Earth ID: 3199

Global Surface Latent Heat Flux during Hurricane Frances (WMS)

Visualizations by Horace Mitchell Released on July 27, 2005

As the Sun's energy reaches the Earth, it is either reflected, absorbed by the clouds, or absorbed by the Earth's surface. The part absorbed by the surface heats the Earth, which causes surface water to evaporate to the air, particularly over oceans or moist land. Similarly, a cold surface causes water to condense from the air onto the land or ocean. Latent heat flux is the amount of energy moving from the surface to the air due to evaporation (positive values) or from the air to the land due to condensation (negative values). This animation shows the latent heat flux for the whole globe from September 1, 2004, through September 5, 2004, during the period of Hurricane Frances in the western Atlantic Ocean and Typhoon Songda in the western Pacific Ocean. The animation clearly shows the evaporation over land only during the heat of the day, while the evaporation over the ocean is continuous throughout the day. The highest positive latent heat flux occurs during hurricanes and typhoons, as these events are powered by the movement of heat energy from the warm ocean to the atmosphere, seen here in Hurricane Frances and Typhoon Songda. Significant negative latent heat flux is somewhat rare and occurs over the ocean only during certain configurations of air and surface conditions.

Visualization Credits

Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
William Putman (NASA/GSFC): Scientist

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

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3199

Data Used:

fvGCM/Global Surface Latent Heat Flux

Model - NASA - 2005-09-01T03:00 -- 2005-09-05T24:00

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This item is part of these series:
fvGCM
WMS

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
SVS >> HDTV
DLESE >> Natural hazards
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Hurricanes
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Typhoons
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Radiation >> Heat Flux
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Human Dimensions >> Natural Hazards >> Meteorological Hazards
GCMD >> Location >> Global
SVS >> Hurricane Frances
SVS >> Hyperwall
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