Earth: A System of Systems (updated)

Music: "Kitchen Preparations," "Kinky Boots," "Bossa Baby," "Pleasantville" and "Exotic Encounter" from Universal Production MusicComplete transcript available. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission — SWOT — focuses on the planet’s most precious resource: Water. SWOT will help researchers compile the first global survey of Earth’s surface freshwater and study our changing ocean. We’re also launching TROPICS — six small satellites designed to help scientists better understand tropical storms and hurricanes. Traveling in pairs in three different orbits, TROPICS will provide near-hourly observations of a storm’s precipitation, temperature, and humidity. Winds on Earth kick up millions of tons of dust every year. EMIT will use spectroscopy to “fingerprint” different types of dust from its perch on the International Space Station, helping scientists map the areas on Earth that produce different types of dust. We’ve worked with our partners at NOAA to study Earth for decades. In 2022, the JPSS-2 mission will continue that legacy of monitoring weather, sea surface temperatures, algal blooms, clouds, rainfall, heat, smoke, dust storms, ozone, and air quality. NASA has a unique view of our planet from space. NASA’s fleet of Earth-observing satellites provide high quality data on different parts of Earth’s interconnected environment from air quality to sea ice. Take a tour of missions launching in 2022, including SWOT, TROPICS, EMIT, and JPSS-2. Related pages

Music: "Connections Established," "Data Visions," Universal Production MusicComplete transcript available. Continuing key observations of the Earth is really important to see how our atmosphere, land and oceans are changing over time. A long term record, combined with cutting edge observations from the new NASA Earth System Observatory, will continue to push boundaries to better understand our ever changing Earth. Related pages

An animated graphic showing the areas of focus for NASA's Earth System Observatory. NASA's Earth System Observatory is a set of Earth-focused missions designed to provide key information to guide efforts related to climate change, disaster mitigation, fighting forest fires, and improving real-time agricultural processes. With the Earth System Observatory, each satellite will be uniquely designed to complement the others, working in tandem to create a 3D, holistic view of Earth, from bedrock to atmosphere.The observatory follows recommendations from the 2017 Earth Science Decadal Survey by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which lays out ambitious but critically necessary research and observation guidance.Areas of focus for the observatory include:Aerosols: Answering the critical question of how aerosols affect the global energy balance, a key source of uncertainty in predicting climate change.Cloud, Convection, and Precipitation: Tackling the largest sources of uncertainty in future projections of climate change, air quality forecasting, and prediction of severe weather.Mass Change: Providing drought assessment and forecasting, associated planning for water use for agriculture, as well as supporting natural hazard response.Surface Biology and Geology: Understanding climate changes that impact food and agriculture, habitation, and natural resources, by answering open questions about the fluxes of carbon, water, nutrients, and energy within and between ecosystems and the atmosphere, the ocean, and the Earth.Surface Deformation and Change: Quantifying models of sea-level and landscape change driven by climate change, hazard forecasts, and disaster impact assessments, including dynamics of earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, glaciers, groundwater, and Earth’s interior. Related pages

Music: Organic Machine by Bernhard Hering [GEMA] and Matthias Kruger [GEMA]Complete transcript available. Universal Production Music: "A City Asleep Instrumental," "Inducing Waves Main Track," "Getting Bad Instrumental," "It's Decision Time Underscore," "In Doubt Instrumental." This video can be freely shared and downloaded. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, some individual imagery provided by pond5.com and Artbeats is obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on stock footage may be found here. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html.Complete transcript available. This data visualization of black carbon from the GEOS forward processinf (GEOS-FP) model shows the abundande and direction of black carbon from New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland blowing through the atmosphere from November 1-18. The summer of 2020 was marked by extremefires in Siberia and the Western United States. Series of extensive and powerful wildfires charred vast swaths of forest and shrubland and altered the composition of the atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere. We study Earth and how it’s changing from the ground, the sky, and space. Using data from sensors all around the planet, we calculate the global average temperature, working with our partners at NOAA. Music: Organic Machine by Bernhard Hering [GEMA] and Matthias Kruger [GEMA]Complete transcript available. NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, based on data from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies/Gavin Schmidt NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, based on data from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies/Gavin Schmidt NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, based on data from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies/Gavin Schmidt National Interagency Fire Center image of Loyalton Fire in August 2020 Globally, 2020 was the hottest year on record, effectively tying 2016, the previous record. Overall, Earth’s average temperature has risen more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1880s. Temperatures are increasing due to human activities, specifically emissions of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane. Related pages

This visualization reveals that the Earth system, like the human body, comprises diverse components that interact in complex ways. Heat absorbed by the ocean is transported by ocean currents—shown here as ECCO2 model output. This energy is constantly released into Earth’s atmosphere. Heat and moisture from the ocean and land influence Earth’s weather patterns—represented here as 500 mb wind speeds from GEOS-5. Moisture in the atmosphere—represented as precipitable water from the GEOS-5 model—forms clouds and precipitation—shown here using the GPM IMERG product. Precipitation significantly impacts water availability, which influences soil moisture and ocean salinity—shown here as data from SMAP. Lastly, data from multiple satellites show the density of plant growth on land and chlorophyll concentrations in the ocean. While scientists learn a great deal from studying each of these components individually, improved observational and computational capabilities increasingly allow them to study the interactions between these interrelated geophysical and biological parameters, leading to unprecedented insight into how the Earth system works—and how it might change in the future.List of visualizations used:Slice 1: Sea Surface Currents & Temperature (ECCO2 model)Slice 2: Winds (GEOS-5 model)Slice 3: Precipitable Water (GEOS-5 model)Slice 4: Clouds (GEOS-5 model)Slice 5: Precipitation (IMERG data)Slice 6: Soil Moisture (SMAP data)Slice 7: Biosphere (Multiple satellite datasets)Slice 8: Blue Marble (MODIS data) Slices of Earth observational and modeling data Related pages