This site provides an overview of the earth's atmospheric greenhouse effect by briefly exploring the atmospheres of nearby planets and discussing the greenhouse gases of our atmosphere. Information at this site helps students to understand that the greenhouse effect is what makes this planet suitable for life as we know it and that the earth's atmosphere contains trace gases, water vapor, carbon dioxide, ... Full description.

Students participating in this lesson will collect, observe, and record particulates from the air to contrast visible and invisible air pollution. They then complete a simulation of the damage due to acid rain to illustrate invisible pollution. The lesson plan provides essential elements, objective, focus, a list of materials, background information, procedure, and ideas for enrichment. Full description.

The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is part of the Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) and is the world's largest active archive of weather data. NCDC produces numerous climate publications and responds to data requests from all over the world. NCDC archives 99 percent of ... Full description.

This El Nino site explains the abnormal warming of surface ocean waters in the eastern tropical Pacific and how it affects global weather, ocean circulation, and coral reef ecosystems. The activities involve wind direction and the Coriolis effect, global wind patterns, and cloud formation. There are sections comparing normal conditions to El Nino conditions and a video clip of the 1982-1983 El Nino ... Full description.

The majority of Ocean World is devoted to a series of ten reference sections: coral reefs, currents, El Nino, Fisheries, Ice Ages, icebergs, JASON-1 (a satellite), the role of the ocean in weather, satellites and ocean exploration, and waves. Each section culminates with an interactive quiz, links to sources of related real-time data, and a list of additional related links. Also available is a set ... Full description.

This site describes snow crystals and snowflakes. Although a common meteorological phenomenon, snow crystal growth is a fascinating and poorly understood process, in which remarkably complex and beautifully symmetric structures appear, quite literally, out of thin air. The many facets of snow crystals are described here, along with the attempts to understand their formation. Site highlights include ... Full description.

This program provides scientific research and assessment to evaluate the effects of atmospheric deposition on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. A clickable map depicts locations of acid rain monitoring stations by state. This site also contains reports presenting data on acid rain trends and monitoring efforts as well as research performed on acid rain accumulation values. Information is also available ... Full description.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) is an information and referral center supporting polar and cryospheric research. Through its Data Catalog, NSIDC archives and distributes digital and analog data on snow cover, avalanches, glaciers, ice sheets, freshwater ice, sea ice, ground ice, permafrost, atmospheric ice, paleoglaciology, and ice cores. Users may browse their entire data collection ... Full description.

Tropical Twisters explains how hurricanes are created, why they move, and the damage they can do. There is information on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale to rate intensity and destructive power; the wind, storm surge and flood damage due to hurricanes; how scientists use the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission to understand hurricane rainfall; and the Geostationary and Operational Environmental ... Full description.

This demonstration is designed to show the effect of acid on statues and buildings. Students will learn how acid rain is an air pollution problem as the teacher discusses the slow deterioration of statues and buildings due to the weak acid rain that falls on them. Students will learn that the sulfur and nitrogen compounds that contribute to acid rain primarily come from man-made sources, such as industries ... Full description.