Turbulent storms churn the ocean in winter, adding nutrients to sunlit waters near the surface. Each spring this gives rise to massive blooms of phytoplankton. These microscopic plants harvest vital energy from sunlight through photosynthesis.

The Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) instrument aboard the Seastar satellite collected ocean data for more than a decade.

Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is affected, among other things, by processes involving forests including fires, deforestation and plant respiration. Evaluate a Landsat image to determine the rate of carbon dioxide sequestration in a particular area.

Information from satellites if often used to display information about objects. This information can include how things appear as well as their contents. Explore  how pixel data sequences can be used to create an image and interpret it.

The fires in Greece during the summer of 2007 devastated large tracks of forest and ground cover in this Mediterranean region. These before (left) and after (right) images were taken on July 18 and September 4 by Landsat-7. The red areas show the extent of the biomass loss from the fires.

Scientific data are often represented by assigning ranges of numbers to specific colors. The colors are then used to make an images which allow us to see patterns more easily. Students will make a false color image using a set of numbers.

Explore using units for calculations with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). As can be seen through a prism, many different wavelengths make up the spectrum of sunlight. When sunlight shines on objects, certain wavelengths are absorbed and other wavelengths are reflected.

Explore using units in calculations with the Leaf Area Index (LAI). LAI is a ratio that describes the number of square meters of leaves per square meter of available land surface. Because of the units in the ratio, it is dimensionless.

Visualize NASA data on a custom map using our Earth System Data Explorer to generate your own maps and graphs.  See the Dataset in LAS to see the range of datasets supporting this phenomenon.

We often take the Biosphere for granted and as the climate changes, plant species and ecosystems respond by adapting, migrating or reducing their population.  Why is this important?  The plants of the Biosphere feed us, clothe us, absorb carbon dioxide, provide us with oxygen,