The visualization shows spring coming earlier and the Arctic ice caps receding over time
‘It’s a delicate place’: NASA captures 20 years of Earth’s seasonal changes
NASA has captured 20 years of changing seasons in a striking new global map of planet Earth.
The data visualization, released this week, shows Earth’s fluctuations as seen from space.
The polar ice caps and snow cover are shown ebbing and flowing with the seasons. The varying ocean shades of blue, green, red and purple depict the abundance – or lack – of undersea life.
“It’s like watching the Earth breathe. It’s really remarkable,” said NASA oceanographer Jeremy Werdell, who took part in the project.
Two decades – from September 1997 to this past September – are crunched into two and a half minutes of viewing.
Werdell said the visualization shows spring coming earlier and
autumn lasting longer in the Northern Hemisphere. Also noticeable to him
is the Arctic ice caps receding over time – and, though less obvious,
the Antarctic, too.
In the oceans, Werdell was struck by “this hugely productive bloom of biology” that exploded in the Pacific along the equator from 1997 to 1998 – when a water-warming El Nino merged into cooling La Nina. This algae bloom is evident by a line of bright green.
In considerably smaller Lake Erie, more and more contaminating algae blooms are apparent, appearing red and yellow.
All this data can provide resources for policymakers as well as commercial fishermen and many others, according to Werdell.
Programmer Alex Kekesi of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland said it took three months to complete the visualization, using satellite imagery.
The visualization will continually change, officials said, as computer systems improve, new remote-sensing satellites are launched and more observations are made.
Links
The data visualization, released this week, shows Earth’s fluctuations as seen from space.
The polar ice caps and snow cover are shown ebbing and flowing with the seasons. The varying ocean shades of blue, green, red and purple depict the abundance – or lack – of undersea life.
“It’s like watching the Earth breathe. It’s really remarkable,” said NASA oceanographer Jeremy Werdell, who took part in the project.
Two decades – from September 1997 to this past September – are crunched into two and a half minutes of viewing.
In the oceans, Werdell was struck by “this hugely productive bloom of biology” that exploded in the Pacific along the equator from 1997 to 1998 – when a water-warming El Nino merged into cooling La Nina. This algae bloom is evident by a line of bright green.
In considerably smaller Lake Erie, more and more contaminating algae blooms are apparent, appearing red and yellow.
All this data can provide resources for policymakers as well as commercial fishermen and many others, according to Werdell.
Programmer Alex Kekesi of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland said it took three months to complete the visualization, using satellite imagery.
The visualization will continually change, officials said, as computer systems improve, new remote-sensing satellites are launched and more observations are made.
Links
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- October 2017 was the second warmest October on record
- September 2017 was fourth warmest September on record
- The changing colors of our living planet
- Greenland melt speeds East Coast sea level rise
- Americans 'under siege' from climate disinformation – former NASA chief scientist
- NASA: sea levels rising as a result of human-caused climate change – video
- NASA's climate change satellite blasts off - video
- NASA scientist: climate change is a moral issue on a par with slavery
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