Virtual Sky
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- Written by:
- Patrick Lynch
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- Scientific consulting by:
- William Putman
- View full credits
Europe owes much of its weather to prevailing winds known as the westerlies. These consistent breezes, created in part by the planet’s rotation, blow from the west, bringing rain and moisture from the Atlantic Ocean to the continent. They also influence the migration of clouds. Throughout the year, the winds carry clouds east above Europe's vegetated, and sometimes snow-covered, landscape. Using a NASA supercomputer climate model called GEOS-5, scientists are able to simulate cloud movement over Europe and other parts of the world. Such models can help improve scientists' understanding of Earth's climate. In GEOS-5 simulations of Europe’s atmosphere, computer-generated clouds take on the appearance and motion of clouds imaged by Earth-observing satellites and astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Watch the video to see 15 days of simulated cloud changes across Europe.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Satellite images courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory
International Space Station image courtesy of NASA/Johnson Space Center
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Animators
- Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Ernie Wright (USRA)
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Writer
- Patrick Lynch (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Scientist
- William Putman (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Producer
- Ryan Fitzgibbons (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Related Pages
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ID: 3858 Visualization
Clouds over Europe
Read moreThis animation is a beauty shot of cloud model output over North America. The clouds are derived from the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5). GEOS-5 is a system of models integrated using the Earth System Modeling Framework and used to help refine atmospheric weather models.The lighting of this scene is completely artistic and not scientifically accurate. If accurate lighting were used the diurnal effect would pulse across the globe approximately every 90 frames (3 seconds when played at 30 fps). The slow strobing would have been undesireable for the intended purpose of this animation, which is to highlight the cloud model output. ||
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