Report updated May 20, 2026
GLOBE Observer
For students, educators, and citizen scientists interested in contributing to environmental research and Earth system science.
GLOBE Observer is a challenged education app that is completely free. With a 3.4/5 rating from 1.4K reviews, it faces significant user friction. Users particularly appreciate educational content provides valuable scientific observation opportunities for students and citizen scientists, though perpetual update loops prevent initial app access and core functionality usage remains a common concern.
What is GLOBE Observer?
GLOBE Observer is a citizen-science app for collecting environmental data on clouds, mosquito habitats, land cover, and trees.
Users hire this app to contribute scientific data to NASA and NOAA research pipelines, serving their need for meaningful environmental participation.
Current Momentum
v3.8 · 14mo ago
MaintenanceNo new feature build or event in recent patches. The app ships bug fixes and language updates at a cadence exceeding 3 months.
Active Nemesis
iNaturalist Classic
By iNaturalist
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
EducationNo ranking data
Rating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User Mood
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
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What Are The Key Features?
Four specialized tools for collecting data on clouds, mosquito habitats, land cover, and tree height via device camera and sensor input
Milestone badges awarded for submission counts and streak tracking for consecutive days of data collection
Interface and content available in 16 languages including English, Spanish, Arabic, and Thai
How much does it cost?
- Free for all users
The app is entirely free, functioning as a public-service tool for scientific data collection rather than a commercial product.
Who Built It?
NASA
Providing the public with direct access to space exploration data, real-time mission tracking, and immersive STEM education tools.
Portfolio
13
Apps
What other apps does NASA make?
Explore the full NASA report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by NASA.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · 50 reviews analyzed · Based on 50 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a frustrated sentiment. Users appreciate educational content provides valuable scientific observation opportunities for students and citizen scientists, but report perpetual update loops prevent initial app access and core functionality usage and account creation failures due to password validation errors block new user onboarding.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
How have ratings & review volume moved?
Rating, review sentiment, and total reviews over time, with release markers showing the post-launch impact.
Vertical markers = app releases. Hover any release for the post-release impact delta.
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for GLOBE Observer?
How's The Education Market?
How does it evolve in the Education market?
Rank progression
2 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
Which niche is GLOBE Observer in?
to contribute environmental data to scientific research
Explore the full Science Loggers niche
Every app in this space — 6 tracked, the niche's live rankings, and Marlvel's editorial take on the job-to-be-done.
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
iNaturalist is the primary competitor in the citizen science space, directly overlapping with GLOBE Observer’s mission to crowdsource environmental data and species observations.
Differentiators
- Maintains a massive, verified global database of species observations that powers professional scientific research projects
- Integrates a robust community-led identification system where experts validate user-submitted photos to ensure data accuracy
- Provides a comprehensive social layer allowing users to follow specific regions, species, or fellow researchers
Head to head
The target app must lean into its unique NASA-branded scientific protocols to differentiate from the broader, community-driven scale of iNaturalist.
Contenders(4)
While more chemistry-focused, it competes for the same student and educator demographic looking for reliable scientific data and analysis tools.
This app shares the environmental mission of GLOBE Observer, focusing on community-driven data collection to address global pollution issues.
CitSci competes directly for the citizen science audience by offering customizable data collection workflows for environmental monitoring projects.
Both apps target the educational sector by providing tools for scientific data collection and analysis in a classroom or field setting.
Same space(3)
Competes for the educational time of students by offering structured science curriculum support and practice.
Shares the environmental education mission, specifically targeting younger audiences through mission-based learning.
Targets the same student demographic by providing academic support and curriculum-aligned study materials.
Compare GLOBE Observer against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for GLOBE Observer
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- NASA-branded scientific protocols establish primary data source status
- 16-language support enables global research network expansion
Critical Frictions
- Perpetual update loops block core functionality
- Account creation failures disrupt onboarding
- 3.09 average rating on iOS indicates significant stability friction
Growth Levers
- Untapped B2B distribution through formal education partnerships
- Integration of wearable sensor data for environmental measurements
Market Threats
- iNaturalist's mature social ecosystem incentivizes higher retention
- Rapid development velocity of new entrants like Plant App erodes casual-user interest
What are the next best moves?
Rebuild update and account onboarding logic because these are the top-cited blockers in user reviews → reduce churn
Sentiment analysis identifies update loops and account creation as the primary drivers of negative sentiment.
Trade-off: Pause all new feature development for the next two sprints to prioritize core stability.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's reliance on NASA branding is a liability, as users expect enterprise-grade stability from a space agency, which the current build fails to deliver.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Verified global species database (available in iNaturalist Classic but absent here)
- AI-powered audio recognition (available in Merlin Bird ID but absent here)
Key Takeaways
The app provides unique scientific value through NASA-backed protocols, but persistent technical failures prevent user adoption, so the PM must prioritize stability over new features to retain the core student and educator base.
Where Is It Heading?
Declining
The citizen-science market is consolidating around platforms that offer high-accuracy identification and social validation, leaving GLOBE Observer exposed due to its technical instability. Unless the team resolves the update and account-creation blockers, the app will continue to lose its competitive edge against more reliable, community-driven alternatives.
Persistent update loops and account creation failures prevent new user onboarding, which directly suppresses the growth of the citizen-science contributor base.
The latest update failed to resolve foundational stability issues, signaling that current engineering resources are not effectively addressing the primary churn drivers.