Site Features

Site Features

Using the Earth's daily cycle to explore weather events and exponents of one year to examine climate systems dynamics, the Climate TimeLine examines key forces behind variations in weather and climate, their human implications, and how climatic, environmental and human systems interact with eachother. While much is known about weather and climate change, there is much that is unknown or uncertain. For example, reconstructing past climate events and understanding processes such as abrupt climate change is challenging. Forecasting future weather and climate, while improving, remains difficult due to the complexities of the climate system. In addition, separating the natural range of climate variability from human-caused climate change is no small task.

The left menu bar allows navigation to the following themes by timescale: summary pages, climate science, climate history and resources. Additional features include:

Data Access: One stop shopping for climatic characterizations and resources.

Tutorial: Demo of how to use the CTL to gain insight into climatic variability including learning activity on the Distribution of Climates on the Earth.

Glossary: Weather, climate, time-scale and evolutionary terms.

About the CTL:"What is the Climate TimeLine Information Tool?" and other frequently asked questions.

What is Variability? An overview of climate variance from formation to Earth to one hour scale.

Site Map: View the layout of the CTL.

Quiz: Test your knowledge of climate change. (Password required).

Climate Conundrum Quiz: 64 questions on the how's and why's of climate variability.

CTL Evaluation Resources: Assessing the proto-type and what's involved.

Contact Us with any questions or comments.

Your feedback is welcome and appreciated since it will help us improve the website.

The Climate TimeLine Information Tool has been developed by science educators at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado and NOAA's National Climatic Data Center and National Geophysical Data Center as a resource for exploring the complex world of climate science and history.

The Climate TimeLIne is honored to be selected as an exemplary web site for educators by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse (ENC) for their Digital Dozen collection, and for excellence in science education by the SciLinks program, a service of National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). The Climate TimeLine is also catalogued by the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE).

Submit a review of the Climate TimeLine to the Digital Library for Earth Systems Education (DLESE) by following this link.

Images in the timeline above are from the NOAA Photo Library.


http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ctl/features.html Downloaded Monday, 22-Sep-2008 01:08:38 EDT Last Updated Friday, 07-Oct-2005 12:25:59 EDT by paleo@noaa.gov Please see the Paleoclimatology Contact Page or the NCDC Contact Page if you have questions or comments.