Open Science is a philosophy of making scientific information available to everyone by sharing data, methods and findings in free and easily accessible locations. As part of NSF's GeoPaths program, MEERCAP is a Plymouth State University open science - open STEM climate mitigation experiment working in collaboration with the MEER: ReflEction international climate initiative.

What it is:

The MEERCAP experiment tests the idea that small but impactful changes in Earth's reflectance can be created at community scale, at minimal cost, and with sustainable, environmentally friendly materials. By redirecting incoming light back towards space, we simultaneously cool the ground, retain soil moisture and limit the capacity of the light to interact with greenhouse gases. Ice and snow does this naturally, we create a similar effect using fields of mirrors.