WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:04.030 [Applause] 2 00:00:04.030 --> 00:00:08.090 [Applause] 3 00:00:08.090 --> 00:00:12.110 Thank you! Our Earth is a water planet 4 00:00:12.110 --> 00:00:16.180 from the oceans, ice, rivers, lakes 5 00:00:16.180 --> 00:00:20.330 and aquifers to the water suspend in our atmosphere, 6 00:00:20.330 --> 00:00:24.380 our Earth is definitely a water planet. Take a look at 7 00:00:24.380 --> 00:00:28.440 our lovely Earth? Did you know that 99.5% of that water 8 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:32.470 is stored in our salty seas or locked up in glaciers 9 00:00:32.470 --> 00:00:36.480 and other inaccessible locations, leaving precious little fresh water 10 00:00:36.480 --> 00:00:40.520 available to support our life on Earth? 11 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:44.580 So one of the vital signs of our Earth is the water cycle 12 00:00:44.580 --> 00:00:48.610 and understanding it and knowing it will help us to monitor our 13 00:00:48.610 --> 00:00:52.780 freshwater resources and we can do this by measuring 14 00:00:52.780 --> 00:00:56.800 where, how the water moves within our planet 15 00:00:56.800 --> 00:01:00.860 and I will talk about that today. 16 00:01:00.860 --> 00:01:04.920 This is a cartoon of our water cycle. It shows the 17 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:08.950 linkages between the surface water, condensation, 18 00:01:08.950 --> 00:01:12.990 precipitation, and evaporation. The water cycle is a 19 00:01:12.990 --> 00:01:17.060 complex system that drives the movement of water and actually 20 00:01:17.060 --> 00:01:21.100 heat and energy around our planet; 21 00:01:21.100 --> 00:01:25.150 let's start by exploring the role of our deep and vast oceans 22 00:01:25.150 --> 00:01:29.230 in the water cycle. As you can see in this visualization 23 00:01:29.230 --> 00:01:33.270 of satellite data, the 24 00:01:33.270 --> 00:01:37.340 ocean surface temperatures are not uniform around the oceans. 25 00:01:37.340 --> 00:01:41.460 The warm waters is in red and the cool waters 26 00:01:41.460 --> 00:01:45.470 is in blue; drive the movement of water and heat 27 00:01:45.470 --> 00:01:49.570 throughout the oceans which can in turn then influence our 28 00:01:49.570 --> 00:01:53.590 weather patterns such as might be saying during El Niño and 29 00:01:53.590 --> 00:01:57.610 La Niña Years. Also, driving the movement of water 30 00:01:57.610 --> 00:02:01.660 in our oceans is salinity. As shown in this 31 00:02:01.660 --> 00:02:05.680 visualization of Aquarius satellite data from NASA 32 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:09.730 where evaporation occurs, our oceans get saltier, 33 00:02:09.730 --> 00:02:13.750 it's shown in red, where precipitation falls, ice melts 34 00:02:13.750 --> 00:02:17.780 or rivers discharge our oceans get fresher as shown in the 35 00:02:17.780 --> 00:02:21.880 blue. As your ocean water becomes saltier it 36 00:02:21.880 --> 00:02:25.920 becomes more dense and settles down to the bottom of the ocean and 37 00:02:25.920 --> 00:02:29.990 vice versa for the less salty water which rises to the top. 38 00:02:29.990 --> 00:02:34.060 Taken together, surface temperatures, 39 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:38.190 salinity and also the ocean winds, the winds 40 00:02:38.190 --> 00:02:42.220 above the ocean, combine in a complex stance 41 00:02:42.220 --> 00:02:46.270 that drives the ocean circulation patterns as shown here. 42 00:02:46.270 --> 00:02:50.370 The oceans also store massive amounts of heat 43 00:02:50.370 --> 00:02:54.400 and are very slow to release it which makes them 44 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:58.430 a major driver in our Earth's climate system. 45 00:02:58.430 --> 00:03:02.470 The oceans and the atmosphere actually 46 00:03:02.470 --> 00:03:06.500 work together. Without the oceans, the water stays 47 00:03:06.500 --> 00:03:10.540 on surface and we need the atmosphere as well. 48 00:03:10.540 --> 00:03:14.570 For example, intense sunlight in the tropics 49 00:03:14.570 --> 00:03:18.640 causes evaporation from the salty oceans 50 00:03:18.640 --> 00:03:22.750 and that water forms in to massive clouds. Those 51 00:03:22.750 --> 00:03:26.790 massive clouds, that are moved by the atmospheric winds to the 52 00:03:26.790 --> 00:03:30.880 mid-latitudes where precipitation occurs either in the form of rain 53 00:03:30.880 --> 00:03:34.980 or snow. The only way to get a global perspective 54 00:03:34.980 --> 00:03:39.050 of precipitation patterns is to measure from spaceborne 55 00:03:39.050 --> 00:03:43.080 platforms. Six months ago NASA and the Japan 56 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:47.140 Aerospace Exploration Agency launched our 57 00:03:47.140 --> 00:03:51.230 joint Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory Satellite 58 00:03:51.230 --> 00:03:55.260 or GPM for short. 59 00:03:55.260 --> 00:03:59.330 With two advanced instruments, the Core Observatory for the first time is able 60 00:03:59.330 --> 00:04:03.350 to measure all phases of precipitation from very, very 61 00:04:03.350 --> 00:04:07.400 heavy rain to light rain to falling snow. 62 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:11.480 The GPM spacecraft serves as an anchor 63 00:04:11.480 --> 00:04:15.500 to a domestic and international constellation of satellite 64 00:04:15.500 --> 00:04:19.540 partners, which collectively provide precipitation 65 00:04:19.540 --> 00:04:23.600 estimates everywhere in the world every three hours, 66 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:27.680 in essence taking the pulse of the 67 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:31.720 planet's precipitation. 68 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:35.780 This imagery shows one of the very first events 69 00:04:35.780 --> 00:04:39.920 measured by the GPM spacecraft. 70 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:43.940 It was one of the late-season falling snow events 71 00:04:43.940 --> 00:04:48.020 here in East Coast on March 17. The resulting 72 00:04:48.020 --> 00:04:52.130 7 inches of snow in the Washington DC area may have 73 00:04:52.130 --> 00:04:56.180 affected your St. Patrick's Day plans this year. 74 00:04:56.180 --> 00:05:00.270 Off the coast of the Carolinas, the high cloud tops 75 00:05:00.270 --> 00:05:04.290 are icy, down at the surface heavy rains shown in red 76 00:05:04.290 --> 00:05:08.320 fell in the Atlantic Ocean. Further North, overland, 77 00:05:08.320 --> 00:05:12.440 the storm has much lower cloud tops and they are composed of snow 78 00:05:12.440 --> 00:05:16.460 shown in blue which fell at the surface and we can see this information 79 00:05:16.460 --> 00:05:20.530 because the GPM spacecraft has two advanced instruments; 80 00:05:20.530 --> 00:05:24.640 one of them which I like to call the x-ray through the clouds 81 00:05:24.640 --> 00:05:28.660 measures the precipitation all way through the cloud and provides 82 00:05:28.660 --> 00:05:32.730 what I would call an x-ray at the surface. It's a two-dimensional view of the precipitation. 83 00:05:32.730 --> 00:05:36.850 The other instrument on board is what I like to call 84 00:05:36.850 --> 00:05:40.890 taking a CAT scan of the clouds and it takes layer by layer 85 00:05:40.890 --> 00:05:44.970 within the clouds information about the precipitation that's vital for 86 00:05:44.970 --> 00:05:48.990 helping us to understand precipitation and weather forecasting 87 00:05:48.990 --> 00:05:53.040 and climate models. 88 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:57.080 So we're very excited about this data. Where else but 89 00:05:57.080 --> 00:06:01.100 NASA with our partners, are we able to achieve 90 00:06:01.100 --> 00:06:05.140 such success so early in the mission. GPM 91 00:06:05.140 --> 00:06:09.230 also uses this data for applications to provide societal 92 00:06:09.230 --> 00:06:13.330 benefit. GPM observes hurricanes and blizzards but as 93 00:06:13.330 --> 00:06:17.350 shown in the top two panels here, we are also able to look at the 94 00:06:17.350 --> 00:06:21.380 conditions that might lead to landslides and floods. On 95 00:06:21.380 --> 00:06:25.490 the other hand for trial and water availability maps as 96 00:06:25.490 --> 00:06:29.670 shown in the bottom two images, we need to know how little it has 97 00:06:29.670 --> 00:06:33.730 precipitated over time and GPM can tell us that too. 98 00:06:33.730 --> 00:06:37.750 Emergency management then can use this data in near real time 99 00:06:37.750 --> 00:06:41.760 to make evacuation plans. 100 00:06:41.760 --> 00:06:45.870 Precipitation in the water cycle influences 101 00:06:45.870 --> 00:06:49.910 every person, every day, everywhere, 102 00:06:49.910 --> 00:06:54.050 may be one of the greatest impacts of NASA's data 103 00:06:54.050 --> 00:06:58.080 is just used in improving weather forecasting models and climate 104 00:06:58.080 --> 00:07:02.100 change models for our everyday lives and our long-term future. 105 00:07:02.100 --> 00:07:06.180 Now I would like introduce Lola who is going to talk about 106 00:07:06.180 --> 00:07:09.643 the pulse of our planet's biosphere.