Analyzing Seasonal Soil and Air Properties

Purpose

Students review Earth System phenomena that are affected by soil moisture. They analyze and evaluate maps of seasonal global surface air temperature and soil moisture data from NASA satellites. Building from their observations, students will select a location in the US to extract scientific data and then create Behavior Over Time graphs for each variable and communicate their findings.

Learning Objectives

• Use evidence to create an explanation.
• Observe the seasonal changes of surface temperature and soil moisture from across the United States during 2017.
• Analyze temperature and moisture values and infer relationships between these variables.
• Create Behavior Over Time graphs of two datasets.

NASA Phenomenon Connection

Scientists worldwide warn of increasing temperatures in the future. There is a relationship between soil moisture and surface air temperature and this plays an important role in climate change that involves not only weather and climate but also the entire Earth System. NASA scientists strive to better understand how water availability changes around the globe, as well as better predict floods and drought in weather models. As Earth's temperature rises, our soils dry out and affect crop production, drought extent, and forest fire to name a few. NASA also researches additional phenomenon connected to soil moisture properties including landslide risks and vector-borne diseases (i.e., include but are not limited to cholera, malaria, dengue fever, Zika, schistosomiasis, and West Nile fever).