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Education: Student Outcomes |
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Outcome: Describe the connections between the salt water found in the ocean and the fresh water in the water cycle. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Grade level: K-4 Theme: ocean circulation Flat Tool: http://ourocean.jpl.nasa.gov/AQUARIUS/chp2.jsp GoogleEarth Interface Tool: http://aquarius.jpl.nasa.gov/AQUARIUS_DEV/chp2.jsp Create global maps of mean conditions for any month at designated depths (down to 1500m) using the pull-down menus. Monthly time-series graphs of salinity, temperature, or density can be plotted by selecting up to six locations (by clicking on the map or typing latitude/latitude information into the fields below). These time-series graphs can also represent up to six different depths. Plotted data will also be shown in a table that is easily downloaded (e.g., into Excel). Sources include interpolated atlas data or actual measurements from the database. Focus Questions | Flat Tool Tutorial Grade level: K-4 Theme: ocean circulation Video: water_cycle_ipod_640x480.m4v.flv
Clouds can move great distances and eventually the water molecule will fall as rain or snow. Ultimately, the water molecule arrives back where it started...at the ocean. (source) Grade level: K-4 Theme: ocean circulation Activity: http://aquarius.nasa.gov/water_cycle.html
Water can change states among liquid, vapor (gas), and ice (solid) at various stages of the water cycle. Temperature affects the change of water from one state to another. When water vapor gets cold it changes to a liquid. This is called condensation. When heat is applied to water, it changes from a liquid to a gas. This is called evaporation. This activity will focus specifically on two aspects of the water cycle: evaporation and condensation. Key Concepts Evaporation occurs when a liquid is changed into a gas.
Evaporation occurs when the temperature of a liquid is increased.
Condensation occurs when a gas is changed into a liquid.
Condensation occurs when the temperature of the vapor decreases.
When the sun heats up water in rivers, lakes or the ocean, it turns into vapor or steam. The water vapor or steam leaves the body of water and goes into the air. Background The water cycle has no starting point. But we'll begin in the oceans, since that is where most of the Earth's water exists. The sun, which drives the water cycle, heats water in the oceans. Some of it evaporates as vapor into the air. Ice and snow can sublimate directly into water vapor. Rising air currents take the vapor up into the atmosphere, along with water from evapotranspiration, which is water transpired from plants and evaporated from the soil. The vapor rises into the air where cooler temperatures causes it to condese into clouds. Grade level: K-4 Theme: ocean circulation Video: water_everywhere_02.flv
Condensation is the process by which water vapor molecules cool, stick together, and become liquid again in cloud formation. This often happens high in the atmosphere where the temperature is much lower than it is near the surface. Paula Bontempi: "What happens in the atmosphere is, just like we have currents in the ocean, we have winds in the atmosphere that actually, to some extent, drive what goes on in the ocean currents. Materials in the atmosphere can travel a great distance, sometimes a quarter of a way around the world, just until they get to the point where they actually turn into rain or snow and thereby fall back to the ocean or fall back to the land. This is called precipitation. If the water molecule falls on the land as snow, it may be stored for a very long period of time in a polar ice sheet or mountain glacier, depending on climate conditions." Matt Rodell: "When rain falls or the snow melts, typically the next place it goes, it infiltrates the soil. So soil is not solid. It's not like a rock, there are pore spaces that can be filled with water and typically there is a certain amount of water in the soil at all times. If soil was completely dry, plants wouldn't be able to grow." (source) Grade level: K-4 Theme: ocean circulation Video: WC_precipitation_IPOD.m4v.flv
Water regulates climate, storing heat during the day and releasing it at night. Water in the ocean and atmosphere carry heat from the tropics to the poles. The process by which water moves around the earth, from the ocean, to the atmosphere, to the land and back to the ocean is called the water cycle. This animation was created using data from the GEOS-5 atmospheric model on the cubed-sphere, run at 14-km global resolution for 30-days. Variables animated here include evaporation, water vapor and precipitation. This animation is time synchronous throughout the animation to allow cross fades during compositing. (source) Grade level: K-4 Theme: ocean circulation Video: water_everywhere_01.flv
Let's follow a single molecule of water, beginning in the ocean, through the paths it might take before eventually winding up right where it started - back in the big blue sea. The fuel for this journey will be provided by our planet's prime energy source: the sun. During the day, the sun heats up the air and ocean surface, causing water molecules to evaporate. Evaporation occurs when a liquid molecule of water escapes into the air as a gas. This scientific visualization shows how water evaporation, indicated in turquoise, is driven by the energy of the sun. Notice how the rate of evaporation pulses over land: it speeds up during the day and almost disappears at night. Over the ocean, evaporation appears to remain constant, both day and night. Water in the air in gas form is known as water vapor. The molecule is now fresh water, having left the ocean salt and other particles behind. (source) Grade level: K-4 Theme: ocean circulation Video: Evap_and_clock_IPOD.m4v.flv
Water regulates climate, storing heat during the day and releasing it at night. Water in the ocean and atmosphere carry heat from the tropics to the poles. The process by which water moves around the earth, from the ocean, to the atmosphere, to the land and back to the ocean is called the water cycle. This animation was created using data from the GEOS-5 atmospheric model on the cubed-sphere, run at 14-km global resolution for 30-days. Variables animated here include evaporation, water vapor and precipitation. This animation is time synchronous throughout the animation to allow cross fades during compositing. (source) Grade level: K-4 Theme: ocean circulation Video: WC_evaporation_IPOD.m4v.flv
Water regulates climate, storing heat during the day and releasing it at night. Water in the ocean and atmosphere carry heat from the tropics to the poles. The process by which water moves around the earth, from the ocean, to the atmosphere, to the land and back to the ocean is called the water cycle. This animation was created using data from the GEOS-5 atmospheric model on the cubed-sphere, run at 14-km global resolution for 30-days. Variables animated here include evaporation, water vapor and precipitation. This animation is time synchronous throughout the animation to allow cross fades during compositing. (source) Grade level: K-4 Theme: ocean circulation Video: WC_vapor_IPOD.m4v.flv
Water regulates climate, storing heat during the day and releasing it at night. Water in the ocean and atmosphere carry heat from the tropics to the poles. The process by which water moves around the earth, from the ocean, to the atmosphere, to the land and back to the ocean is called the water cycle. This animation was created using data from the GEOS-5 atmospheric model on the cubed-sphere, run at 14-km global resolution for 30-days. Variables animated here include evaporation, water vapor and precipitation. This animation is time synchronous throughout the animation to allow cross fades during compositing. (source) Grade level: K-4 Theme: ocean circulation Video: WC_SST_IPOD.m4v.flv
Water regulates climate, storing heat during the day and releasing it at night. Water in the ocean and atmosphere carry heat from the tropics to the poles. The process by which water moves around the earth, from the ocean, to the atmosphere, to the land and back to the ocean is called the water cycle. Data for this animation was derived from a model run of ECCO's Ocean General Circulation Model of heat along the ocean's surface. (source) Grade level: K-4 Theme: ocean circulation Video: WC_rivers_IPOD.m4v.flv
Water regulates climate, storing heat during the day and releasing it at night. Water in the ocean and atmosphere carry heat from the tropics to the poles. The process by which water moves around the earth, from the ocean, to the atmosphere, to the land and back to the ocean is called the water cycle. (source) |