements (e.g., regional SNOTEL stations)?

DATA

There is a lot that goes into deploying, collecting, cleaning, and munging the data for analysis. See here for a description of this process, along with links to figures and code.

Take a look at the interactive data we have curated so far. Inspired? Read on!

ANALYSIS

Some initial analysis has been performed on these data already. See below for examples of co-creation between Citizen Scientists and Professional Scientists.

Mount Baker Snow Depth Retrievals

Noah L. (Citizen Scientist) led a short study successfully retrieving snow depth at Schriebers Meadow from temperature data collected on a 2.5 m snag. See his work here.

Mount Baker Snow Extent Retrievals

Building on a series of other Citizen Scientist work (Tanvi G., Kimberly L.), Zara Z. (Citizen Scientist) developed an extended time series of snow extent on the southern side of Mount Baker as a function of elevation. See her work here.

A Summary of the MBCL project: Motivation, Design, and Early Results (2022)

Linked here is a presentation summarizing the MBCL as of April 2022. Included in this presentation are some motivation, design, and early results including snow extent retrievals and an extension of the Schriebers Meadow time series using routine regional data trained on a supervised machine learning OLS model. Citizen Scientists: Tanvi A., Tea F-S, Tanvi G., Kimberly L.

An Update on the MBCL: Design, Partnerships, and Results (2023)

Linked here is a presentation summarizing the MBCL as of December 2023. Included in this presentation are the design, partnerships, and updated results. The update results include improved snow extent and snow depth retrievals, as well as a summary of the extension of the Schriebers Meadow time series using routine regional data trained on a supervised machine learning OLS model. Citizen Scientists: Tanvi A., Tanvi G., Noah L., Zara Z.

Mount Baker Ecosystem Thresholds

Felicity W (Citizen Scientist) has processed data from Schriebers Meadow to understand whether and for how long local flora are exposed to temperatures beyond their temperature established stress thresholds. See here for more.

YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

If you are interested in contributing or have any questions, please reach out to michael.town@esr.org.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We respectfully acknowledge that we learn, live, reflect, teach, and observe on the ancestral homelands of Tribes, Bands, and First Nations, including Coast Salish, Lower Skagit, and Upper Skagit.

We would like to express respect and gratitude for our Indigenous neighbors for their care and protection of our shared lands and waterways and celebrate the resilience and strength that Indigenous peoples have shown and continue to show.

To acknowledge this land we share, study, and value is to critically reflect on a history that includes disease, displacement, violence, and loss of land, and to recognize our place in that history. We offer this acknowledgement as an important step in honoring the relationship with land we share, and a call towards further learning and action.