Description: Clouds are important to scientists because they reflect the Sun's light back to space and give shade to the surface. They also bring rain, which is important because all plants and animals need freshwater to live. These maps made from NASA satellite observations show how much of Earth's surface is covered by clouds for a given day, or over a span of days.
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Copyright Text: Imagery by Reto Stockli, NASA's Earth Observatory, using data provided by the MODIS Atmosphere Science Team, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Description: Clouds have the ability to cool our planet, or they can help to warm it. Because there are so many different kinds of clouds, and because they move and change so fast, they are hard to understand and even harder to predict. Scientists want to know how much sunlight clouds reflect and how much sunlight passes through clouds to reach Earth's surface. By measuring how much sunlight gets scattered by clouds back up into space, scientists can better understand how much clouds influence Earth's climate.
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Copyright Text: Imagery by Reto Stockli, NASA's Earth Observatory, using data provided by the MODIS Atmosphere Science Team, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Description: These maps show where and how much sunlight fell on Earth's surface during the 2011. Scientists call this measure solar insolation. Knowing how much of the Sun's energy reaches the surface helps scientists understand weather and climate patterns as well as patterns of plant growth around our world. Solar insolation maps are also useful to engineers who design solar panels and batteries designed to convert energy from the Sun into electricity to power appliances in our homes and work places.
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Copyright Text: Imagery by Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory, based on FLASHFlux data. FLASHFlux data are produced using CERES observations convolved with MODIS measurements from both the Terra and Aqua satellite. Data provided by the FLASHFlux team, NASA Langley Research Center.