KN Simon
Unit 2 Investigation: Weather Observations and Data Products
Introduction
In this second investigation you will be given a series of graphics containing weather information which you will use to answer questions. The questions draw on the materials you have learned in Chapters 1-2 of Weather: A Concise Introduction.
Goals
1. To familiarize yourself with the available observational data products for Alaska.
2. To identify features and decode information on weather products based on what you have learned in your textbooks.
Equipment and Resources
Textbooks: Weather: A Concise Introduction + shared pdfs from ‘The Climate of Alaska’.
Paper, writing tools, and computer to fill in answers. You may print out the worksheet, answer using a pen or pencil, and submit a scan of the document. You may find it easier to answer the question using MS Word or google docs right in this document. Save and submit this document.
Internet access to visit weather websites.
Procedure
Read this entire Investigation document. Make sure you understand the directions and ask questions if anything is unclear.
Answer the questions in this word document. There are multiple questions in each of the five parts of the investigation.
Submit this word document under 2:1 – Unit 2 lab exercises in Canvas.
Explore some of the weather links below under ‘Learn more about weather resources.’
Learn more about weather resources (note the NWS Anchorage YouTube channel, item 3 below is important for Alaska and you will be using information from these videos in your work regularly during the semester)
1. This web page hosted at University of Washington provides a through set of global weather information: https://atmos.washington.edu/~hakim/Weather/
2. University of Wisconsin-Madison is the location of the Space Science and Engineering Center, home of Dr. Vernon Soumi, who is considered the ‘father’ of satellite meteorology. https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/geo-list/
3. NWS Anchorage YouTube channel where they provide daily weather briefings (2-3 minutes long) about the current state of Alaska weather and what is expected in the upcoming forecast.
https://www.youtube.com/user/NWSAnchorage/videos
4. Surface Weather Observation Stations ASOS/AWOS in Alaska.
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/weather/asos/?state=AK
These stations are on a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) web page.
Identify the station you want and hover over the pin. Then a menu will pop up and in that menu at the bottom it will say METAR data, click on that to get actual numbers. This data requires decoding and is hourly but only available for the last 96 hours.
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