N A S A BESTS

For her high school graduation project, Stamatina Hunter investigated the impact of sun and Earth cycles on global warming. She used NASA data in her research, including information from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center on sunspot activity and images from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to compare the extremes of the sun's activity cycle.The project won first place in its category at the school science fair and led to recognition for Hunter from the U.S. Army and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She also received a scholarship from the American Meteorological Society. Hunter is using the scholarship to attend Penn State University where she is studying meteorology.The global warming investigation was not the first time Hunter used information from NASA in a research project. As a high school junior, she compared images from NASA's Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment, or GRACE, satellite with images from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission for a project about the effects of the monsoon season on India's gravitational pull.Her research indicated a correlation between the effects of the monsoon season and India's gravitational pull. "In India, during the monsoon season, some of the water becomes trapped in underground aquifers, adding to the area's mass. And when an area's mass is larger, then the gravitational pull will be greater," she said. "The increase is small, but significant enough to document."Hunter's sun activity project investigated the causes of global warming and climate change, a hot topic right now among scientists.Hunter focused primarily on the solar cycle and the Milankovitch cycles. Milankovitch cycles are a set of patterns in Earth's movement that affect the climate. She concluded that while these cycles impact temperatures on Earth, there are many variables causing Earth to heat up.Hunter said the projects prepared her for more in-depth investigations by making her more comfortable with the research process. She learned how to conduct a science investigation and how to communicate her findings in a way that people can understand.Hunter hopes to continue her research about global warming and other Earth phenomena as she studies meteorology in college.Source: NASA