MODIS Sea Surface Temperature from 2002 to 2006 around Australia

  • Released Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:55PM
  • ID: 3510

A recent study indicates there is a correlation between ocean nutrients and changes in sea surface temperature (SST). The results show that when ocean water warms, marine plant life in the form of microscopic phytoplankton tend to decline. When water cools, plant life flourishes. Changes in phytoplankton growth influence fishery yields and the amount of carbon dioxide the oceans remove from the atmosphere. This could have major implications on the future of our ocean's food web and how it relates to climate change.

The temperature data in this visualization comes from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua spacecraft.

In order to see the correlation between SST and SeaWiFS data, this animation can be compared to 'SeaWiFS Biosphere Data over Australia'. Please click here to see this other animation.

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Credits

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


Papers

This visualization is based on the following papers:
  • 'Climate-Driven Trends in Contemporary Ocean Productivity', Nature, Dec. 7

Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions:

Series

This visualization can be found in the following series:

Datasets used in this visualization

Aqua Sea Surface Temperature (Collected with the MODIS sensor)
Terra Sea Surface Temperature (Collected with the MODIS sensor)

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.