NPPy: Big Planet, Little Bear

Narration: Katie Lewis and Marci Delaney

Transcript:

NPPy-portal (Howling wind, chimes, and music) NPPy: Mom, didn't there use to be more ice? NPPy's Mom: There was more, yes. NPPy: We've been walking for hours. Mom, aren't you hungry? NPPy's Mom: I am. NPPy: Mom check it out it's NPP. NPPy's Mom: Well, just do it over there. NPPy: No Mom, I mean it's a satellite called NPP and it's flown past us 3 times today. NPPy's Mom: Mmhm, can we please keep moving? NPPy: No, it's one of NASA's satellites Mom. (voice fades out) NPPy: So NPP basically checks the health of the Earth from Space. So cool. That's 5 instruments to help us make better weather predictions and even see what's going on with the climate. You hear a lot about the climate changing and how big a deal it is for everyone. But it's hard to really get what that means until you start to see changes at home. For my Mom and me, it's when our ice goes away. Might not mean a ton to you, but for us, it's how we find our food. It's our home. So how do we know if Earth is healthy or not? We need to look at it from outer space, using satellites like NPP. NPP has different sensors that look at different parts of the Earth's environment. Including the land, sky and water. Each sensor takes it's own look at what's happening and beams it down to us everytime NPP flies over. That'll show us what's happening right now to the sea ice, ocean temperatures, humidity, clouds and other things on the Earth, our home. And when we look at all these things together, it can tell us how our Earth is doing. And we can even compare them to stuff we've done in the past to see how everything is changing. The coolest thing is NPP will help predict the way things could change in the future. And that will help us figure out what we need to do now. NPPy's Mom: NPPy come on. Let's go. NPPy: OK Mom. Gotta go, see you later. Mom, wait up. Don't go so fast, it's icy. (Beeping satellite)