What NASA Knows from Decades of Earth System Observations
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- Visualizations by:
- Greg Shirah,
- Lori Perkins, and
- Mark SubbaRao
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- Scientific consulting by:
- Felix W. Landerer,
- Karen St. Germain, and
- Nadya Vinogradova-Shiffer
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- Produced by:
- Katie Jepson
- View full credits
Karen St. Germain, NASA's Director of Earth Science, gave this presentation to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change ConferenceWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.
NASA has the world’s largest Earth observing fleet and has an uninterrupted record and observed evidence of climate change. Increased greenhouse gases trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Trapped atmospheric greenhouse gases warm the planet – our land, ocean, and atmosphere. Most of the global warming goes into the ocean, delaying the full impact of global warming. Ocean currents move the heat around the globe, impacting your local weather and climate. Warmer oceans accelerate melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Rising seas are a major consequence of climate change, impacting coastal communities, infrastructure, and economy. Warmer climate amplifies Earth’s water cycle. Dry areas are getting drier and wet areas are getting wetter. Wet areas are experiencing more flooding and extreme storms, such as typhoons and hurricanes. Drought prone areas will see less rainfall, effecting agriculture. NASA data are used for projections that can help inform actions for the future. More extreme conditions are occurring due to climate change, such as wildfires. NASA data and knowledge are open and free, enabling informed decision-making. NASA information aids preparation and recovery from natural hazards around the world
Wet areas are experiencing more flooding and extreme storms, such as typhoons and hurricanes.The top left corner shows the 2021 Hurricane season where the ocean is colored by sea surface temperature from NASA Aqua MODIS, MUR. The global precipitation is NASA/JAXA GPM IMERG, and the cloud data is NOAA CPC.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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Data visualizers
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Mark SubbaRao (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Andrew J Christensen (SSAI)
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Devika Elakara (GSFC Interns)
- Helen-Nicole Kostis (USRA)
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)
- Jason S Craig (NASA JPL, Caltech)
- Marit Jentoft-Nilsen (None)
- Trent L. Schindler (USRA)
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Scientists
- Felix W. Landerer (NASA/JPL CalTech) [Lead]
- Karen St. Germain (NASA) [Lead]
- Nadya Vinogradova-Shiffer (NASA/HQ) [Lead]
- Doug C. Morton (NASA/GSFC)
- Gavin A. Schmidt (NASA/GSFC GISS)
- Jessica Hausman (NASA/JPL CalTech)
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Producers
- Katie Jepson (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
- Kathleen Gaeta (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.)