Initial Publication Date: October 20, 2010

Ambassador Program: Earth Exploration Toolbook Resources

New chapters from the Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET) are being released each month. Many of these chapters use ImageJ, GIS software, and Google Earth. If you use an EET chapter in your Ambassador training and if those teachers in turn implement what they learned with their students, then those teachers will be eligible for a $120 stipend after sharing the results of their classroom implementation. If you also use the chapter with your own class, you many be eligible for the $120 stipend. The requirements for the stipend for you and your trained teachers are outlined at EET Discussion & Implementation

ImageJ Chapters

Analyzing the Antarctic Ozone Hole — Measure and graph the area of depleted ozone from Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) images.

Annotating Change in Satellite Images — Use time-series images to produce a map documenting landuse changes in China.

Exploring and Animating GOES Images — Transform a time series of GOES images into an animation. Plot a storm track and determine storm speed.

Measuring Distance and Area in Satellite Images — Use ImageJ to quantify change over time in satellite images.

Shrinking Forest - Growing Problem — Use time-series Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images to create a color composite image showing the oldest to most recently deforested areas in the Amazon rainforest.

Using NASA NEO and ImageJ to Explore the Role of Snow Cover in Shaping Climate — Explore and animate satellite images of reflected short wave radiation, snow cover, and land surface temperature. Then observe, graph, and analyze the relationship between these three variables.

Whither Arctic Sea Ice? — Animate thirty years of sea ice images, measure the ice extent each year, and then graph and analyze the results.

GIS Chapters

Detecting El Nino in Sea Surface Temperature Data — Create and analyze fifteen years of average SST maps to find El Niño and La Niño events.

Evidence for Plate Tectonics — Identify relationships among sea-floor age, earthquakes, and volcanoes to understand how they support the theory of plate tectonics.

Exploring Monsoon Precipitation and Streamflow in a Semi-Arid Watershed — Investigate the effect of summer thunderstorms on streamflow in a semi-arid watershed in Arizona.

Investigating Earthquakes with AEJEE — Download earthquake data from the USGS. Bring it into a GIS and analyze it to predict where the next big earthquake will occur on Earth.

Is Greenland Melting? — Explore map layers to examine annual melting and long term changes of Greenland's ice sheet.

Looking into Earth with GIS — Examine seismic wave data in a GIS and analyze wave velocities to infer the depth of the crust-mantle boundary.

Mapping Local Data — Follow a study of Urban Heat Islands as an example of a map-based science research project.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: What's in Your Woods? — Investigate forest biodiversity in Maine and consider the environmental factors that contribute to tree species diversity.

Whither Arctic Sea Ice? — Animate thirty years of sea ice images, measure the ice extent each year, and then graph and analyze the results.

Tsunami Run-up Prediction for Seaside, Oregon with MyWorld GIS — Use Geobrain Online Analysis System (GeOnAS) to access, view, and process digital elevation model (DEM) data. Import into My World GIS to visualize the potential sea-level rise that could occur during a tsunami run-up event.

Tsunami Run-up Prediction for Seaside, Oregon with ArcExplorer GIS — Use Geobrain Online Analysis System (GeOnAS) to access, view, and process digital elevation model (DEM) data. Import into AEJEE GIS to visualize the potential sea-level rise that could occur during a tsunami run-up event.

Protecting Wetlands from Exurban Development — Use My World GIS tools in order to determine the best location for issuing a fifty-acre development permit in Baker County, FL.

Google Earth and Other Visualizations Chapters

Exploring Air Quality in Aura NO2 Data — Explore relationships between air quality and population density using the image visualization tool, Google Earth. Learn how to download NO2data and analyze them to develop a conceptual understanding of how population and topography can influence the air quality of a region.

Exploring Seafloor Topgraphy — Learn how data is gathered about the depth of the ocean floor and how these data are displayed in freeware GeoMapApp and create your own profiles of bathymetry globally.

Climate History from Deep Sea Sediments — Users access Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) core data with Virtual Ocean software. They examine ocean floor core data from the CHRONOS data portal to search for a specific planktonic foraminifera as indicators of abrupt global warming.

GPS Chapters

Litter Retriever with a GPS Receiver — Track litter in a park or public space with a GPS receiver. Then import the data into Google Earth and consider the ideal location for new trash receptacles.

Analyzing Plate Motion Using EarthScope GPS Data — Access GPS data from the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) and analyze the data in a spreadsheet to measure the motion of GPS stations in the Pacific Northwest.