How Do Ice Cores Allow Researchers to Look at Global Change?

In this video, a PhD Student from the University of Maine explains how ice cores are used to study global climate change.

What is the fate of CO2 produced by fossil fuel combustion?

Students consider why the observed atmospheric CO2 increase rate is only ~60% of the CO2 loading rate due to fossil fuel combustion. They develop a box-model to simulate the atmospheric CO2 increase during the industrial era and compare it to the historic observations of atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The model is then used to forecast future concentrations of atmospheric CO2 during the next century.

Mass Balance Model

In this JAVA-based interactive modeling activity, students are introduced to the concepts of mass balance, flow rates, and equilibrium using a simple water bucket model. Students can vary flow rate into the bucket, initial water level in the bucket, and residence time of water in the bucket. After running the model, the bucket's water level as a function of time is presented graphically and in tabular form.

Predicting Patterns: What Does La NiÃa Look Like?

This is an activity designed to allow students who have been exposed to the El NiÃo-Southern Oscillation to analyze the La NiÃa mechanism and predict its outcomes in a case study format.

Is Climate Change Happening?

For this lesson, the guiding Concept Question is: What is climate change and how does climate relate to greenhouse gas concentrations over time? This activity is the second lesson in a nine-lesson module 'Visualizing and Understanding the Science of Climate Change' produced by the International Year of Chemistry project (2011).

Lee Hotz: Inside an Antarctic Time Machine

In this TED talk, Wall Street Journal science columnist Lee Hotz describes the research of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide project, in which scientists examine ice core records of climate change in the past to help us understand climate change in the future.

Shrinking Glaciers: A Chronology of Climate Change

This video features scientists in New Zealand's Southern Alps, examining samples from the rocky landscape once dominated by glaciers. Their research, combined with other climate records, has revealed a link between glacial retreat and rising levels of carbon dioxide in the air.

Sea Surface Temperature

This interactive visualization depicts sea surface temperatures (SST) and SST anomalies from 1885 to 2007. Learn all about SST and why SST data are highly valuable to ocean and atmospheric scientists. Understand the difference between what actual SST readings can reveal about local weather conditions and how variations from normalâcalled anomaliesâcan help scientists identify warming and cooling trends and make predictions about the effects of global climate change. Discover the relationships between SST and marine life, sea ice formation, local and global weather events, and sea level.

West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide: Modeling our Future Climate

In this video, students see how data from the ice core record is used to help scientists predict the future of our climate. Video features ice cores extracted from the WAIS Divide, a research station on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Arctic Climate Curriculum, Activity 3: Exploring Arctic Climate Data

In this activity, students use authentic Arctic climate data to unravel some causes and effects related to the seasonal melting of the snowpack and to further understand albedo.

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