The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite is a joint mission between NASA and the National Space Development Agency (NSDA) of Japan. It is designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall and the associated release of energy that helps to power the global water cycle. The satellite can greatly enhance our understanding of the interactions which produce changes in global rainfall and ... Full description.

This site focuses on the subject of hurricanes (typhoons and cyclones). Designed as an electronic tour, it guides the user through different web sites as stops, providing a comprehensive overview of hurricanes. Specific topics include how hurricanes form, preparing for hurricanes, hurricane season, storm data, and tracking instruments. It outlines teaching objectives, concepts covered, and new vocabulary. ... Full description.

This is a collection of Java applets that can be run through web browsers. Each applet is designed to present a concept generally related to atmospheric science and is highly interactive to encourage discovery. Topics include satellite image interpretation, the formation of contrails, a hurricane model and solar radiation intensity as it varies with latitude and time of year. Full description.

This website integrates video footage and information with lesson plans and activities to teach students about how floods work and why they cause so much damage and destruction. Using a stream table, students are able to observe the processes that lead to flooding and the effects of floods on human-made structures. This unit contains lesson plans, student worksheets, instruction sheets, and links ... Full description.

This site describes the planetary swing-by or slingshot effect of boosting the energy of a space vehicle using a close encounter with a planet or other body. The author uses an analogy of a ping-pong ball and paddle to simplify the math involved and goes on to cite several examples of the planetary swing-by, including the Voyager and Pioneer missions. He then explains how these gravity assist maneuvers ... Full description.

This is chapter one of an on-line NASA book, Geomorphology from Space - A General Overview of Regional Landforms. It is divided into four sections and a conclusion. The first section, The Nature of Geomorphology, starts with the definition and continues with a description of the scales involved, fundamental concepts and the role of geomorphic studies. Types of Geomorphic Analysis is the title for ... Full description.

This site contains information about one of the more difficult problems for operational tropical cyclone forecasters, which is the assessment of the cyclone's maximum sustained surface wind. When aircraft reconnaissance data are available, they are typically obtained from the 700 mb (10,000 ft) level and from these flight-level observations the forecaster is left to estimate the surface winds. In ... Full description.

This reference describes the models used for forecasting hurricanes by the the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida, which issues 72-hour tropical cyclone track and intensity forecasts four times per day for all storms in the north Atlantic and eastern north Pacific east of 140 degrees west. The track forecasts are the storm latitude and longitude (to the nearest tenth of a degree) and ... Full description.

This site explains what can be learned from an ice core. Scientists collect ice cores by driving a hollow tube deep into the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland (and in glaciers elsewhere). The cylinders of ancient ice that they retrieve provide a detailed record of what was happening in the world over the past several ice ages. Each layer of ice in a core corresponds to a single year - or sometimes ... Full description.

This portal of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory offers two major links: Meteorological Field Measurements at Potential and Actual Wind Turbine Sites and Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States. In addition, a section called Links to Wind Resource Maps leads to Iowa Energy Centers Iowa Wind Resource Assessment Maps, Wind Maps on NREL's Dynamic Maps and GIS ... Full description.