Students will analyze how surface (skin) temperatures vary across a community and determine what factors contribute to this variation. Students will describe how human activity can affect the local environment. 

Elizabeth Forsbacka is an instrument manager. She leads a diverse team to design, build and test Earth or space science instruments. She says "My job is to build a good team that can do it all. Our work from design through delivery of the spacecraft usually takes about four years." See what it's like to work on this sort of project.

NASA visualizers take data – numbers, codes – and turn them into animations people can see and quickly understand.

Students observe the surface temperatures of a variety of surface types found in a suburban environment.

Students will analyze a line graph that shows how the surface temperature and air temperature values change over the course of 24 hours.

After learning about the different characteristics of satellite data, students will describe the advantages and disadvantages of using two different satellites to study the Urban Heat Island Effect.  

Meet Dr. Yoland Shea, Atmospheric Scientist at NASA Langley Research Center.  Learn what inspired her as a child and how she became a NASA scientist!

Students analyze Landsat images of Atlanta, Georgia to explore the relationship between surface temperature and vegetation.

The activities in this guide will help students understand variations in environmental parameters by examining connections among different phenomena measured on local, regional and global scales.

An environmental planner tries to minimize the environmental impacts of housing, industrial, and transportation-related construction projects. Environmental planners help project managers navigate the environmental permitting process where they review a site to investigate potential environmental effects. This includes the effects of natural disasters.