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Building an open GHG emissions network through educational experiences
We invite students, teachers, makers, corporations, and scientists to build and deploy open-source sensors that contribute to a global climate observation network
Get Involved
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Fully engaged K-12 and college classrooms
We create tangible educational experiences related to climate, hardware, engineering, and STEAM to inspire student to start taking climate action
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Morale boosting for mission-driven teams
We engage with corporates and large organizations to conduct workshops and events for team building by building sensors together
Who we are
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Open-source
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Community Driven
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Global Volunteer Team
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501c(3) Not for Profit
Ribbit Network is a non-profit organization that inspires students, teachers, makers, and scientists to take direct climate action by building a sensor and contributing to open-source globally-distributed climate observation network.
The Problem
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Climate Change: The Missing Map
We know that increased levels of greenhouse gasses (GHG), like carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), are the primary causes of climate change, and humanity is pumping them into the atmosphere at an unprecedented rate. However, we do not yet have a map of the world that can tell us the GHG concentration at any spot in real time.
The Solution
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Global Network of low cost CO2 sensors
Ribbit Network was created to generate this missing map of GHG concentrations. By creating and deploying the world’s largest network of CO2 sensors, we will form a better picture of CO2 concentrations, and engage with a worldwide community of citizen scientists.
How it works
01
Partner and Teach
We partner with educators, corporates etc to engage their employees and students through workshops that teach climate science, sensor building and the importance of data in decision making for climate
02
Build Sensors
Our “Frogs” are small, open-source sensors that you can buy or build on your own, and deploy at your home. The Frog sensors measure the amount of CO2 in the air using a tiny internal laser.
03
Deploy across geographies
Citizen scientists, corporations, professional researchers, and governments identify deployment locations and work with the local community to deploy Frog sensors.
04
Share Data Publicly
Real-time CO2 observations from Frog sensors connected to the Ribbit Network are recorded in a database. This data is publicly accessible and will inform research, monitoring, policies, and actions to address GHG emissions.
Our Theory of change
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Our Supporters
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Our Impact
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Designation, Organisation
Recognition
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Ribbit Network: Q3 2023 Newsletter
We are excited to share with you an update of the key activities from Ribbit Network over the last quarter, as well as an overview of what’s coming up.
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Go citizen scientists
This summer Ribbit Network was a proud supporter of the Rutgers University IDEA program!
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Join us on the journey to build a more transparent world
Become a citizen scientist to help deploy more sensors.
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Educate K-12 students
Teach your students how to build a CO2 sensor , how changes in the climate are measured and interpreted.
Get in touch
Host a team workshop
Ribbit Network offers corporate events where teams can have a fun and educational experience related to STEAM, climate, and education.
Get in touch
Donate to our non-profit
Help our 501(c)(3) non-profit organization build the world’s largest dataset of greenhouse gas observations by funding sensors.
Fund Us
Build a Sensor
Want to build your own Frog? Thanks to our open-source design, you can! Visit our Github
Learn to Build
Join our community
Join us on Discord to follow on our journey, look through updates on our process.
Join us on Discord
Volunteer with us
Help us create open-source hardware and software, contribute to our community and amplify our efforts.
Get involved
FAQs
Got Questions?
Do I need to build a Frog Sensor myself or can I buy one pre-assembled?

This project is and will always be Open-Source, meaning you are encouraged to build a sensor yourself! However, you can also purchase an assembled sensor at ribbitnetwork.org.

How does the sensor connect to the Internet?

The sensor uses a wi-fi radio to connect to the internet in order to send sensor data to the Ribbit Network Database and receive Software Updates from the Ribbit team.

Can the public data be used to locate my sensor?

The sensor rounds the GPS location that it publishes to the public database. This means that it is not possible to specifically locate the sensor. Additionally, the sensor does not contain or publish any personal data, limiting privacy concerns.

How long is the power cord?

The power cable is 1.5 meters (5 feet) long. An extension cord can easily be added if you need a longer cord.

How does ground-based distributed sensor approach compare to satellite-based techniques of monitoring atmospheric CO2 ?

Atmospheric monitoring from space is an exciting development that has a lot of potential. However, it's not a magic bullet solution. The scientific consensus is that the best option is to develop both technologies that can work together:

  • Climate tech satellites are the MOST expensive possible solution. For example, NASA's OCO2, cost $467.7 million. Currently, the ground-based frog sensors cost ~250 to build and assemble. At those prices, we could build 1868000 ground-based sensors for the cost of one satellite. And as you'll see in the next bullet point, we need more than one.

  • Satellites have only a limited number of measurements that they can take in a day. If you check out the "Approximate usable daily soundings" you can see how many measurements a day a sat can take. Using the OCO2 example again, it can take about 100,000 1.3 × 2.2 km squares a day. At those rates, it's very difficult to measure a meaningful portion of the earth with any frequency. I believe that having real-time constant monitoring of an area is important to help catch peak emission events like a power plant natural gas plant turning on briefly during peak load. It's hard to imagine a cost-effective satellite solution that could provide that.
  • Satellites are good to monitor GHG emissions from the major sources, at the macro level. They are less effective to monitor emissions at the hyper-local level due to their lower resolution.
  • Finally, the satellite data is awesome, but many of the sensing technologies are still unproven. They need a "truth" dataset to validate that the satellites are producing accurate data. A ground-based network like Ribbit is an excellent complement to a sat network because it can provide that truth!
How do the frog sensors measure CO2 concentration?

The concentration of CO2 in the air is measured using a Nondispersive infrared (NDIR) sensor. These sensors are a type of spectroscopic instrument, that is they measure light and how that light interacts with a material at specific wavelengths. In the case of measuring CO2, light at a wavelength in the mid-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum is emitted, passes through a small chamber that is open to the outside air, and a detector then measures the intensity of that light. Light at the mid-infrared wavelength of 4.26 μm (4.26 x 10^-6 meters) in particular is absorbed by CO2 molecules. That means that a portion of the emitted light will effectively be blocked by CO2 in the air in proportion to the amount of CO2. The difference between the intensity of the emitted light and the intensity of the detected light can be used to determine the CO2 concentration.

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