Friday, May 5th marked a major milestone, with the first CROCUS observational site officially coming online. Installed on the roof on the roof of Bernard J. Brommel Hall at Northeastern Illinois University, the instrumentation includes several sensors designed for measuring, in near-real time, things like wind, temperature, rainfall, snow accumulation, radiation, and air pollution.

In the next few years, CROCUS partners will deploy nearly 20 of these sensor arrays across the city to gather more data on atmosphere and land that influence Chicago’s changing climate, in addition to launching dedicated campaigns and citizen science activities.

Several community partners along with scientists and researchers who make up the CROCUS team were on hand to celebrate this achievement. During the installation event, they were able to observe the instruments, learn from our atmospheric scientists about the climate data measured, and inquire about the larger sensor network.