Clouds are a collection of water droplets and small ice crystals that are suspended in an atmosphere. Clouds form when moisture rises, cools, and changes to water or ice. It is important to take into consideration exactly how clouds affect the world around us. Clouds are an important determining factor in climate in any region around the globe. In this lesson, students will plot and analyze data for ... Full description.

Researchers such as paleoclimatologists or dendrochronologists use tree ring analyses as one tool to reconstruct climate information about the past. They will often reference data from other sources such as historical weather records, and ice core or ocean core samples to support their findings. In this lesson students will utilize monthly average precipitation data to strengthen conclusions about ... Full description.

In this lesson,students will evaluate a location in the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere to determine the areas best for collecting solar power. Changes in surface radiation will be evaluated using Monthly Surface Radiation data from 2007 from MyNASAData website. Students will draw conclusions about how surface radiation levels will affect choice of solar power plant location selection ... Full description.

Energy from the sun reaches the Earth and some is absorbed by the air, land, and water. Some of the energy is reflected back into space, meaning it does not heat the land, air, or water. In this lesson students will read a color plot of Earth's absorption of the sun's radiation. They will evaluate causes for difference in absorption rates at different points around the world and draw conclusions about ... Full description.

GIS enables students to geo-reference multiple data sets creating layers. This essentially becomes a vertical profile of data, information, photographs etc. that when viewed as a body of information can present a fairly comprehensive view of that location. Based on data associated with latitude and longitude, students now have the ability to examine geo-referenced data sets derived on Earth, and from ... Full description.

Bar graphs are simple ways to display data. Taking numbers and creating a bar graph makes it easier to read and draw conclusions. In this lesson, students will construct basic bar graphs using authentic NASA surface temperature data from a one year period of record. Full description.

Solar energy is radiant energy that is produced by the Sun. Every day the Sun radiates an enormous amount of energy. How much solar energy a place on Earth receives depends on several conditions. In this lesson, students will explore real NASA satellite data for energy from the Sun and cloud cover for their area to determine if they can harness this solar energy, a renewable energy source, by using ... Full description.

The seasons on Earth are caused by the tilt of the Earth on its axis as it revolves around the Sun. The differences in climate along similar latitudes can be explained by local variations in heat transfer, such as sea and land breezes. The absorption of solar radiation by different surface materials also contributes to variations in temperature along similar latitudes. Students will learn to correlate ... Full description.

In developing models for climate change and weather prediction, the measurements of surface and near-surface temperature are an important factor in the modeling process. As the Sun heats the Earth's surface, the atmosphere is warmed from below by the processes of conduction and convection from the surface. However, near-surface air temperature (approximately 10 meters above the surface) is often different ... Full description.

There are many factors that affect an area's near surface temperature. One factor is the tilt of Earth's axis relative to the sun as it moves in its orbit around the Sun. These changes are due to the orientation of the tilted rotation axis with respect to the Sun. In this lesson, students will compare near surface temperature at the time of the solstices, the astronomical beginning for either summer ... Full description.