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Mission Briefing: Rain Belts and Drifting Balloons

Grade 6 earth science: launch site rain records and tracking balloons in both hemispheres show how uneven heating and Earth’s rotation shape winds and rain.

Grade 6ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-ESS2-6

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
10 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 6
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students use rain data to explain how the band of strongest heating creates a rain belt that shifts with the seasons.
Students use balloon tracks to explain how Earth’s rotation curves winds in each hemisphere.
Students use a circulation model to choose a launch site and month.

How to use

Have a globe or world map ready so students can find 8°N, 8°S, 20° and 45° in each hemisphere. Students can draw the balloon paths as arrows before answering questions 5–8.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-ESS2-6

Model how uneven heating and Earth's rotation cause patterns of atmospheric and ocean circulation that shape climate.

Preview

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Name Date

Mission Briefing: Rain Belts and Drifting Balloons

Use launch site rain records and balloon tracks to model global winds.

Rain at the launch sites

Read the passage and study Table 1. Then answer questions 1–4.

Launch Weather Briefing

1A space agency is planning to launch a new weather satellite, and its mission team must pick a launch site and a month. The agency, its sites and the numbers here are made up, but the patterns are based on real weather records. Sixth grader Elif Marangoni sat in on the planning briefing during a school visit, led by mission meteorologist Dr. Anouk Ferreira.

2Dr. Ferreira began with a model. Sunlight strikes Earth most directly in a band near the equator, so that band is heated more than places near the poles. Over a year, the place where the noon Sun is highest in the sky moves north and south, between about 23°N and 23°S. Where the surface is heated most, warm air rises. Rising air cools, and its water vapor condenses into tall clouds and heavy rain, making a belt of rainy weather. High up, the risen air spreads away from the equator, and some of it sinks again near 30° latitude. Near the surface, air flows back toward the equator.

3Because Earth rotates, air that moves a long way over its surface follows a curved path. In the Northern Hemisphere, it curves to the right of the direction it is moving. In the Southern Hemisphere, it curves to the left.

4The agency has two launch sites on ocean coasts: Site Norte at 8°N and Site Sur at 8°S. A rocket cannot launch through thunderstorms, so the team wants a month with as few rainy days as possible. Table 1 shows long-term averages.

5To study the winds, the agency also released four small tracking balloons from ships last year. Each balloon floated about 1 km above the ocean and drifted with the wind for 2 days while a satellite tracked it. Table 2 shows where each one went.