SAS Nagar, January 16: Nandini Mcclurg, a research scientist from Colorado University in USA today visited four schools in Mohali to check the research work in progress on the CloudSat under NASA ESSP mission at these school. Dr Neelima Jerath, joint director (environment), Punjab State Council of Science and Technology, accompanied Nandini Mcclurg to school, who also had an interactive session with the students.

Besides Shastri Model School here, she also visited Govt Senior Secondary School in Phase-IIIB-1, Paragon School in Sector 71 and Govt School Phase-XI in this connection.

During teh visit to Shastri Model School, she said that CloudSat was a multi satellite and multi-sensor experiment, designed to measure the properties of clouds that were critical for understanding the effects on both weather and climate. “The CloudSat mission was designed to enable more than one seasonal cycle to be observed. Earth science tells us how was our past, how is present and how will be future,’’ she said.

The students posed questions regarding the logic of this mission, about its benefits and also about her work at NASA. She said she was pleased with the observations made by the students and faculty. She also promised to visit the school next year.

Ravleen Singh, professor, Anand Gupta of SCERT, Baldev Singh Sidhu, district education officer, Kulwinder Singh, district science supervisor in connection with CloudSat, A NASA ESSP mission programme, were present.

Ram Lal Sevak, manager of Shastri Model School, said that they had been working on this project for the last one year and had also recorded the rainfall in this area with the help of rainfall measuring instrument provided to them by this mission. He said that two teachers and 11 students of the school were associated with the project who regularly watch clouds according to the charts provided by the mission which are: higher side, lower side, east and west side and in the middle; and regularly mail to NASA about the progress. “Now the mission has provided a reflector and a digital camera and we will send them pictures on the mail on routine basis.”