Using My NASA Data to generate maps of precipitation and surface temperature, students can represent weather data in a way that shows global patterns during different times of the year. Students can use the website to create their maps and use the images to describe patterns of weather conditions through the year in locations around the world.
The GLOBE Earth Systems Poster has 36 global images. There are six mages for each of the following variables – insolation (amount of solar radiation reaching Earth’s surface), surface temperature, cloud fraction (amount of cloud cover), precipitation, aerosol optical thickness (tiny solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere) and biosphere (ocean: chlorophyll concentration and land: vegetation). Each of the six images represents a month of the year – January, March, May, July, September, and November. The most recent downloadable poster is 2007; however, more recent years’ images can be created using the My NASA Data website. There is a Learning Activities packet that accompanies the poster that provides an overview, instructions for 5 learning activities, 3 assessment activities, 2 extension activities and an appendix.