Thomas Jefferson loved to write about the mild climate of Virginia and its azure skies. Were he to return today, he would notice barely any difference in temperature, rain and snow. We know this because Jefferson kept very detailed daily records of the weather at Monticello from 1810 to 1816. But he would notice a difference in the sky, which today is cloudier and hazier than in Jefferson's time.

But haze also has other effects. Since haze scatters some sunlight back into space, many scientists think that increased haze over the Northern Hemisphere has caused a slight cooling effect. On a hazy summer day, people with light skin can receive a sunburn even when in the shade. This happens when most of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation is received from the hazy sky instead of the direct sun. In some regions haze can be so thick that shadows are faint or even invisible.

Haze also obscures visibility. Over the past few decades, scenic vistas in many regions of the United States have been obscured by haze originating from air pollution created by large power plants and increased automobile traffic.

WHY AMATEUR COLLABORATION?

The advantage of using amateur scientists is that there are many more of us. Forrest finds that student and adult amateur scientists can do very high quality work. The bottom line is that there is no national or global haze monitoring network. The field is wide open, and amateurs can make a valuable contribution. Of course professional scientists can also participate.

Amateur science has a long tradition of excellence, Many famous discoveries have been made by amateurs. Alexander Graham Bell was a teacher of the deaf, but he invented the first successful telephone and photophone. Michael Faraday never attended school, but he discovered fundamental principles of electricity. Some 40% of comets are discovered by amateur astronomers.

THE APPROACH:

• Dr.M.Vadivale's Haze Site ("...set up as a result of the recent haze in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and the surrounding region as a result of forest fires from Kalimantan and Sumatra in Indonesia")
  http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/2188/haze.html

• World Wildlife Fund -US Site
  http://www.wwf.org

• UIUC's Atmospheric Optical Effects
  http://covis.atmos.uiuc.edu/guide/optics/html/optics.html

• Scientific American, May 1997
  http://www.sciam.com/0597issue/0597amsci.html

• Society of Amateur Scientists
  http://web2.thesphere.com/SAS/

• Dept. of Agriculture UV-B network:
  http://uvb.nrel.colostate.edu/UVB/uvb_climate_network.html

• GLOBE
  http://www.globe.gov/

• NSTA's Scope, Sequence & Coordination Project
  http://www.gsh.org/nsta_ssandc/