Earth  ID: 3648

Components of the Water Cycle

Water regulates climate, storing heat during the day and releasing it at night. Water in the ocean and atmosphere carry heat from the tropics to the poles. The process by which water moves around the earth, from the ocean, to the atmosphere, to the land and back to the ocean is called the water cycle. The animations below each portray a component of the water cycle. All use an identical view and camera motion to allow for easy compositing.

Data for the animation of global sea surface temperature was derived from a model run of ECCO's Ocean General Circulation Model. See http://www.ecco-group.org/model.htm for more information on ECCO.

Data for the animation of atmospheric phenomena was created using data from the GEOS-5 atmospheric model on the cubed-sphere, run at 14-km global resolution for 25-days. Variables animated here include evaporation, water vapor and precipitation.

For more information on the GEOS-5 see http://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/systems/geos5.

For more information on the cubed-sphere work see http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/610.3/cubedsphere.html.

All three of these animations are time synchronous throughout the animation to allow cross fades during compositing.

The final animation shown here, a pulsing network of rivers over the continents, represents the flow of water from land back into the ocean, thereby completing the water cycle.

A flat version of these animations can be found in item #3811.


Visualization Credits

Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer
Michelle Williams (UMBC): Producer
Matthew Rodell (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
William Putman (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Dimitris Menemenlis (NASA/JPL CalTech): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio This is a contribution of the Consortium for Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) funded by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3648

Data Used:
Groundwater Resources of the World
Data Compilation - BGR and UNESCO
GEOS-5 Atmospheric Model on the Cubed-Sphere also referred to as: GEOS-5 Cubed-Sphere
Model - NASA GMAO
The model is the GEOS-5 atmospheric model on the cubed-sphere, run at 14-km global resolution for 30-days. GEOS-5 is described here http://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/systems/geos5/ and the cubed-sphere work is described here http://sivo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cubedsphere_overview.html.
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.

This item is part of this series:
Earth Science Week

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> River
SVS >> SST
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Aerosols
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Water Vapor
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Precipitation
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Water Vapor >> Precipitable Water
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Water Vapor >> Water Vapor
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Precipitation >> Precipitation Amount
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Precipitation >> Rain
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> Copenhagen
SVS >> For Educators
SVS >> Water Cycle >> Condensation
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0