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.

Charles Gatebe is a climate scientist who studies reflected sunlight to improve our understanding of the composition of the atmosphere and surface properties, including land and ocean, and impact on Earth's radiation budget and climate. Learn about how he conducts experiments and uses data from around the world.

The Cryosphere refers to any place on Earth where water is in its solid form, where low temperatures freeze water and turn it into ice. The frozen water can be in the form of solid ice or snow and occurs in many places around the Earth. People often think of the polar regions of our planet as the main home of the Cyrosphere; the North Pole in the Arctic, as well as the South Pole in the Antarctic. The cryosphere exists in the polar regions, but is also found wherever snow, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost, ice sheets, and icebergs exists. In these places, surface temperatures remain below freezing for a portion of each year. 

Students will watch and examine a NASA animation of Earth’s rising surface temperatures over an almost 150 year period.

LIDAR Remote Sensing Technologists uses remote sensing strategies to analyze data to solve problems in areas across the globe. They use LIDAR - Light Detection and Ranging - as a method of remote sensing to examine the surface of the Earth. 

This activity invites students to simulate and observe the different effects on sea level from melting sea-ice.

My NASA Data has recently released several new resources, StoryMaps, for use in educational settings.

This mini lesson focuses on the 2015-2016 El Niño event and how its weather conditions triggered regional disease outbreaks throughout the world. Students will review a NASA article and watch the associated video to use as a tool to compare with maps related to 2015-2016 rainfall and elevated disease risk, and answer the questions.

Explore and connect to the GLOBE Oceans protocol bundle. 

This activity is one of a series in the collection, The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change activities.