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WEATHER AFFECTING KIDSAT

Once on orbit, shuttle astronauts fly well above the weather, where the atmosphere is extremely thin. But weather affects the astronauts' visibility of the Earth; it also affects the KidSat camera's view of the ground. 

During the shuttle flight, we recommend that you have students staffing a "weather station": monitoring and reporting on the weather around the world. Before the shuttle flight, students should become familiar with the tools available to them, and should give some thought to the impact that weather will have on their photograph selections. During the flight, your weather team should minitor [[monitor]] the weather around the world, particularly at those sites you're interested in photographing. 

Before the Flight 

Before the flight, you can do some important preliminary planning. The global weather follows certain patterns. Knowing these patterns, scientists have put together maps showing the "average" cloud cover during a particular time of the year. You can use these average cloud cover maps to determine which parts of the world are most likely to be clear, and which are most likely to be cloudy, during the KidSat flight. For example, these maps will tell you that northern Africa is nearly always clear, while Central America is frequently covered in clouds. 

These average cloud cover maps can be found on pages 147-161 in the Atlas of satellite observations for global change by RJ Gurney. An example is included in the first activity of Activity Set #2 on page 8.31.

In preparation for the flight, the student weather team should become familiar with the web resources and satellite images available, and should be able to assess whether a region is currently cloudy, partly cloudy, or mostly clear. 

Day of the Launch 

Your weather team should identify the major storm systems, and identify areas of the world that are reasonably likely to be clear during the first KidSat photograph opportunities (which usually begin a day after launch). 

Teachers' Guide
Page 8.17