Are you interested in finding out more about satellites, meteorology, weather phenomena, and forecasting? Learn about weather, climate, geoscience, and meteorology and discover how weather satellites work, compare weather on the Earth to that of other planets, find out the scientific facts behind weather folklore, and get an introduction to weather forecasting through the links below.
The Space Place (in English and Spanish) is an award-winning NASA and NOAA site targeting elementary-age students, teachers, and parents. It imparts a rich breadth and depth of space and Earth science and technology content, with GOES and GOES-R playing their parts. It speaks directly to its audience of 8 -11 year olds in a playful and appropriate way and also offers relevant content for educators and adults. The site makes the science of Earth and space exploration approachable and appealing to both aspiring scientists and kids who are just plain curious. It has several classroom activity articles related to weather, as well as downloadable posters and a fun GOES-R activity book for the youngest kids. Check out the links below and visit The Space Place for a full list of activities!
How Do Hurricanes Form? Hurricanes are called by other names, such as typhoons or cyclones, depending on where they occur. The scientific term for all these storms is tropical cyclone. Only tropical cyclones that form over the Atlantic Ocean or eastern Pacific Ocean are called "hurricanes."
How Do You Build a Weather Satellite?
How does a satellite stay up in space without falling back to Earth? How is a weather satellite able to take pictures or measure surface temperatures from space? How does a satellite communicate with Earth? These questions and more are answered in the booklet "How Do You Make a Weather Satellite."
SciJinks is the GOES and GOES-R website for middle- and high-school students and educators. It is all about weather, climate, and other Earth science and technology topics, made interesting and easy to understand by games, simple and colorful explanations, fun facts, lots of images, and videos. SciJinks explains the reasons for the seasons, the tides, and other mysteries in colorful "now I get it!" pages. SciJinks also has resources for teachers, downloadable posters, postcards, bookmarks, and more. Check out the links below and visit SciJinks to experience everything the site has to offer!
Often when we think of powerful hurricanes, we picture strong winds. But the biggest danger in a hurricane is not always damage from strong wind, it’s often from storm surge.
Weather Forged by Fire: Wildfires can create their own wind system! Learn how firestorms form and how they can be detected and monitored from space.
What is the Coriolis Effect? It affects weather patterns, it affects ocean currents and it even affects air travel. Learn more about this phenomenon.
A Brief History of Lightning Detection
The first lightning detector made the invention of the radio possible. Lightning and radio may sound like unrelated concepts but they are more similar than you might think.
What is El Niño?
El Niño is a weather pattern that occurs in the Pacific Ocean, but it is so big it affects weather all over the world. Learn about El Niño conditions and how we can take the ocean’s temperature from space!
El Niño and Lightning
El Niño conditions affect more than just clouds and rainfall. Scientists have discovered that increased lightning and even tornado activity go along with El Niño.
GOES-R Animated Videos Two new animations, I’m GOES-R and Getting GOES-R to Orbit tell the story of the GOES-R satellite. Learn about all the new things GOES-R will do and follow the satellite’s travels from construction to orbit. I’m GOES-R and Getting GOES-R to Orbit downloadable posters are also available.
SciJinks in a Snap: Lightning
What’s the deal with crackling and flashing clouds? This animation explains lightning and how the GOES-R series satellites will better monitor in-cloud lightning to help alert people to dangerous and intensifying storms. A downloadable poster is also available.
Stormy Space Weather
The sun isn’t only a burning ball of immensely hot gas. It’s a burning ball of immensely hot gas with a temper! This animation explains space weather and how the GOES-R series satellites will help monitor it. A downloadable poster is also available.
Fog and Low Clouds: Using Satellite Data to Improve Transportation Safety
This great resource for students explains fog and low stratus clouds, how they form, and how weather satellites can accurately detect fog from space, improving transportation safety. The poster also includes an activity to make fog in a bottle, plus discussion questions and a link to answers.
Satellite Controller: Imagine controlling a satellite orbiting earth. Much like a remote-controlled airplane, you send messages and tell it what to do. That’s what weather satellite controller Tom Boyd gets to do every day.
Smooth Flying: Mike Eckert is a National Aviation Meteorologist. He provides weather information to the Federal Aviation Administration, airlines and pilots. National Aviation Meteorologist focus on weather that will impact planes in the sky as well as those about to take off or land.
How Do You Become an Air Force Meteorologist?
In this installment of Wild Weather Jobs, Meteorology student and Air Force Recruit Britta Gjermo explains how she’s preparing to become an Air Force weather officer. After completing her training, Gjermo will be responsible for putting together weather briefings for training missions and possibly even actual military operations.
Can Meteorologists Help Fight Wildfires?
In this installment of Wild Weather Jobs, incident meteorologist Lisa Kriederman explains how she uses her expertise to help firefighters, emergency planners and residents stay as safe as possible during a wildfire.
How do Satellites Help Save Lives?
In this installment of Wild Weather Jobs, SARSAT Search and Rescue Specialist Christopher Eddy explains how he uses distress signals to organize and oversee search and rescue attempts. Learn how satellites like GOES-R play an important role in search and rescue efforts.
Keeping a Watchful Eye on Dangerous Ice In this installment of Wild Weather Jobs, Chief Scientist for the National Ice Center, Dr. Pablo Clemente-Colón uses his expertise as an oceanographer to provide analysis and forecasts about dangerous ice conditions anywhere in the ocean as well as global snow cover on land.
Climate Change: Fitting the Pieces Together: Fitting the PiecesTogether: This module discusses climate change, particularly as it is currently being affected by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases emitted by human activities. It also covers signs of climate change, how scientists study climate, the current thinking on future changes, and what can be done to minimize the effects.
Understanding the Hydrologic Cycle: This module helps students gain a basic understanding of the elements of the hydrologic cycle. Making use of illustrations, animations, and interactions, this module examines the basic concepts of the hydrologic cycle including water distribution, atmospheric water, surface water, groundwater, and snowpack/snowmelt.
Hurricane Strike!: Designed primarily for middle school students and funded by FEMA and the NWS, this module creates a scenario to frame learning activities that focus on hurricane science and safety. Versions are also available for hearing, motor, and visually impaired students, as well as Spanish-speaking.
Remote Sensing Using Satellites, 2nd Edition: In this MetEd module, learn about remote sensing in general and then more specifically about how it is done from satellites. The module focuses on the visible and infrared channels, those commonly seen on television broadcasts. Come explore the view of Earth from space and see what we see. The suggested audience for this module is high school and undergraduate students.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) offer a range of educational resources, programs, and events to support teachers and students. Learning resources include activities, curriculum modules, video clips, educational games, interactive simulations, and a variety of web pages with background info on weather, climate, the atmosphere, Sun and space weather, computer modeling, and Earth system science.
This collection of resources includes information on weather basics, air pressure, wind, atmosphere, humidity, cloud formation, the water cycle, and specifics on severe weather.
Sun and Space Weather:
This collection of resources includes information about the Sun and Space Weather, including Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejections.
Earth’s Atmosphere: Learn about the Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere and Exosphere and explore the atmosphere through interactive games.
This collection of resources defines climate and explains climate change and how it impacts earth.
NOAA Education Resourcesprovide information for students from K-12 as well as undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of weather, climate change and our planet, oceans and coasts, and satellites and space. A collection of resources is listed below and includes multimedia, lessons and activities, data and background information. Visit NOAA Education to explore all resources available.
Hurricanes: This collection focuses on education resources about hurricane science, dangers, safety, and preparedness.
El Nino: Education resources about the characteristics, measurements, and impacts of El Nino, La Nina and ENSO.
Education resources about space weather forecasting and related solar events.
This Collection provides educational resources and lesson plans that will support educators as they teach about daily weather observations, measurements and forecasts. The collection includes resources on weather data, weather station instrumentation, satellites, radar, weather maps, cloud charts, severe weather and weather safety
Weather Systems and Patterns
This collection highlights the patterns and major factors that influence global weather systems. Educational resources help build understanding of how these global systems link to regional and local weather. Includes information on global winds, pressure systems, jetstreams, and weather fronts.
Student Activities in Meteorology (SAM) I and SAM II: Information and educational activities in meteorology, climatology, ocean, and space science. Activities are designed for middle schoolers (6 - 8), but are usable for grades 4 and 12. The topics are designed so that students use trend-setting scientific research and cutting edge technology to learn the processes of science - data collecting, graphing, analyzing, predicting, etc., as well as information, principles, and concepts of science.
Science On a Sphere TM (SOS): A large visualization system that uses computers and video projectors to display animated data onto the outside of a sphere. SOS is an animated globe that can show dynamic, animated images of the atmosphere, oceans, and land of a planet. NOAA primarily uses SOS as an education and outreach tool to describe the environmental processes of Earth.
NASA Education Resources: Information for students from K-12 as well as undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of air, space, the universe, technology, engineering, mathematics, and NASA missions.