Investigating the Climate System: Winds

Investigating the Climate System: Winds
Primary Topic: 
Weather and Climate
Subtopics: 
Energy Cycle
Type: 
Lesson Plan
Audience: 
Formal, 6 - 8
Standards: 
ESS2.A
Keywords: 
wind, air pressure, photosynthesis, trophic level, trade winds
Summary: 
A downloadable PDF lesson plan which explores the role of wind in Earth systems.

Investigating the Climate System: Clouds

Thumbnail for Investigating the Climate System: Clouds
Primary Topic: 
Weather and Climate
Subtopics: 
Water Properties, Energy Cycle
Type: 
Lesson Plan
Audience: 
Formal, 6 - 8
Standards: 
ESS2.A
Keywords: 
clouds, energy cycle, climate, condensation
Summary: 
A downloadable PDF lesson plan which explores clouds and their role in Earth systems.

GCPEx Snow Campaign Wrap-Up

GCPEx logo on a snowy background
Primary Topic: 
Weather and Climate
Subtopics: 
Precipitation, Weather
Type: 
Video
Audience: 
Formal, 9 - 12
Standards: 
ESS2.A
Keywords: 
snowfall, field campaigns, algorithms, GCPEx, ground validation, Ontario
Summary: 
A summary of the GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment, which took place in January and February 2012 in Ontario, Canada.
Description: 

For six weeks in Ontario, Canada, scientists and engineers lead a field campaign to study the science and mechanics of falling snow. The datasets retrieved will be used to generate algorithms which translate what the GPM Core satellite "sees" into precipitation rates, including that of falling snow. Ground validation science manager Walt Petersen gives a summary of the GCPEx field campaign. Field campaigns are critical in improving satellite observations and precipitation measurements. 

What We Don't Know about Snow - GCPEx

Instrument at GCPEx
Primary Topic: 
Weather and Climate
Subtopics: 
Weather, STEM Careers
Type: 
Video
Audience: 
Informal, General
Keywords: 
snowfall, field campaigns, algorithms, GCPEx, ground validation
Summary: 
GPM Deputy Project Scientist Gail Skofronick-Jackson discusses GPM's snowfall measurement capabilities and the challenges of measuring snow.
Description: 

Predicting the future is always a tricky business -- just watch a TV weather report. Weather forecasts have come a long way, but almost every season there's a snowstorm that seems to come out of nowhere, or one that's forecast as 'the big one' that turns out to be a total bust.

In the last ten years, scientists have shown that it is possible to detect falling snow and measure surface snowpack information from the vantage point of space. But there remains much that is unknown about the fluffy white stuff.

"We're still figuring out how to measure snow from space," says Gail Skofronick-Jackson, a specialist in the remote sensing of snow at NASA's Goddard Space Fight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "We're where we were with measuring rain 40 years ago."

Video Text:

[wind howling] Gail: The GPM Core, with its ability to detect falling snow, it's one of the very first times that we've put sensors in space to specifically look at falling snow. And we're at that edge where rain was fifty years ago. So we're still figuring out how to measure snow. Snow is much more difficult than rain. Rain tends to be spherical-like drops but if you've ever been out in a snowfall event and you've looked at your shirt you see that snow comes in all different forms. And the sensors in space are actually sensitive to those shapes. And we're still trying to figure out all of that, and the GPM Core, with its additional frequencies and information on the sensors, is going to be able to provide us, for the first time, a lot more information about falling snow than we've ever done before.

NASA Earth Science: Water and Energy Cycle

Polar sea ice
Primary Topic: 
Water Cycle
Subtopics: 
Energy Cycle
Type: 
Website
Audience: 
Formal, 9 - 12, 6 - 8
Standards: 
ESS2.A, ESS2.C
Keywords: 
hydrologic cycle, energy cycle, polar caps
Summary: 
The Water and Energy Cycle Focus Area studies the distribution, transport and transformation of water and energy within the Earth System.

GPM Constellation of Satellites

Diagram of the satellites that make up the GPM constellation
Primary Topic: 
Technology
Type: 
Image
Audience: 
Formal, 9 - 12
Standards: 
ESS2.C
Keywords: 
GPM Core Observatory, GPM Constellation, NPP, GCOM-W1, Megha-Tropiques
Summary: 
Diagram of the multiple precipitation measurement satellites which comprise the GPM constellation.

Co-led by NASA and the Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) and Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission have built unprecedented international cooperation in space asset sharing and scientific collaboration to advance precipitation estimation from space for research and applications.

GPM is an international satellite mission specifically designed to unify and advance precipitation measurements from research and operational microwave sensors for delivering next-generation global precipitation data products. The GPM mission concept centers on deploying a GPM “Core” satellite by NASA and JAXA carrying an advanced combined active/passive sensor package to establish new reference standards for precipitation measurements from space. The combined active/passive sensor measurements can also be used to derive consistent precipitation estimates from a constellation of satellites provided by a consortium of international partners.

Through bilateral agreements with either NASA or JAXA, GPM achieves global coverage with a high sampling frequency by relying on both existing satellite programs and new mission opportunities from its partners. Each constellation member may have its unique scientific or operational objectives but contributes microwave measurements to GPM for the generation and dissemination of uniform global precipitation products for worldwide user communities.

In addition to the DPR and GMI on the GPM Core Observatory, the GPM constellation satellites have the following groups of conical-scanning microwave imagers and cross-track scanning humidity sounders:

  • Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) instruments on U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites
  • The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR-2) on JAXA’s Global Change Observation Mission - Water 1 (GCOM-W1) satellite
  • The Multi-Frequency Microwave Scanning Radiometer (MADRAS) and the multi-channel microwave humidity sounder (SAPHIR) on the Megha-Tropiques satellite provided by the Centre National D’Etudies Spatiales (CNES) of France and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
  • The Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) instrument on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-19 satellite
  • MHS instruments on the MetOp series of satellites launched by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)
  • The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) instruments on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP)
  • ATMS instruments on the upcoming NOAA-NASA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites
  • A microwave imager planned for the Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS)
  • In terms of formal GPM partnership development as of July 2011, NASA and JAXA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on GPM collaboration; NASA and CNES, and NASA and ISRO have bi-lateral Implementing Agreements ready for signatures to formalize the participation of Megha-Tropiques in GPM; NASA and NOAA are completing an Inter-agency Agreement on GPM cooperation; and NASA and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) have a MOU on GPM under development.

As more nations contribute to Earth observations from space in the coming decade, the long term vision is that GPM sampling will further benefit from additional microwave sensors such as those in the Chinese FY-3 series (ASM 2008), the Russian “MTVZA” sounder/imagers, and a tropical radiometer in the planning stage by the Brazilian Space Agency.

In 2002 the United Nations Program on “Remote Sensing for Substantive Water Management in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas" identified the GPM Mission as an outstanding example of peaceful uses of space. Within the framework of the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), GPM provides the cornerstone for developing the Precipitation Constellation under the auspices of the Committee of Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) to provide comprehensive, long-term, and coordinated observations of the Earth. During its mission life, GPM will be the first realization of the CEOS Precipitation Constellation.

USGS Water Cycle Diagram

A diagram of the water cycle provided by USGS
Primary Topic: 
Water Cycle
Type: 
Image
Audience: 
Informal
Keywords: 
evaporation, condensation, precipitation, groundwater, runoff, snowmelt, evapotranspiration
Summary: 
A diagram of the water cycle showing evaporation, condensation, precipitation and more.

Earth's water is always in movement, and the natural water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Water is always changing states between liquid, vapor, and ice, with these processes happening in the blink of an eye and over millions of years.

Science for a Hungry World: Agriculture and Climate Change

Fields in a farm
Primary Topic: 
Societal Applications
Subtopics: 
Climate, Freshwater Resources
Type: 
Video
Audience: 
Informal, 6 - 8, 9 - 12
Standards: 
ESS2.A
Keywords: 
climate, agriculture, crops, food production, farms
Summary: 
Video that explores how climate change will impact agriculture.
Description: 

How will climate change impact agriculture? This episode explores the need for accurate, continuous and accessible data and computer models to track and predict the challenges farmers face as they adjust to a changing climate.

Our World: Snowflakes

Thumbnail for Our World: Snowflakes
Primary Topic: 
Water Cycle
Subtopics: 
Precipitation
Type: 
Video
Audience: 
Informal, Formal, 6 - 8, K - 5
Standards: 
ESS2.A, ESS2.C
Keywords: 
snowflakes, snow, crystals, history
Summary: 
Find out how you can help NASA scientists study different types of snowflakes to learn about the atmosphere and changes in climate.
Description: 

Snowflakes are actually a history of what was happening in the atmosphere as the snowflake formed and fell to the ground. Find out how you can help NASA scientists study different types of snowflakes to learn about the atmosphere and changes in climate.

Original video on www.nasa.gov

Our World: Cool Clouds

Thumbnail for Our World: Cool Clouds
Primary Topic: 
Weather and Climate
Subtopics: 
Hydrologic Cycle, Precipitation, Weather
Type: 
Video
Audience: 
Informal, Formal, K - 5, 6 - 8
Standards: 
ESS2.C, ESS2.D
Keywords: 
water vapor, condensation, clouds, atmosphere, cloud types
Summary: 
Learn how clouds are formed and watch an experiment to make a cloud using liquid nitrogen.
Description: 

This video uses humor and a variety of speakers to teach students how clouds are formed and watch an experiment to make a cloud using liquid nitrogen. Find out how scientists classify clouds according to their altitude and how clouds reflect and absorb light, giving them different colors.

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