Using a “fun-size” bag of rainbow bite-sized candies learners will place different colored candies on a diagram of the Sun-Earth system to show different space weather conditions during solar minimum and solar maximum.

Learners will analyze space-weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Learners will compare two different types of data: sunspot data and measurements from magnetometers on Earth.

In this interactive you will create space weather forecast maps for solar minimum and solar maximum.

Students move through a series of short activities to explore and evaluate global solar radiation data from NASA satellites.  In this process, students make qualitative and quantitative observations about seasonal variations in net energy input to the Earth System.