What is the hydrosphere and why is it important?

Discover how GLOBE supports hands-on science for locally relevant learning which is also put into a global perspective.

Background information on ocean circulation.

Image Credit: NASA

We often take the Biosphere, especially its plants and trees, for granted; however, this important sphere also supports almost every aspect of our lives.

Steve Nerem is the leader of NASA’s Sea Level Change team. His project, Observation-Driven Projections of Future Regional Sea Level Change, focuses on using NASA satellite and in situ observations and climate modeling to estimate future regional sea level change.

In this activity, students make a claim about the cause of ocean currents and then develop a model to explain the role of temperature and density in deep ocean currents.  This lesson is modified from "Visit to an Ocean Planet" Caltech and NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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.

GLOBE protocols and learning activities that complement the Ocean Circulation Patterns phenomenon through hands-on investigations are detailed. These protocols can be used to build a basis for understanding the principles of salinity and water temperature which are drivers of the ocean circulation patterns.

Our Earth is a dynamic system with diverse subsystems that interact in complex ways. Questions that scientists have about the Earth as a System may include the following. As you learn more about the Earth System, reflect on these questions.