Earth ID: 3837

Components of the Water Cycle on a Flat Map for Science On a Sphere

Visualizations by Cindy Starr Released on June 13, 2011

Water regulates climate, predominately 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.

These animations of the components of the water cycle were created for the Science On a Sphere production "Loop" 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 hourly clouds, precipitation, evaporation and water vapor. For more information on GEOS-5 see https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/systems/geos5.

Some of these visualizations are an orthographic view of the data used in Components of the Water Cycle.

Visualization Credits

Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer
Victoria Weeks (HTSI): Video Editor
Michael Starobin (HTSI): Producer
William Putman (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
James W. Williams (GST): Project Support
Shiloh Heurich (GST): Project Support

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3837

Data Used:

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.

view all stories where this data set is used