Tracking aerosols over land and water from August 1 to November 1, 2017. Hurricanes and tropical storms are obvious from the large amounts of sea salt particles caught up in their swirling winds. The dust blowing off the Sahara, however, gets caught by water droplets and is rained out of the storm system. Smoke from the massive fires in the Pacific Northwest region of North America are blown across the Atlantic to the UK and Europe. This visualization is a result of combining NASA satellite data with sophisticated mathematical models that describe the underlying physical processes.Music: Elapsing Time by Christian Telford [ASCAP], Robert Anthony Navarro [ASCAP]Complete transcript available.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_1080p_youtube_1080.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [161.7 KB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_1080p_youtube_1080.00001_searchweb.png (180x320) [108.8 KB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_1080p_youtube_1080.00001_thm.png (80x40) [7.5 KB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_appletv.m4v (1280x720) [78.1 MB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_twitter_720.mp4 (1280x720) [34.1 MB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols.webm (960x540) [65.0 MB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_appletv_subtitles.m4v (1280x720) [78.1 MB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_1080p_large.mp4 (1920x1080) [163.1 MB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_facebook_720.mp4 (1280x720) [184.9 MB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_youtube_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [247.2 MB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_youtube_720.mp4 (1280x720) [247.9 MB] || 12772_hurricanes_aerosols_captions.en_US.srt [3.1 KB] || 12772_hurricanes_aerosols_captions.en_US.vtt [3.1 KB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_UHD.mp4 (3840x2160) [739.9 MB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_1080p-prores.mov (1920x1080) [4.3 GB] || 12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_UHD_4444.mov (3840x2160) [40.1 GB] ||

NASA is sending five airborne campaigns across the United States in 2020 to investigate fundamental processes that ultimately impact human lives and the environment, from snowstorms along the East Coast to ocean eddies off the coast of San Francisco. ||

NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) works to maximize the impact of NASA’s satellite observations in weather and climate analysis and prediction through integrated Earth system modeling and data assimilation.This visualization compares cloud optical thickness from a GMAO simulation using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) [top] to observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Aqua and Terra [bottom], August 17-26, 2009. A cloud's optical thickness is a measure of attenuation of the light passing through the atmosphere due to the scattering and absorption by cloud droplets. Clouds do not absorb visible wavelengths of sunlight; rather, clouds scatter and reflect most visible light. Here, light blue shades indicate areas where there are low cloud-optical-thickness values, while red and orange shades indicate high values (i.e., greater attenuation caused by the scattering and absorption from cloud droplets). The higher a cloud's optical thickness, the more sunlight the cloud is scattering and reflecting. ||

The current Earth Observing Fleet with all satellites capturing data related to Sea Ice Cover highlighted, combined with key visualizations showing the significance of the data || fleet_data_precipitation_1080p.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [227.2 KB] || fleet_data_precipitation_720p.mp4 (1280x720) [51.9 MB] || fleet_data_precipitation_1080p.webm (1920x1080) [3.7 MB] || fleet_data_precipitation_1080p.mp4 (1920x1080) [95.8 MB] || fleet_precipitation (4104x2304) [0 Item(s)] || fleet_data_precipitation_2304p.mp4 (4096x2304) [281.0 MB] ||

This animation shows the effects of hurricanes on dust, smoke, and sea salt. || plot_aerosols-northamerica_F517R06K-GEOS_06KM-REPLAY-20170915_1200_print.jpg (1024x567) [160.5 KB] || plot_aerosols-northamerica_F517R06K-GEOS_06KM-REPLAY-20170915_1200.png (5760x3190) [18.1 MB] || plot_aerosols-northamerica_F517R06K-GEOS_06KM-REPLAY-20170915_1200_searchweb.png (320x180) [108.2 KB] || plot_aerosols-northamerica_F517R06K-GEOS_06KM-REPLAY-20170915_1200_thm.png (80x40) [8.2 KB] || plot_aerosols-northamerica_720p.webm (1280x720) [35.3 MB] || plot_aerosols-northamerica_720p.mp4 (1280x720) [191.7 MB] || plot_aerosols-northamerica_1080p.mp4 (1920x1080) [369.7 MB] ||

A video of a low pressure weather system shows which types of clouds the GEOS model can reproduce. || plot_ir4-northatlantic_map_G5ECMWF-GEOS_01KM-GEOS-20170427_1200_print.jpg (1024x576) [183.4 KB] || plot_ir4-northatlantic_map_G5ECMWF-GEOS_01KM-GEOS-20170427_1200.png (5760x3240) [12.6 MB] || plot_ir4-northatlantic_map_G5ECMWF-GEOS_01KM-GEOS-20170427_1200_searchweb.png (320x180) [81.4 KB] || plot_ir4-northatlantic_map_G5ECMWF-GEOS_01KM-GEOS-20170427_1200_thm.png (80x40) [7.0 KB] || plot_ir4-northatlantic_map_720p.mp4 (1280x720) [44.5 MB] || plot_ir4-northatlantic_map_720p.webm (1280x720) [1.8 MB] ||

This animation shows rain accumulation from Hurricane Katrina from August 23 through 30, 2005 based on data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis. Satellite cloud data from NOAA/GOES is overlaid for context. The accumulation is shown in colors ranging from green (less than 30 mm of rain) through red (80 mm or more). The TRMM satellite, using the world's only spaceborne rain radar and other microwave instruments, measures rainfall over the ocean. ||

This animation shows rain accumulation from Hurricane Katrina from August 23 through 30, 2005 based on data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis. Satellite cloud data from NOAA/GOES is overlaid for context. The accumulation is shown in colors ranging from green (less than 30 mm of rain) through red (80 mm or more). The TRMM satellite, using the world's only spaceborne rain radar and other microwave instruments, measures rainfall over the ocean. ||

Many records were broken during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season including the most hurricanes ever, the most category 5 hurricanes, and the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic as measured by atmospheric pressure. This visualization shows all 27 named storms that formed in the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and examines some of the conditions that made hurricane formation so favorable.The animation begins by showing the regions of warm water that are favorable for storm development advancing northward through the peak of hurricane season and then receding as the waters cool. The thermal energy in these warm waters powers the hurricanes. Strong shearing winds in the troposphere can disrupt developing young storms, but measurements indicate that there was very little shearing wind activity in 2005 to impede storm formation.Sea surface temperatures, clouds, storm tracks, and hurricane category labels are shown as the hurricane season progresses.This visualization shows some of the actual data that NASA and NOAA satellites measured in 2005 — data used to predict the paths and intensities of hurricanes. Satellite data play a vital role in helping us understand the land, ocean, and atmosphere systems that have such dramatic effects on our lives.NOTE: This animation shows the named storms from the 2005 hurricane season. During a re-analysis of 2005, NOAA's Tropical Prediction Center/National Hurricane Center determined that a short-lived subtropcial storm developed near the Azores Islands in late September, increasing the 2005 tropical storm count from 27 to 28. This storm was not named and is not shown in this animation.'27 Storms: Arlene to Zeta' played in the SIGGRAPH 2007 Computer Animation Festival in August 2007. It was also a finalist in the 2006 NSF Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. ||

The A-Train is a group of spacecraft flying in close formation allowing data taken by each instrument to be correlated to the other instruments providing data synergy. The A-Train includes Aqua, CloudSat, CALIPSO, Parasol, and Aura. The animation begins showing the Earth with moving clouds and with a day/night terminator. Time slows down, and A-train spacecraft orbits are added during a daytime pass. The orbits progress around the globe for 12 hours. During a night time pass the camera zooms into Tropical Storm Debby as the A-train flies over on August 24, 2006. Data sets from some of the A-train's spacecraft/instruments are shown including Aqua/MODIS, CloudSat, CALIPSO, and Aqua/AIRS. This visualization was created to support an A-Train session at the 2007 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS). ||