MODIS Daily Global Snow Cover and Sea Ice Surface Temperature as seen in the SIGGRAPH 2005 Electronic Theater

  • Released Sunday, July 31, 2005
View full credits

This animation showing snow cover and sea ice surface temperature in the Northern Hemisphere portrays data collected from daily MODIS satellite images acquired during the winter of 2002-2003. Darkness increases with the onset of autumn, reaching a maximum at the Winter Solstice on December 21st. Thereafter, the circle of darkness shrinks as the period of daylight increases. Daily changes in sea ice are shown as ice surface temperature, which is related to the air temperature and the concentration of the sea ice. Sea ice surface temperatures range from about -40 to -2 degrees Celsius. Here, ice surface temperatures are depicted by colors, described by a color bar shown below. The snow tracks of several winter storms across the United States can be clearly seen. With an albedo of up to 80 percent or more, snow-covered terrain reflects most of the incoming solar radiation back into space, cooling the lower atmosphere. When snow cover melts, the albedo drops suddenly to less than about 30 percent, allowing the ground to absorb more solar radiation, heating the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere. Rapid changes in albedo, resultingfrom snowfall and snow melt, cause significant changes in the regional energy balance. This animation was accepted into the prestigious 2005 SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater, where it was shown during the annual conference from July 31 through August 4, 2005 in Los Angeles, CA. For more information on the data sets used in this visualization, visit NASA's EOS DAAC website.

This animation shows the daily advance and retreat of snow cover, and sea ice surface temperature over the Northern Hemisphere during the winter of 2002-2003. There are two sets of frames available for each resolution (HD 1080i and NTSC). The background frames contain the Earth and data. The overlay frames contain the color bar, time bar, and other text.

This image shows the snow cover and sea ice surface temperature on March 15, 2003.

This image shows the snow cover and sea ice surface temperature on March 15, 2003.

This color bar used for the sea ice surface temperature shows the water above 0 Celsius as light blue. Temperatures between 0 and -15 Celsius are shown in shades of pink. (Note that sea ice forms below -2 Celsius.) Shades of purple represent sea ice surface temperatures below -15 degrees Celsius and temperatures below -28 degrees Celsius are shown in shades of blue/gray.

This color bar used for the sea ice surface temperature shows the water above 0 Celsius as light blue. Temperatures between 0 and -15 Celsius are shown in shades of pink. (Note that sea ice forms below -2 Celsius.) Shades of purple represent sea ice surface temperatures below -15 degrees Celsius and temperatures below -28 degrees Celsius are shown in shades of blue/gray.

For More Information

See http://www.siggraph.org/s2005/main.php?f=conference&p=caf&s=et

Credits

Full Animation Credits:

Directed by
Dr. Dorothy K. Hall
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Produced by
Dr. Horace G. Mitchell
Scientific Visualization Studio
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Music
'Luna D'Espagna'
Composed and Performed by
Robert Hitz
Courtesy of Zederwalt Music

Contributors
Randall Jones, Global Science and Technology
Alex Kekesi, Global Science and Technology
Kevin Mahoney, Computer Sciences Corporation
Lori Perkins, NASA
Stuart Snodgrass, Global Science and Technology
Eric Sokolowsky, Global Science and Technology
James W. Williams, Global Science and Technology

Audio Recording by
Fred Kemman, Honeywell Technology Solutions

Audio Mixing by
Mike Velle, Honeywell Technology Solutions

MODIS data courtesy of the
MODIS Science Team
Dr. Vince Salmonson, Team Lead
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

SeaWiFS data courtesy of the
SeaWiFS Project
and
GeoEye
NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye (NOTE: In January 2013, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye combined to become DigitalGlobe).

Blue Marble MODIS data composite courtesy
of the MODIS Science Team
and the
NASA Earth Observatory
Reto Stockli, Science Systems and Applications, Inc.

This page was originally published on Sunday, July 31, 2005.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:56 PM EDT.

Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions:

Series

This visualization can be found in the following series:

Datasets used in this visualization

  • Sea Ice Extent and Ice Surface Temperature Daily L3 Global 4km EASE-Grid Day (MYD29E1D) [Aqua: MODIS]

    ID: 253
    Sensor: MODIS Dates used: 2002/07/01 - 2003/05/31

    This dataset can be found at: http://nsidc.org/data/myd29e1d.html

    See all pages that use this dataset

  • Monthly Land Reflectance [SeaStar: SeaWiFS]

    ID: 472
    Sensor: SeaWiFS Dates used: 2002/07/01 - 2003/05/31

    All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye.

    Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, The SeaWiFS Project and GeoEye, Scientific Visualization Studio. NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye (NOTE: In January 2013, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye combined to become one DigitalGlobe.).

    This dataset can be found at: http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/PRODUCTS/

    See all pages that use this dataset

  • Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG (MOD10C1) [Terra: MODIS]

    ID: 504
    Sensor: MODIS Dates used: 2002/07/01 - 2003/05/31
    See all pages that use this dataset

  • BMNG (Blue Marble: Next Generation) [Terra and Aqua: MODIS]

    ID: 508
    Sensor: MODIS Dates used: 1/1/2004 - 12/31/2004

    Credit: The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).

    This dataset can be found at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/

    See all pages that use this dataset

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.