This site describes how snow and ice runoff become surface water and emphasizes how runoff from snowmelt is a major component of the global movement of water. A hydrograph from the U.S. Geological Survey shows a four-year time series of streamflow and illustrates how runoff from snowmelt affects the daily mean values, particularly at certain times of the year. Full description.

This article describes the ongoing research on the possible presence of water on Jupiter's moon Europa. It includes satellite images of Europa, scientific illustrations, and extensive text. It also discusses similar research being done on Lake Vostok in Antarctica. It also offers a variety of related links. Full description.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) installs, operates and maintains an extensive, automated system to collect snowpack and related climatic data in the western United States called SNOTEL (for SNOwpack TELemetry). SNOTEL sensors collect hourly data on temperature, precipitation and snow water equivalent. Data can be displayed as tables or graphs for individual stations, drainage basins ... Full description.

This site is all about snow crystals and snowflakes. The many facets of snow crystals are described here, along with attempts to understand their formation. This site includes collections of super-high-resolution snow crystal photos, as well as links to learn about snow crystal classifications and how to make snow crystal fossils. Included in the study of how snow crystals form, these researchers ... 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.

This lesson plan is part of the DiscoverySchool.com lesson plan library for grades 6-8. It focuses on glaciers and icebergs, specifically, glacial scraping and landforms left behind by glaciers, and information about icebergs in the oceans. Students do a lab simulating glacial scouring. It includes objectives, materials, procedures, discussion questions, evaluation ideas, extensions, suggested readings, ... Full description.

In this activity, students download NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of the Martian polar ice caps in summer and winter. Using image processing techniques, students measure and compare various images of the changing Martian and Earth polar ice caps. By completing this activity, they will understand that the sizes of the polar ice caps on Earth and Mars depend on the lengths of the seasons. ... Full description.

Students investigate the challenges of living and working in Antarctica and the technologies that help researchers meet those challenges. This six-day unit includes: teacher tools (downloadable readings, breakdowns of tasks, teacher strategies, grading sheet and rubric), an online activity (students review the preparation materials given to researchers traveling to Antarctica), classroom activities ... Full description.

This lesson plan examines how snow and ice cover have changed on the Earth from 1994 to 2004, and allows students to practice using some of the data analysis tools available at MY NASA DATA. Full description.

Scientists have studied the physical properties of clouds and have developed instruments onboard satellites to characterize the types of clouds they see below. Some satellites have instruments that allow them to measure rainfall as well. For this lesson, students will hypothesize what types of clouds they believe will create the most precipitation (rainfall) over Nashville, TN. Students use the Live ... Full description.