This mini lesson helps students visualize how the Hydrosphere and Cryosphere interact to produce changes in land and sea ice. 

This lesson contains a card sort activity that challenges students to predict relative albedo values of common surfaces. 

Students connect day/night and seasonal cycles with albedo in the Arctic region. 

Students review a visualization 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.

Students interpret a graph of surface temperatures taken from city districts and other types of communities.

Arctic sea ice is the cap of frozen seawater blanketing most of the Arctic Ocean and neighboring seas in wintertime. It follows seasonal patterns of thickening and melting. Students view how the quantity has changed from 1979 through 2018. 

Students examine the two time series images to determine the differences between seasonal ice melt over water versus land.

Check out the Arctic and Earth SIGNs video to explore how climate models are used in climate change research.

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