Perpetual Ocean
- Visualizations by:
- Greg Shirah
- View full credits
Perpetual Ocean is a visualization of some of the world's surface ocean currents.
This visualization was produced using model output from the joint MIT/JPL project: Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II or ECCO2. ECCO2 uses the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) to synthesize satellite and in-situ data of the global ocean and sea-ice at resolutions that begin to resolve ocean eddies and other narrow current systems, which transport heat and carbon in the oceans. ECCO2 provides ocean flows at all depths, but only surface flows are used in this visualization. The dark patterns under the ocean represent the undersea bathymetry. Topographic land exaggeration is 20x and bathymetric exaggeration is 40x.
This visualization was shown at the SIGGRAPH Asia 2012 Computer Animation Festival.
Don't miss these related visualizations:
Gulf Stream Sea Surface Currents and Temperatures
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Global Sea Surface Currents and Temperature
Flat Map Ocean Current Flows with Sea Surface Temperatures (SST)
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
Animators
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)
Video editor
- Victoria Weeks (None)
Scientists
- Dimitris Menemenlis (NASA/JPL CalTech)
- Hong Zhang (UCLA)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
ECCO2 (A.K.A. ECCO2 High Resolution Ocean and Sea Ice Model)
GTOPO30 Topography and Bathymetry
Hipparcos Tycho Catalogue (A.K.A. Tycho 2 Catalogue) (Collected with the Telescope sensor)
Dataset can be found at: http://archive.eso.org/ASTROM/
See more visualizations using this data setNote: 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.
Related pages
Perpetual Ocean
Nov. 9, 2011, 7 p.m.
Read moreWatch surface currents circulate in this high-resolution, 3D model of the Earth s oceans. || Distinctive white lines trace the flow of surface currents around the world. || The Gulf Stream carries warm water from the eastern coastline of the United States to regions of the North Atlantic Ocean. || The Agulhas Current travels along the coastline of Mozambique and South Africa and then loops eastward. || The Kuroshio Current flows northeast off the coast of Japan transporting warm ocean water circulating east of Taiwan.
Tour 2022: NASA's Upcoming Earth Missions
Dec. 13, 2021, 9 a.m.
Read moreMusic: from Universal Production MusicComplete transcript available. || 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. || 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.