Activity: Creating a False-Color Map
Major
Understanding
False-color maps provide a visual representation for non-visual data, such as
temperature or salinity. By color-coding the data, a map can be produced that
reveals data patterns not easily seen in the raw data. Such false-color
representations are common in weather maps and satellite images.
Materials
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Safety
Do not point thermometer laser directly at another person.
Directions
1. For the instructor prior to student arrival:
16 small note cards, numbered consecutively
1 thin, dark-colored piece of fabric, about 3’ X 5’
6 reusable hand warmers or other source of mild heat
1 infrared digital thermometer for every 2 or 3 students
1 4X4 “Recording Grid” for each student
1 8X8 “Mapping Grid” for each student
1 “Temperature Range Worksheet” for each student
Colored pencils or crayons
2. Activate the hand warmers and position them in the desired pattern on the
floor or a lab table. Typically the pattern is curvilinear, to represent a warm
water current or the earth’s equator.
3. Spread the fabric over the hand warmers to hide their locations.
4. Position the numbered note cards on top of the sheet, spreading them out and
arranging them consecutively in 4 rows. Each card corresponds to a square
in the Recording Grid.
5. Multiple setups may be used for larger groups of students.
For each group of students:
1. Use the digital infrared thermometer to measure the temperature at the upper
left-hand corner of card #1. Be sure to measure the temperature of the cloth
and not of the card itself.
2. Record the temperatures in the upper left-hand corner of square 1 on the
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Recording Grid.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to measure and record the temperatures of the
remaining three corners of card #1.
4. Repeat steps 1 – 3 to measure and record temperatures at the corners of the
remaining cards.
5. Complete the “Temperature Range Worksheet” to determine the temperature
ranges for your graph.
6. Assign a different color to each temperature range to create a color code for
your legend. Indicate this code on your Mapping Grid. You will have to
offset your ranges by 1o to prevent overlapping your temperatures.
7. Refer to your Recording Grid. For each temperature color the corresponding
square on your Mapping Grid using the appropriate color according to your
legend.
8. Examine your false color map. Do you notice any patterns or trends in the
colors? What structures or features might you infer from this map?
(Trends may include continuous color patterns; features such as vegetation
or currents.)
Optional
Procedures
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Instead of using numbered cards, use latitude/longitude lines and have
students map according to those coordinates.
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Instead of fabric, draw an image of the earth and position the hand warmers
in a band where the equator would be. Use ice packs for the poles.
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RECORDING GRID
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5
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MAPPING GRID
Low Range = __________________
Color =
Mid Range = ___________________
Color =
High Range = ___________________
Color =
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