Simulated Nature Runs Its Course

1080p version of the Nature Run hyperwall show. Since hyperwall resolutions are usually much higher than HDTV, hurricane labels and tracks have been enlarged for better viewing on HDTV screens. 2 meter temperature above sea level colorbar. Temperature units in Celsius. The original frames used for the 3x3 hyperwall show. Note: Any of these frames should be useable as print resolution stills. The large animation above is diced-up into smaller tiles that can be played on the hyperwall. Each tile is named according to a standard spreadsheet convention with a1 at the upper left and c3 at the lower right. This image illustrates this naming convention used in the diced-up frame sets below. Upper left screen of the 3x3 Nature Run hyperwall show (A1). Primarily showing the West/Northwest portion of North America. Left of center screen of the 3x3 Nature Run hyperwall show (A2). Primarily showing Southern portion of North America and Northern Mexico. Lower left screen of the 3x3 Nature Run hyperwall show (A3). Primarily showing Southern Mexico and Central America. Upper middle screen for the 3x3 Nature Run hyperwall show (B1). Shows the Northeastern tip of North America. Center screen for the 3x3 Nature Run hyperwall show (B2). Shows most of North America's east coast. Lower center screen for the 3x3 Nature Run show (B3). Shows most of most of Cuba and the Caribbean islands. Upper right screen of the 3x3 Nature Run hyperwall show (C1). Shows Europe at the limb of the Earth. Right of center screen of the 3x3 Nature Run hyperwall show (C2). Shows the nortern part of the West African coast. Lower right screen of the 3x3 Nature Run hyperwall show (C3). Primarily shows the South Atlantic. NASA's Goddard's Phil Webster shows how supercomputing Earth's climate is done at the NASA booth at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco. (Photo taken 12/6/11.) This visualization shows a Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) run of the 2005 Hurricane Season driven by Sea Surface Temperatures (SST). The simulation was seeded at the beginning of the run and then ran on its own to create the 6 months of output visualized here. What's interesting is that even though the model did not perfectly duplicate all 27 storms from that very active 2005 hurricane season, it does show 23 storms during that same period. Considering this was an anomalous year, the model did a good job of simulating the large number of storms for that season. An innovative aspect of this global model is the ability to represent realistic hurricane intensities, including 6 hurricanes in the Atlantic for 2005 reaching major strength (category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale). This finding could help shape future climate models in predicting hurricane season intensities.Ocean colors ranging from blue to orange depict air temperatures 2 meters (T2M) above sea level. Since SSTs are typically measured at sea level and below, the T2M model output behaves somewhat differently. Nonetheless, it is a reasonable proxy to SST. Landcover information is taken from the Next Generation Blue Marble dataset. Sea Ice is depicted as solid white and clouds are shades of white. Related pages

Full version with audio and annotationsThis video is also available on our YouTube channel. Sea surface temperatures only(without color bar) Sea surface temperatures and clouds with annotations except storm menu and strengths Hurricane Katrina on 28 August 2005 Hurricane Rita on 22 September 2005 Hurricane Wilma on 24 October 2005 Color bar for sea surface temperatures in degrees F: blues are less than 80 , white is about 82, yellows and reds are above 82 Sea surface temperature and clouds with no annotations other than storm tracks. Many records were broken during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season including the most hurricanes ever, the most category 5 hurricanes, and the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic as measured by atmospheric pressure. This visualization shows all 27 named storms that formed in the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and examines some of the conditions that made hurricane formation so favorable.The animation begins by showing the regions of warm water that are favorable for storm development advancing northward through the peak of hurricane season and then receding as the waters cool. The thermal energy in these warm waters powers the hurricanes. Strong shearing winds in the troposphere can disrupt developing young storms, but measurements indicate that there was very little shearing wind activity in 2005 to impede storm formation.Sea surface temperatures, clouds, storm tracks, and hurricane category labels are shown as the hurricane season progresses.This visualization shows some of the actual data that NASA and NOAA satellites measured in 2005 — data used to predict the paths and intensities of hurricanes. Satellite data play a vital role in helping us understand the land, ocean, and atmosphere systems that have such dramatic effects on our lives.NOTE: This animation shows the named storms from the 2005 hurricane season. During a re-analysis of 2005, NOAA's Tropical Prediction Center/National Hurricane Center determined that a short-lived subtropcial storm developed near the Azores Islands in late September, increasing the 2005 tropical storm count from 27 to 28. This storm was not named and is not shown in this animation.'27 Storms: Arlene to Zeta' played in the SIGGRAPH 2007 Computer Animation Festival in August 2007. It was also a finalist in the 2006 NSF Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. For More InformationSee [http://www.nasa.gov/hurricane](http://www.nasa.gov/hurricane) Related pages