Citizen science

In citizen science, the public participates voluntarily in the scientific process to address real-world problems. This may include forming research questions, conducting scientific experiments, collecting and analyzing data, interpreting results, making new discoveries, developing technologies and applications, and solving complex problems. This work can also go by other names such as “community science” or “participatory science.”

NOAA has a rich tradition of supporting such collaborative work, which continues to this day. Volunteers support a range of projects that do everything from improving our country's weather forecasts to protecting and managing marine species to charting the seafloor.

Students working on sea urchin studies with University of Hawaii Sea Grant.
Students working on sea urchin studies with University of Hawaii Sea Grant. (Pelika Andrade/University of Hawaii Sea Grant)
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NOAA's Office of Education supports citizen science by helping to manage a community of practice, coordinating a catalog of projects and representing the agency in broader efforts.

NOAA citizen science project attracted over 564,000 participants who contributed 1.3 million volunteer hours in fiscal year 2022 alone. Citizen science was named one of six NOAA science and technology Focus Areas that help our agency achieve transformational advances in mission performance and efficiency. NOAA released its Citizen Science Strategy in 2021 to provide a path to better observe, predict, and understand the environment, and manage and conserve natural resources by harnessing the power of the crowd. In 2023, NOAA released its Citizen Science Action Plan, which outlines the agency's goals and objectives for the program over the next several years.

1.3 million
volunteer hours
in fiscal year 2022.
564,000
people
participated in NOAA citizen science efforts in fiscal year 2022.
1 of 6
science and technology focus areas
guide transformative advancements in the quality and timeliness of NOAA’s products and services.

NOAA Citizen Science Community of Practice

NOAA launched a Citizen Science Community of Practice in 2013. The community relies on grassroots participation from community members throughout the agency. It primarily works to:

  • Compile best practices.
  • Share resources.
  • Maintain a searchable database of NOAA's citizen science projects.

This community has grown steadily to include over 230 members.

If you would like more information on the Community of Practice, please email citizenscience@noaa.gov. 

Project catalog

NOAA's Office of Education supports over 60 citizen science projects. You can search through these projects to find information about local and national projects you may be interested in. Please go to  CitizenScience.gov catalog of projects (select NOAA in the "View by Agency" field).

Broader efforts

NOAA is an active member of the Federal Community of Practice for Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science. This community helped create a Federal Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Toolkit. This Toolkit aids federal practitioners in finding resources to  develop, implement, and improve citizen science projects. Additionally, NOAA is active within the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences, formally known as the Citizen Science Association, which provides a coordination mechanism for the field.

Citizen science in action

Volunteers Eva Lagdamen and Benjamin Sankar are standing in the waters of an estuary, wearing waders, and show the camera a small eel, approximately the length of a finger, that they found in the river.

Benjamin Sankar and Eva Lagdamen proudly show off one of the juvenile glass eels they found during a session with Hudson River Eel. (Image credit: Courtesy of Benjamin Sankar)

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Clive is standing on a pier, wearing brown pants, a brown sweater, and a blue baseball cap, hoisting a net from over the fence. He is leaning against a white fence with the ocean just beyond him.

Clive gathers plankton with a net on the Santa Cruz wharf. (Image credit: Courtesy of Clive Bagshaw)

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A horseshoe crab is swimming in the water, approximately calf-deep, with a white tag saying that it is has been counted for the Florida Horseshoe Crab Watch project.

A successfully tagged horseshoe crab swimming back into the ocean after encountering the Florida Horseshoe Crab Watch team. (Image credit: Courtesy of Linda Palewicz)

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Philip Melcher, wearing a hat and sunglasses, is standing in front of a beach on the California coastline, with large mountains in the background.

Philip Melcher volunteers with NOAA’s GPS on BenchMarks project. Here, he is enjoying the view near Big Sur State Park in California. (Image credit: Courtesy of Philip Melcher)

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As a citizen scientist, you can make use of The GLOBE Program’s Observer mobile app (free and available for download on iOS and Android devices). You too can observe the world around you as these GLOBE students did during a recent GLOBE Learning Expedition in Killarney, Ireland (2018).

As a citizen scientist, you can make use of The GLOBE Program’s Observer mobile app (free and available for download on iOS and Android devices). You too can observe the world around you as these GLOBE students did during a recent GLOBE Learning Expedition in Killarney, Ireland (2018). (Image credit: The GLOBE Program)

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Watch NOAA citizen science webinars

The NOAA Central Library has created a YouTube playlist of webinars about NOAA citizen science efforts.