Support Your NES Meteorology Lessons with NPP Imagery

This image from November 24, 2011, is the first complete global image from VIIRS.The Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite on board NPOESS Preparatory Project, or NPP, NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite, acquired its first measurements on Nov. 21, 2011. The resulting high-resolution image shows a broad swath of eastern North America, from Canada’s Hudson Bay past Florida, to the northern coast of Venezuela in South America.



To learn more about the NPP mission and how NASA keeps satellites in orbit, check out NASA Now: Orbital Mechanics: Earth Observing Satellites, which is on the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus.

When you’re planning to teach the NES lessons “Weather and Climate: Satellite Meteorology” or “Meteorology: How Clouds Form,” check the NPP website to get updated information and imagery.

NASA Now: The Sun: The Impact of Solar Activity on Earth

NASA Now logoMeet Mitzi Adams, an astrophysicist studying the sun. Adams has been working as a solar scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., since 1988. She analyzes data in an attempt to predict solar flares and coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. Knowing when a solar flare, or CME, is going to occur is important for our satellites in orbit, for astronauts in space, and even for power companies on the ground. Instruments on board satellites now improve these predictions. In this episode, Adams presents the latest information about the sun’s layers, coronal mass ejections, solar flares and solar cycles.


This program is available on the NES Virtual Campus website beginning Jan 4, 2012.

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NASA Now: Origins and Evolution of the Universe: Cosmic Dust

NASA Now logoThis episode of NASA Now highlights recently discovered wonders of the universe as well as common cosmic dust. Discover how these microscopic particles floating in space could hold the key to the origins of the universe. And learn about an activity that introduces all the known chemical elements.


This program is available on the Virtual Campus beginning Dec. 21, 2012.



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Winter Solstice 2011

The sun, nearing winter solstice, travels low across the sky in a multiple-exposure picture made in Maine in 2002.This year, the winter solstice takes place on Thursday, Dec. 22 at 12:30 a.m. EST. The winter solstice marks the day when winter officially starts in the Northern Hemisphere and when days start to become incrementally longer. Do you understand why this happens? Find out at the Chandra website and then incorporate the information into the NES lessons Heat Transfer: MESSENGER — My Angle on Cooling (grades 5-8), Analyzing Solar Energy Graphs: MY NASA DATA (grades 9-12), and Temperature and Earth Climate: Modeling Hot and Cold Planets (grades 7-9).

NES Engineering Design Challenge Brings Rigor and Relevance to Classroom

NASA Explorer Schools educator Kaci Heins from Northland Preparatory Academy had seen the Engineering Design Challenge: Thermal Protection System demonstrated but did not have the lesson plans. However, this year she saw the module for the Thermal Protection Systems in the NASA Explorer Schools lesson library. She was thrilled because she had to teach thermal energy to her students as part of the new sixth-grade science curriculum. She knew this would be the perfect investigation to incorporate rigor and relevance into this unit.

Take time to read the NEON forum post <http://neon.intronetworks.com/#Forum/forum/2/1335/267/1407> to learn how Kaci used this lesson and see how you too can use it in your classroom.

NES Educator Uses Summer Research Experience to Enrich Lesson

Amanda Blough’s fourth-grade students at Corpus Christi School completed a unit on weather and the water cycle. The class talked about water, how it affects weather, and how it is recycled.


As a NASA Explorer Schools teacher, Amanda was able to add several additional resources to this unit after attending the NES summer recognition opportunity “Water Filtration” at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. By searching NASA Educators Online Network, or NEON, she found a recommendation for a NASA e-Clips video about how water is recycled on the International Space Station. The video shows students how much water people consume on Earth per day compared to how much water astronauts use on the space station per day. Her students did the NASA Engineering Design Challenge: Water Filtration Challenge to see what it takes to filter water to make it clean again. Blough showed pictures of the Environmental Control and Life Support System at Marshall and explained how it works.

To cap off the lesson, Blough took her students for a tour of the local water treatment plant so they could see firsthand how their city cleans the water they use in their homes.

NPP Settles Into Orbit

VIIRS data imposed on a globe.On Friday, Oct. 28, 2011, the NPOESS Preparatory Project spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NPP represents a critical first step in building the next-generation Earth-observing satellite system that will collect data on both long-term climate change and short-term weather conditions. NPP will extend and improve upon the Earth system data records established by NASA’s Earth Observing System fleet of satellites that have provided critical insights into the dynamics of the entire Earth system.


Learn all about the NPP satellite, different types of orbits and how NASA keeps satellites in orbit in NASA Now: Orbital Mechanics: Earth Observing Satellites. This NASA Now classroom video is found on the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus.

To read about the latest NPP mission discoveries and news, visit the mission website.

To share comments from your classroom on this or other episodes of NASA Now, visit the NASA Now Facebook wall.

Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.



New NASA iPhone App: Tracking Meteoroids

Surprising but true: Every day, on average, more than 40 tons of meteoroids strike our planet. Most are tiny specks of comet dust that disintegrate harmlessly high up in Earth’s atmosphere, producing a slow drizzle of meteors in the night sky. Bigger chunks of asteroid and comet debris yield dozens of nightly fireballs around the globe. Some are large enough to pepper the ground with actual meteorites.


With so much “stuff” zeroing in on our planet, NASA could use some help keeping track of it all.

Enter the Meteor Counter–a new iPhone app designed to harness the power of citizen scientists to keep track of meteoroids.The app is available free of charge in Apple’s app store. Just click on the link in the previous sentence or search for Meteor Counter in the app store, and let the observing begin.

Take a Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

Front cover of Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum showing various planets and Isaac Newton, among others.This resource presents the electromagnetic spectrum by introducing how we interact with these waves on a daily basis and how NASA scientists use the unique qualities of each wavelength to study the sun, planets and origins of the universe. EM waves measured by Earth-observing satellites help NASA scientists understand our Earth system and changing global patterns and climate.


For more information and links to the education materials, visit https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/tour_EMS.html

NASA Now — Exploring Asteroids: An Analog Mission

NASA Now program slateNASA Now — Exploring Asteroids: An Analog Mission is available on the NES Virtual Campus beginning Dec 14, 2011.


NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, project lead Bill Todd describes this analog mission and how aquanauts living and working in an undersea habitat are helping NASA prepare for future asteroid exploration. NASA Now Minutes are excerpts from a weekly current events program available for classroom use at the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus. 

Preview the program below