This lesson explores El Nino by looking at sea surface temperature, sea surface height, and wind vectors in order to seek out any correlations there may be among these three variables. It employs group work where different teams work together to analyze a single variable, and then get together in different groups to compare all three variables. The lesson will guide students through data representing ... Full description.

No study of Maine weather would be complete without analysis of the year of 1816 - the year with no summer in an area from western Pennsylvania and New York, up through Quebec and across to Maine and the Canadian maritimes. In this five-unit lesson, students will investigate the causes and effects of the Fabled Maine Winter by exploring a variety of data sources. They will locate, graph, and analyze ... Full description.

Over the past several decades, the levels of ozone in the atmosphere have received a lot of media and government attention. Major focus has centered on the hole or area of depletion of the ozone layer over the Arctic and Antarctic poles in winter months, which has been found to be due to human emissions of chlorofluorocarbons. This lesson uses SAGE III satellite data and ozonesonde data captured over ... Full description.

In this lesson, students will investigate the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and chlorophyll-a measurements in a local watershed. They will compare two data sets to find correlations and explain the importance of carbon dioxide and photosynthetic plants in the carbon cycle. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to relate global climate change to local effects. Full description.

Students will examine data in several formats in order to determine the presence or absence of seasonal variability in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations. The dataset used in this lesson is monthly averages of NO2 as measured from NASA's EOS Aura spacecraft. Full description.

Several research studies have suggested that contrails (condensation trails from aircraft) can alter the radiative budget of the Earth by increasing the cloud cover at high altitudes. The tragic events of September 11, 2001, caused virtually all air traffic to be grounded over the US for nearly three days. The absence of contrails over the United States during this time gave scientists a unique opportunity ... Full description.

Estuaries have physical traits, and scientists use a variety of measurements such as water depth, salinity, and current speed to describe an estuary. This site describes the various measurements that make up the physical properties of an estuary, using Narragansett Bay as an example. Specific sections of this site focus on water chemistry (temperature, salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll a, and pH), circulation ... Full description.

Sound Health 2001 highlights water quality conditions, the status of living organisms, trends in land use and development, and other indicators of environmental health for Long Island Sound. Materials presented here address the following questions: Are the waters and sediments getting cleaner?, Are fish and wildlife populations more abundant?, Are fish and wildlife habitats being protected and restored?, ... Full description.

Materials presented here outline basic concepts related to groundwater, answering questions like "What is groundwater?" and "What is an aquifer?" More detailed topics include groundwater quality, sources of contamination, engineering problems presented by groundwater, and safeguards to the groundwater supply. A bibliography and links to other water-related sites are included. A French translation ... Full description.

Weather involves the daily fluctuations in temperature, humidity, clouds, winds, etc. By contrast, climate is the long term weather patterns in a region. Therefore, to assess changes in climate, one has to look at average changes over long periods of time. Students will use long wave radiation data to determine whether the climate has changed in Portland, Oregon over a 20 year time span. They will ... Full description.