{ "id": 4375, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4375/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Garbage Patch Visualization Experiment", "description": "This gallery was created for Earth Science Week 2015 and beyond. It includes a quick start guide for educators and first-hand stories (blogs) for learners of all ages by NASA visualizers, scientists and educators. We hope that your understanding and use of NASA's visualizations will only increase as your appreciation grows for the beauty of the science they portray, and the communicative power they hold. Read all the blogs and find educational resources for all ages at: the Earth Science Week 2015 page.You may have heard of \"ocean garbage patches,\" areas in the ocean where litter and debris concentrates. This might stir up a vivid image of large blanketed areas of trash on the ocean surface that are easy to spot. But that’s not the case. Much of the debris consists of smaller pieces of plastic that are always moving and changing with the ocean currents, waves and winds. These can be difficult to see and predict. We set out to explore the processes and interactions that cause debris to flow to these patches using buoy and model data, and created a visualization based on our results. || ", "release_date": "2015-10-02T14:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:49:15.810673-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 439109, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004300/a004375/4174_Garbage_Patches_Still_print.jpg", "filename": "4174_Garbage_Patches_Still_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The final visualization that assimilates ocean buoy datasets and ECCO-2 ocean current model. (Credit: Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell, NASA SVS)", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 }, "main_video": null, "main_credits": {}, "progress": "Complete", "media_groups": [ { "id": 336350, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4375/#media_group_336350", "widget": "Basic text with HTML", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "This gallery was created for Earth Science Week 2015 and beyond. It includes a quick start guide for educators and first-hand stories (blogs) for learners of all ages by NASA visualizers, scientists and educators. We hope that your understanding and use of NASA's visualizations will only increase as your appreciation grows for the beauty of the science they portray, and the communicative power they hold. Read all the blogs and find educational resources for all ages at: the Earth Science Week 2015 page.


You may have heard of \"ocean garbage patches,\" areas in the ocean where litter and debris concentrates. This might stir up a vivid image of large blanketed areas of trash on the ocean surface that are easy to spot. But that’s not the case. Much of the debris consists of smaller pieces of plastic that are always moving and changing with the ocean currents, waves and winds. These can be difficult to see and predict. We set out to explore the processes and interactions that cause debris to flow to these patches using buoy and model data, and created a visualization based on our results.
", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 336351, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4375/#media_group_336351", "widget": "Video player", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "The final visualization that assimilates ocean buoy datasets and ECCO-2 ocean current model. (Credit: Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell, NASA SVS)", "items": [ { "id": 276634, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 439109, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004300/a004375/4174_Garbage_Patches_Still_print.jpg", "filename": "4174_Garbage_Patches_Still_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The final visualization that assimilates ocean buoy datasets and ECCO-2 ocean current model. (Credit: Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell, NASA SVS)", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 276638, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 439114, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004300/a004375/4174_Garbage_Patches_Still_print_searchweb.png", "filename": "4174_Garbage_Patches_Still_print_searchweb.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The final visualization that assimilates ocean buoy datasets and ECCO-2 ocean current model. (Credit: Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell, NASA SVS)", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } }, { "id": 276639, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 439113, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004300/a004375/4174_Garbage_Patches_Still_print_thm.png", "filename": "4174_Garbage_Patches_Still_print_thm.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The final visualization that assimilates ocean buoy datasets and ECCO-2 ocean current model. (Credit: Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell, NASA SVS)", "width": 80, "height": 40, "pixels": 3200 } }, { "id": 276635, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 439110, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004300/a004375/4174_Garbage_Patches_H264_1080p.mp4", "filename": "4174_Garbage_Patches_H264_1080p.mp4", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "The final visualization that assimilates ocean buoy datasets and ECCO-2 ocean current model. (Credit: Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell, NASA SVS)", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 276636, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 439111, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004300/a004375/4174_Garbage_Patches_nasatv.mpeg", "filename": "4174_Garbage_Patches_nasatv.mpeg", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "The final visualization that assimilates ocean buoy datasets and ECCO-2 ocean current model. (Credit: Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell, NASA SVS)", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } }, { "id": 276637, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 439112, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004300/a004375/4174_Garbage_Patches_nasatv.webm", "filename": "4174_Garbage_Patches_nasatv.webm", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "The final visualization that assimilates ocean buoy datasets and ECCO-2 ocean current model. (Credit: Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell, NASA SVS)", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 336352, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4375/#media_group_336352", "widget": "Basic text with HTML", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "
We started with data from floating, scientific buoys that NOAA has been distributing in the oceans for the last 35-years, represented in our visualization as white dots. These buoys are used to track currents, temperature and salinity, and all of this data is publicly available. \r

\rIn the visualization, we can speed up time to see where the buoys travelled. But because new buoys are continually released, it was hard to see where the older buoys moved. Once we cleared the map and added the starting locations of all the buoys we started to pick up on interesting patterns all over world. For example, lines of buoys began to appear along shipping and plane routes because these were the vessels used to periodically release buoys. \r

\rThe next step was to shift the timing of each buoy data set to release the buoys all at the same time to observe buoy migration patterns. You’ll notice that the number of buoys shown decreases over time, because some buoys don't last as long as others (they either wash up on the shores of coastlines, disintegrate, sink, experience technical failure etc.) When projected onto the same visualization, we noticed that the buoys migrated to five known gyres, or locations that some call the ‘ocean garbage patches,’ where debris or litter accumulate in certain pockets of the ocean.\r

\rWe can also see this pattern in a computer model of ocean currents called ECCO-2. We released simulated particles evenly around the world, letting the modeled currents carry the particles. The particles from the model also migrate to the same five ocean garbage patches as the NOAA buoys. Even though the retimed buoys and modeled particles did not react to currents at the same times, the fact that the data tends to accumulate in the same regions helps validate the result.\r

\r-- Greg Shirah, Development Lead – Earth Science-Related Visualizations (NASA GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio)\r

", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 336353, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4375/#media_group_336353", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "Greg Shirah works closely with scientists from NASA Goddard and other organizations in visualizing the data from satellites, other observational platforms, and supercomputer simulations. His work powerfully communicates changes in our planet's atmosphere, oceans, and land to an audience ranging from scientists to schoolchildren. Shirah's work has been shown on every major television network, in newspapers, magazines, the web, Science On a Sphere, planetariums, and even in a few motion pictures! It's been estimated that over one billion people have seen his visuals.", "items": [ { "id": 276640, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 439115, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004300/a004375/Shirah-small.jpg", "filename": "Shirah-small.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Greg Shirah works closely with scientists from NASA Goddard and other organizations in visualizing the data from satellites, other observational platforms, and supercomputer simulations. His work powerfully communicates changes in our planet's atmosphere, oceans, and land to an audience ranging from scientists to schoolchildren. Shirah's work has been shown on every major television network, in newspapers, magazines, the web, Science On a Sphere, planetariums, and even in a few motion pictures! It's been estimated that over one billion people have seen his visuals.", "width": 234, "height": 250, "pixels": 58500 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 336354, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4375/#media_group_336354", "widget": "Basic text", "title": "For More Information", "caption": "", "description": "See the following sources:\n\n* [Earth Science Week 2015 Gallery](/ESW2015)\n* [Aquarium of the Pacific for Science](http://sos.noaa.gov/Datasets/dataset.php?id=458)", "items": [], "extra_data": {} } ], "studio": "svs", "funding_sources": [ "ESE" ], "credits": [ { "role": "Author", "people": [ { "name": "Greg Shirah", "employer": "NASA/GSFC" } ] }, { "role": "Project support", "people": [ { "name": "Leann Johnson", "employer": "Global Science and Technology, Inc." } ] } ], "missions": [], "series": [], "tapes": [], "papers": [], "datasets": [], "nasa_science_categories": [ "Earth" ], "keywords": [ "HDTV" ], "recommended_pages": [], "related": [ { "id": 4174, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4174/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Garbage Patch Visualization Experiment", "description": "We wanted to see if we could visualize the so-called ocean garbage patches. We start with data from floating, scientific buoys that NOAA has been distributing in the oceans for the last 35-year represented here as white dots. Let's speed up time to see where the buoys go... Since new buoys are continually released, it's hard to tell where older buoys move to. Let's clear the map and add the starting locations of all the buoys... Interesting patterns appear all over the place. Lines of buoys are due to ships and planes that released buoys periodically. If we let all of the buoys go at the same time, we can observe buoy migration patterns. The number of buoys decreases because some buoys don't last as long as others. The buoys migrate to 5 known gyres also called ocean garbage patches.We can also see this in a computational model of ocean currents called ECCO-2. We release particles evenly around the world and let the modeled currents carry the particles. The particles from the model also migrate to the garbage patches. Even though the retimed buoys and modeled particles did not react to currents at the same times, the fact that the data tend to accumulate in the same regions show how robust the result is.The dataset used for the ocean buoy visualization is the Global Drifter Database from the GDP Drifter Data Assembly Center, part of the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory. The data covered the period February 1979 through September 2013. Although the actual dataset has a wealth of data, including surface temperatures, salinities, etc., only the buoy positions were used in the visualization.This visualization was accepted as one of the \"Dailies\" at SIGGRAPH 2015. || ", "release_date": "2015-08-10T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:15:00.181660-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 454829, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004100/a004174/driftersOnly_originalTiming.05600_print.jpg", "filename": "driftersOnly_originalTiming.05600_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The NOAA drifter buoys had been released at various times and locations around the world. As you watch new buoys get released, notice the patterns of the buoys. These are due to the way that they were release. For exmaple, a boat sailing in a roughly straight line might release a series of buoys every few hours causing a line of dots to appear; or, a bunch of buoys might be released near a research station making the buoys look like they all emerge from one location.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }