Albedo Values

Introduction to the concept of albedo.

Students explore albedo, sea ice and the relationship between changing albedo and changing sea ice.

This lesson connects day/night and seasonal cycles with albedo in the Arctic region.  Students will explore seasonal changes of albedo.

Students will make a claim about whether changing albedo contributes to changes in Arctic habitats.

Students will use the NASA Earth Observations analysis tool to explore changing albedo in the Arctic compared with other areas of Earth.

Students review a video showing a global view of the top-of-atmosphere shortwave radiation from January 26 and 27, 2012 and answer the questions that follow.

Students review this video showing a global view of the top-of-atmosphere longwave radiation from January 26 and 27, 2012. They review the supporting text and analyze the data in the visualization to answer questions.

This activity will help students better understand and practice estimating percent cloud cover.

Learn about the different cloud types and their names. Match cloud photos and names by cloud type and for all types. Evaluate the types of clouds represented in various data displays.

The radar measurements made by NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory are sensitive to whether land surfaces are frozen or thawed. Students analyze two maps of SMAP data to make inferences about changes to the Arctic's Geosphere showing spring thaw.