This PDF document discusses a field activity for K-12 students. The purpose of the activity is to observe type and cover of clouds including contrails. Students will observe ten types of clouds and how many of three types of contrails are visible, how much of the sky is covered with clouds, and how much is covered by contrails. The PDF is an instructor guide with detailed advice for administering ... Full description.

MY NASA DATA (Mentoring and inquirY using NASA Data) is an effort to develop microsets of Earth science data that are interesting and useful to the K-12 and citizen scientist communities. The datasets can be used with existing curriculum and enable students to practice math skills using real measurements of Earth system variables and processes. This Website provides the datasets along with lesson ... Full description.

Users download and analyze satellite images showing the amount of ozone in the stratosphere. They interpret the images to identify the ozone "hole" that develops over Antarctica each summer, and compare its size from year to year. Using freely available image analysis software, ImageJ, users quantify the area of the Antarctic ozone hole each October from 1996 to 2004. Finally, they bring their measurements ... Full description.

This lesson plan uses NASA satellite data to contrast amounts of cloud coverage over different climate regions in Africa. It introduces the circulation pattern of Hadley Cells and the band of convergence and convection called the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). The lesson also discusses how frequent cloud cover and precipitation occur along the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and how ... Full description.

This lesson plan uses NASA Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument percent coverage surface data with a world map to locate landmasses and bodies of water at the Earth's Equator. When using satellites to study Earth system processes, especially atmospheric processes, it is important to know what is the background that one is seeing on the Earth. This lesson provides an introduction ... Full description.

This lesson plan uses NASA satellite data to correlate cloud cover over Africa to the solar declination. The four seasons on Earth have a scientific basis. The earth is tilted 23.5 degrees from vertical. This tilt and the Earth's orbit around the sun are the reasons for the seasons. Earth's tilt and orbital position cause differing angles at which the sun's rays hit the surface of the Earth. As Earth ... Full description.

This lesson plan uses Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) cloud data and a weather map to explore cloud coverage during a winter storm. When atmospheric scientists, including meteorologists, study weather patterns, they may use several different sources of information. For example, in studying storm patterns, they may use a combination of Earth Observing Satellite data, such as from ... Full description.

This lesson plan uses Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) radiation data to understand seasonal variations in the pattern of net energy input to the Earth system. The net amount of energy received by different parts of the Earth at different times of year determines the type of weather and climate they will experience. The net radiative flux shows the combined effect of the Sun's ... Full description.

This user-contributed lesson plan provides instructions for several activities for students to perform to study the relationship of temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and dew point in cloud formation. The lesson involves graphing of weather balloon data using Excel spreadsheet software. Full description.

This user-contributed tutorial provides detailed instructions on how to make Excel graphs of data that is imported from the Internet. The tutorial contains sample screen images to assist in performing each step. The tutorial includes importing a second set of data and adding it as another series on the original graph. The tutorial includes questions to be answered based on the atmospheric lapse rates ... Full description.