{ "count": 23, "next": null, "previous": null, "results": [ { "id": 5185, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5185/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2023-12-07T15:00:00-05:00", "title": "PACE orbit with Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) data", "description": "PACE orbiting Earth with Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) swath revealed below || pace_orbit_swath.45_OCIonly_2023-10-27_1527.08000_print.jpg (1024x576) [73.1 KB] || pace_orbit_swath.45_OCIonly_2023-10-27_1527.08000_searchweb.png (320x180) [34.6 KB] || pace_orbit_swath.45_OCIonly_2023-10-27_1527.08000_thm.png (80x40) [3.5 KB] || 3840x2160_16x9_60p (3840x2160) [0 Item(s)] || pace_orbit_swath.45_OCIonly_2023-10-27_1527_2160p60.mp4 (3840x2160) [24.0 MB] || ", "hits": 57 }, { "id": 5019, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5019/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2022-10-14T11:00:00-04:00", "title": "PACE orbit with swaths and instrument fields of view", "description": "PACE orbiting the Earth showing OCI, HARP2, and SPEXone instument fields of view followed by instrument ground swath patterns || pace_orbit_swath.42_FINAL_HD.09000_print.jpg (1024x576) [110.6 KB] || pace_orbit_swath.42_FINAL_HD.09000.png (1920x1080) [10.1 MB] || pace_orbit_swath.42_FINAL_HD.09000_searchweb.png (320x180) [72.6 KB] || pace_orbit_swath.42_FINAL_HD.09000_thm.png (80x40) [4.6 KB] || pace_orbit_swath.42_FINAL_HD_1080p59.94.mp4 (1920x1080) [70.0 MB] || 1920x1080_16x9_60p (1920x1080) [0 Item(s)] || pace_orbit_swath.42_FINAL_HD_1080p59.94.webm (1920x1080) [20.3 MB] || 3840x2160_16x9_60p (3840x2160) [0 Item(s)] || 9600x3240_16x9_30p (9600x3240) [0 Item(s)] || pace_orbit_swath.42_FINAL_4K_2160p59.94.mp4 (3840x2160) [269.9 MB] || ", "hits": 133 }, { "id": 4700, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4700/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2018-12-05T09:00:00-05:00", "title": "PACE - Studying Plankton, Aerosols, Clouds, and the Ocean Ecosystem", "description": "The visualization starts close on the PACE spacecraft. A representative data swath is shown, depicting biosphere plankton data. The camera then pulls out to show the spacecraft's polar orbit. Complete global coverage is achieved after approximately two days of orbits. Over time, the data swath cycles between biosphere, aerosol, and cloud data, representing PACE's collective mission to study Earth's ocean and atmosphere. This version end with animated biosphere data. || pace_v2_4k_0245_print.jpg (1024x576) [36.4 KB] || pace_v2_4k_0245_searchweb.png (320x180) [39.7 KB] || pace_v2_4k_0245_thm.png (80x40) [3.7 KB] || pace_v3_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [30.0 MB] || pace_comp3_animated-biosphere (3840x2160) [0 Item(s)] || pace_v3_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [94.4 MB] || pace_v3_2160p30.webm (3840x2160) [19.1 MB] || 600-science-overview-003.hwshow || ", "hits": 41 }, { "id": 4590, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4590/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2017-10-27T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Southern Africa Drought", "description": "When a giant swell of warm water, known as El Niño emerged in the Pacific Ocean in 2015, scientists knew to look for impacts. As El Niño changed global weather patterns Southern Africa went into severe drought. On top of already dry conditions, the region experienced its lowest rainfall in 35 years.With the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, launched in 2015, NASA has dedicated soil moisture measurements for the first time – and could see this severe drought emerging. SMAP's highly sensitive microwave radiometer detects the energy emitted by soil depending on how wet or how dry it is. The old gardener's trick is to squeeze a handful of dirt in your hand and see whether it clumps or falls apart. Think of SMAP doing the same thing – with a lot more precision, all around the world, every 3 days.SMAP allowed us to see a connection between Pacific Ocean water temperatures and the moisture of the soil in Southern Africa. These measurements are now being put to operational use more than ever. SMAP's data was fed into the USDA's global crop yield forecasts – the Foreign Agriculture Service reports that help drive multi-billion dollar commodity markets around the world. In fact, the Foreign Ag Service scientist for this region said that with SMAP they now have the first reliable soil moisture data in 30 years.As crops failed and soils were left bare, we used the Terra and Aqua satellites to assess these effects on the vegetation from a local to regional scale. The Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) reflects the health of vegetation on the land surface.As this drought spread across Southern Africa, nearly 30 million people were at risk of drastic food shortages. Four out of 10 people did not have access to clean drinking water.The analyses and data provided by NASA scientists are also critical to a USAID program called the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. As food crises arise, the global view provided by NASA scientists informs decisions about where governments and relief agencies should send help.In Southern Africa in 2015 and 2016, nearly 350 million dollars of emergency water and food aid were delivered, in part based on NASA data, to aid millions of people.As the peak of the drought hits in January 2016, the animations show the low soil moisture conditions in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Correspondingly the low vegetation appears in that region as well. || ", "hits": 31 }, { "id": 4205, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4205/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2014-09-24T09:00:00-04:00", "title": "Earth Science Heads-up Display", "description": "On September 10, 2014, NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) was celebrated in an evening event at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. The title of this event was \"Vital Signs: Taking the Pulse of Our Planet\", and the speakers at this event included several Earth Scientists from Goddard Space Flight Center. This animation was used in the beginning of the event to illustrate the interconnectedness of the many Earth-based data sets that NASA has produced over the last decade or so. The animation simulates a view of the Earth from the International Space Station, over which interconnected data sets are displayed as if on a head-up display. || ", "hits": 31 }, { "id": 4072, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4072/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2013-05-08T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Normalized Differential Vegetation Index critical to Agricultural Monitoring in the United States", "description": "On April 29-30, 2012 the G8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture brought together open data and agriculture experts along with the U.S. Agriculture Secretary U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and the World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development to explore more opportunities for open data and knowledge sharing. Governments want to help their farmers protect crops from pests and extreme weather, monitor water supplies and anticipate planting seasons that are shifting due to climate change. New satellite technologies offer enhanced capabilities for early forecasting of food production at national, regional, and global scales. The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) program aims to strengthen national capacity in all countries from freely available data.These visuals show MODIS' satellite-derived crop NDVI Anomaly relative to average (2000-2011). Orange and brown indicate crop with below average conditions. Green indicates crop with above averate conditions. The visual compares the crop conditions or NDVI anomaly from year 2011-2012 to year 2012-2013. In the 2012-2013 year 7,342 more metric tons (MT) of wheat were produced then in the previous year, but 40,086 fewer metric tons of corn were produced. || ", "hits": 138 }, { "id": 4044, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4044/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2013-02-27T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "The Distributed Water Balance of the Nile Basin", "description": "This visualization shows how satellite data and NASA models are being applied to study the hydrology of the Nile basin. The Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) Multisensor Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) provides three-hourly estimates of rainfall rate across much of the globe. Here we see the seasonal cycle of monthly precipitation derived from TMPA for Africa, including the Nile Basin. The annual migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) from the Nile Equatorial Lakes region around Lake Victoria, source of the White Nile, northward into Sudan and the highlands of Ethiopia, headwaters of the Blue Nile, and back is evident in the seasonal cycle in precipitation. This precipitation cycle drives flow through the Nile River system. The Nile basin, however, is intensely evaporative, and the majority of the water that falls as rain leaves the basin as evaporation rather than river flow—either from the humid headwaters regions or from large reservoirs and irrigation developments in Egypt and Sudan. The Atmosphere Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) evapotranspiration product, developed by USDA scientists, uses satellite data to map daily evapotranspiration across the entire Nile basin, providing unprecedented information on water consumption. The balance of rainfall and evapotranspiration can be seen in seasonal patterns of soil moisture, as simulated by the NASA Nile Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS), which merges satellite information with a physically-based land surface model to simulate variability in soil moisture—a critical variable for rainfed agriculture and natural ecosystems. Finally, the twin satellites of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) can be used to monitor variability in total water storage, including surface water, soil moisture, and groundwater. The annual cycle in GRACE estimates of water storage anomalies clearly shows the seasonal movement of water storage due to precipitation patterns and the movement of surface waters from headwaters regions into the wetlands of South Sudan and the reservoirs of the lower Nile basin.The Nile is the longest river in the world and its basin is shared by 11 countries. Reliable, spatially distributed estimates of hydrologic storage and fluxes can provide critical information for water managers contending with multiple resource demands, a variable and changing climate, and the risk of damaging floods and droughts. NASA observations and modeling systems offer unique capabilities to meet these information needs. || ", "hits": 110 }, { "id": 3947, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3947/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-07-08T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Watching the Earth Breathe:
An Animation of Seasonal Vegetation and its effect on Earth's Global Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide", "description": "In this animation, NASA instruments show the seasonal cycle of vegetation and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The animation begins on January 1, when the northern hemisphere is in winter and the southern hemisphere is in summer. At this time of year, the bulk of living vegetation, shown in green, hovers around the equator and below it, in the southern hemisphere.As the animation plays forward through mid-April, the concentration of carbon dioxide, shown in orange-yellow, in the middle part of Earth's lowest atmospheric layer, the troposphere, increases and spreads throughout the northern hemisphere, reaching a maximum around May. This blooming effect of carbon dioxide follows the seasonal changes that occur in northern latitude ecosystems, in which deciduous trees lose their leaves, resulting in a net release of carbon dioxide through a process called respiration. Carbon dioxide is also released in early spring as soils begin to warm. Almost 10 percent of atmospheric carbon dioxide passes through soils each year.After April, the northern hemisphere moves into late spring and summer and plants begin to grow, reaching a peak in the late summer. The process of plant photosynthesis removes carbon dioxide from the air. The animation shows how carbon dioxide is scrubbed out of the atmosphere by the large volume of new and growing vegetation. Following the peak in vegetation, the drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide due to photosynthesis becomes apparent, particularly over the boreal forests.Note that there is roughly a three-month lag between the state of vegetation at Earth's surface and its effect on carbon dioxide in the middle troposphere.Data like these give scientists a new opportunity to better understand the relationships between carbon dioxide in Earth's middle troposphere and the seasonal cycle of vegetation near the surface.Creating the AnimationThis animation was created with data taken from two NASA spaceborne instruments. The concentration of carbon dioxide data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), a weather and climate instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua spacecraft, is overlain on measurements of vegetation index from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument, also on NASA's Aqua spacecraft, to better understand how photosynthesis and respiration influences the atmospheric carbon dioxide cycle over the globe. The animation runs from January through December and repeats. The AIRS tropospheric carbon dioxide seasonal cycle values were made by averaging AIRS data collected between 2003 and 2010, from which the annual carbon dioxide growth trend of 2 parts per million per year has been removed. For example, the data used for January 1 is actually an average of eight years of AIRS carbon dioxide data taken each year on January 1. The vegetation values were made using data averaged over a four-year period, from 2003 to 2006.Further DetailAIRS uses infrared technology to determine the concentration of atmospheric water vapor and several important trace gases as well as information about temperature and clouds. AIRS orbits Earth from pole-to-pole at an altitude of 438 miles (705 kilometers), measuring Earth's infrared spectrum in 3,278 channels spanning a wavelength range from 3.74 microns to 15.4 microns. Originally designed to improve weather forecasts, AIRS has improved operational five-day weather forecasts more than any other single instrument over the past decade. AIRS has also been found to be sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide in the middle troposphere, at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometers or 3 to 6 miles. AIRS is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., under contract to NASA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. For further information, access the AIRS projectThe MODIS instrument is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For further information, access the MODIS project. || ", "hits": 190 }, { "id": 10851, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10851/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-10-20T16:00:00-04:00", "title": "A Look Back at a Decade of Fires", "description": "For more than a decade, instruments on Terra and Aqua, two of NASA's flagship Earth-observing satellites, have scanned the surface of our planet for fires four times a day. The instruments, both Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS), have revolutionized what scientists know about fire's role in land cover change, ecosystem processes, and the global carbon cycle by allowing researchers to map the characteristics and global distribution of fires in remarkable detail. The collection of videos below provides perspective on how global fires impact humans and our planet. || ", "hits": 29 }, { "id": 3870, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3870/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-10-18T23:00:00-04:00", "title": "African Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI", "description": "From space, we can understand fires in ways that are impossible from the ground. The MODIS instrument onboard the Terra and Aqua satellite, was specifically designed to detect fires. As a result, it can see both smaller fires and a wide range of fires from cool grass fires to raging forest fires. Burning carbon particles both on the tiny soot particles in the flame and on the fuel itself emit a very specific wavelength of light, 3.8 to 4 microns. NASA research has contributed to much improved detection of fire for scientific purposes using satellite remote sensing and geographic information systems. This has helped advance our understanding of the impacts of fire in many areas of earth science, including atmospheric chemistry and the impacts on protected areas. This research has led to the development of a rapid response system widely used throughout the world for both natural resource management and for firefighting by providing near real-time information. The visualization shows fires detected in Africa from July 2002 through July 2011. Africa has more abundant burning than any other continent. MODIS observations have shown that some 70 percent of the world's fires occur in Africa alone. \"It's incredibly satisfying to see such a long record of fires visualized,\" said Chris Justice, a scientist from the University of Maryland who leads NASA's effort to use MODIS data to study the world's fires. \"It's not only exciting visually, but what you see here is a very good representation of the data scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to determine where and how fires are responding to climate change and population growth.\"More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. || ", "hits": 24 }, { "id": 3869, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3869/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-10-18T19:00:00-04:00", "title": "Boreal Forest Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI", "description": "NASA has released a series of new visualizations that show the locations of the millions of fires detected by key fire-monitoring instruments on NASA satellites over the last decade. This visualization shows fire observations made by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites in Europe and Asia from July 2002 through July 2011. \"It's incredibly satisfying to see such a long record of fires visualized,\" said Chris Justice, a scientist from the University of Maryland who leads NASA's effort to use MODIS data to study the world's fires. \"It's not only exciting visually, but what you see here is a very good representation of the data scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to determine where and how fires are responding to climate change and population growth.\"More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) is available at https://earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time/firms. || ", "hits": 58 }, { "id": 3871, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3871/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-10-18T19:00:00-04:00", "title": "Australia Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI", "description": "From space, we can understand fires in ways that are impossible from the ground. The MODIS instrument onboard the Terra and Aqua satellite, was specifically designed to detect fires. This visualization shows fire detections from July 2002 through July 2011. The visualization also includes vegetation and snow cover data to show how fires respond to seasonal changes. The tour begins in Australia in 2002 by showing a network of massive grassland fires spreading across interior Australia as well as the greener Eucalyptus forests in the northern and eastern part of the continent.More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. || ", "hits": 24 }, { "id": 3872, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3872/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-10-18T19:00:00-04:00", "title": "South American Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI", "description": "From space, we can understand fires in ways that are impossible from the ground. NASA research has contributed to much improved detection of fire for scientific purposes using satellite remote sensing and geographic information systems. This visualization of South America shows fire observations made by MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites . South America exhibits a steady flickering of fire across much of the Amazon rainforest with peaks of activity in September and November. Almost all of the fires in the Amazon are the direct result of human activity, including slash-and-burn agriculture, because the high moisture levels in the region prevent inhibit natural fires from occurring.More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. || ", "hits": 35 }, { "id": 3873, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3873/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-10-18T19:00:00-04:00", "title": "United States Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI", "description": "From space, we can understand fires in ways that are impossible from the ground. NASA has released a series of new visualizations that show fires detected by key fire-monitoring instruments on NASA satellites over the last decade. The visualizations show fire observations made by MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites. The visualization also includes vegetation and snow cover data to show how fires respond to seasonal changes. \"It's incredibly satisfying to see such a long record of fires visualized,\" said Chris Justice, a scientist from the University of Maryland who leads NASA's effort to use MODIS data to study the world's fires. \"It's not only exciting visually, but what you see here is a very good representation of the data scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to determine where and how fires are responding to climate change and population growth.\" North America is a region where fires are comparatively rare. North American fires make up just 2 percent of the world's burned area each year. The fires that receive the most attention in the United States, the uncontrolled forest fires in the West, are less visible than the wave of agricultural fires prominent in the Southeast and along the Mississippi River Valley, but some of the large wildfires that struck Texas earlier this spring are visible.More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. || ", "hits": 30 }, { "id": 3868, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3868/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-10-18T01:00:00-04:00", "title": "Global Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI", "description": "This visualization leads viewers on a narrated global tour of fire detections beginning in July 2002 and ending July 2011. The visualization also includes vegetation and snow cover data to show how fires respond to seasonal changes. The tour begins in Australia in 2002 by showing a network of massive grassland fires spreading across interior Australia as well as the greener Eucalyptus forests in the northern and eastern part of the continent. The tour then shifts to Asia where large numbers of agricultural fires are visible first in China in June 2004, then across a huge swath of Europe and western Russia in August, and then across India and Southeast Asia through the early part of 2005. It moves next to Africa, the continent that has more abundant burning than any other. MODIS observations have shown that some 70 percent of the world's fires occur in Africa alone. In what's a fairly average burning season, the visualization shows a huge outbreak of savanna fires during the dry season in Central Africa in July, August, and September of 2006, driven mainly by agricultural activities but also by the fact that the region experiences more lightning than anywhere else in the world. The tour shifts next to South America where a steady flickering of fire is visible across much of the Amazon rainforest with peaks of activity in September and November of 2009. Almost all of the fires in the Amazon are the direct result of human activity, including slash-and-burn agriculture, because the high moisture levels in the region prevent inhibit natural fires from occurring. It concludes in North America, a region where fires are comparatively rare. North American fires make up just 2 percent of the world's burned area each year. The fires that receive the most attention in the United States, the uncontrolled forest fires in the West, are less visible than the wave of agricultural fires prominent in the Southeast and along the Mississippi River Valley, but some of the large wildfires that struck Texas earlier this spring are visible. More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. || ", "hits": 46 }, { "id": 10605, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10605/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2010-07-02T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Know Your Earth: Earth Observing Fleet Studies Climate", "description": "This animated video shares a series of fascinating facts about how climate change affects oceans, land, the atmosphere, and ice sheets around the world. With the help of an animated astronaut touring the Earth, the video explains how NASA's Earth observing satellite fleet enables scientists to gather accurate data and understand those changes.For complete transcript, click here. || G2010-072_Know_Your_Earth_youtube_hq.02196_print.jpg (1024x576) [105.9 KB] || G2010-072_Know_Your_Earth_youtube_hq_web.png (320x180) [281.3 KB] || G2010-072_Know_Your_Earth_youtube_hq_thm.png (80x40) [17.6 KB] || G2010-072_Know_Your_Earth_appletv.webmhd.webm (960x540) [41.1 MB] || G2010-072_Know_Your_Earth_appletv.m4v (960x540) [99.6 MB] || G2010-072_Know_Your_Earth_prores.mov (1280x720) [2.9 GB] || G2010-072_Know_Your_Earth_Final.wmv (1280x720) [89.9 MB] || G2010-072_Know_Your_Earth_youtube_hq.mov (1280x720) [105.0 MB] || G2010-072_Know_Your_Earth_ipod_lg.m4v (640x360) [33.5 MB] || G2010-072_Know_Your_Earth.m4v (320x240) [18.1 MB] || G2010-072_Know_Your_Earth_SVS.mpg (512x288) [27.1 MB] || ", "hits": 55 }, { "id": 10574, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10574/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2010-02-22T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Piecing Together the Temperature Puzzle", "description": "The decade from 2000 to 2009 was the warmest in the modern record. \"Piecing Together the Temperature Puzzle\" illustrates how NASA satellites enable us to study possible causes of climate change. The video explains what role fluctuations in the solar cycle, changes in snow and cloud cover, and rising levels of heat-trapping gases may play in contributing to climate change. For complete transcript, click here. || Temperature_Puzzle_fullres.01252_print.jpg (1024x576) [113.2 KB] || Temperature_Puzzle_fullres_web.png (320x180) [207.8 KB] || Temperature_Puzzle_fullres_thm.png (80x40) [16.9 KB] || Temperature_Puzzle_AppleTV.webmhd.webm (960x540) [83.9 MB] || Temperature_Puzzle_fullres.mov (1280x720) [166.2 MB] || Temperature_Puzzle_AppleTV.m4v (960x720) [211.4 MB] || Temperature_Puzzle__Youtube.mov (1280x720) [87.7 MB] || Temperature_Puzzle_iPod_small.m4v (640x360) [67.9 MB] || Temperature_Puzzle_iPod_large.m4v (320x180) [27.9 MB] || Temperature_Puzzle_svs.mpg (512x288) [136.6 MB] || Temperature_Puzzle_portal.wmv (346x260) [38.8 MB] || ", "hits": 65 }, { "id": 3651, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3651/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2009-10-07T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "World Droughts From 2005 to 2009 Versus Where Crops are Grown", "description": "The Global Inventory Monitoring and Modeling Studies (GIMMS) group at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC) provides United States Department of Agriculture/Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS) with global data stream of NDVI that spans over two decades (1981-present). The GIMMS NDVI is derived from measurements made by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), Global Area Coverage (GAC) data from the National Atmospheric Oceanic Administration (NOAA) polar orbiting series of satellites. GIMMS has inter-calibrated the data from the NOAA-AVHRR satellite series and performed atmospheric correction to minimize the effects of volcanic aerosols to produce and maintain a consistent NDVI archive. The NDVI archive from GIMMS provides the historic database for monitoring the response of vegetation to climatic conditions.Linking the MODIS data to the long-term GIMMS AVHRR/NDVI, archive and SPOT Vegetation sensor data is a critical component of this project providing a consistent multi-source long-term data record for agricultural monitoring. This allows FAS analysts to compare current data with the spatial extent and severity of NDVI anomalies associated with heat stress, droughts and floods associated with crop failures. || ", "hits": 25 }, { "id": 3629, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3629/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2009-10-05T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Crop Intensity", "description": "The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen collaboration. In support of this collaboration, NASA and the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) jointly funded a new project to assimilate NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data and products into an existing decision support system (DSS) operated by the International Production Assessment Division (IPAD) of FAS. To meet its objectives, FAS/IPAD uses satellite data and data products to monitor agriculture worldwide and to locate and keep track of natural disasters such as short and long term droughts, floods and persistent snow cover which impair agricultural productivity. FAS is the largest user of satellite imagery in the non-military sector of the U.S. government. For the last 20 years FAS has used a combination of Landsat and NOAA-AVHRR satellite data to monitor crop condition and report on episodic events.To successfully monitor worldwide agricultural regions and provide accurate agricultural production assessments, it is important to understand the spatial distribution of croplands. To do this a global croplands mask to identify all sites used for crop production. Croplands are highly variable both temporally and spatially. Croplands vary from year to year due to events such as drought and fallow periods, and they vastly differ across the globe in accordance with characteristics such as cropping intensity and field size. A flexible crop likelihood mask is used to help depict these varying characteristics of global crop cover. Regions featuring intensive agro-industrial farming practices such as the Maize Triangle in South Africa will have higher confidence values in the crop mask as compared to less intensively farmed regions in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa where cropland identification is partly confounded with natural background vegetation phenologies. Thus, a customized threshold can be employed to examine areas of varying cropping intensification. || ", "hits": 56 }, { "id": 3646, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3646/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2009-10-05T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "2009 Crop Intensity, 2009 Producers, and 2050 Projected Population", "description": "The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen collaboration. In support of this collaboration, NASA and the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) jointly funded a new project to assimilate NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data and products into an existing decision support system (DSS) operated by the International Production Assessment Division (IPAD) of FAS. To meet its objectives, FAS/IPAD uses satellite data and data products to monitor agriculture worldwide and to locate and keep track of natural disasters such as short and long term droughts, floods and persistent snow cover which impair agricultural productivity. FAS is the largest user of satellite imagery in the non-military sector of the U.S. government. For the last 20 years FAS has used a combination of Landsat and NOAA-AVHRR satellite data to monitor crop condition and report on episodic events.To successfully monitor worldwide agricultural regions and provide accurate agricultural production assessments, it is important to understand the spatial distribution of croplands. To do this a global croplands mask to identify all sites used for crop production. Croplands are highly variable both temporally and spatially. Croplands vary from year to year due to events such as drought and fallow periods, and they vastly differ across the globe in accordance with characteristics such as cropping intensity and field size. A flexible crop likelihood mask is used to help depict these varying characteristics of global crop cover. Regions featuring intensive agro-industrial farming practices such as the Maize Triangle in South Africa will have higher confidence values in the crop mask as compared to less intensively farmed regions in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa where cropland identification is partly confounded with natural background vegetation phenologies. Thus, a customized threshold can be employed to examine areas of varying cropping intensification. || ", "hits": 14 }, { "id": 3619, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3619/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2009-09-01T18:00:00-04:00", "title": "A Tour of the Cryosphere 2009", "description": "The cryosphere consists of those parts of the Earth's surface where water is found in solid form, including areas of snow, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost, ice sheets, and icebergs. In these regions, surface temperatures remain below freezing for a portion of each year. Since ice and snow exist relatively close to their melting point, they frequently change from solid to liquid and back again due to fluctuations in surface temperature. Although direct measurements of the cryosphere can be difficult to obtain due to the remote locations of many of these areas, using satellite observations scientists monitor changes in the global and regional climate by observing how regions of the Earth's cryosphere shrink and expand.This animation portrays fluctuations in the cryosphere through observations collected from a variety of satellite-based sensors. The animation begins in Antarctica, showing some unique features of the Antarctic landscape found nowhere else on earth. Ice shelves, ice streams, glaciers, and the formation of massive icebergs can be seen clearly in the flyover of the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica. A time series shows the movement of iceberg B15A, an iceberg 295 kilometers in length which broke off of the Ross Ice Shelf in 2000. Moving farther along the coastline, a time series of the Larsen ice shelf shows the collapse of over 3,200 square kilometers ice since January 2002. As we depart from the Antarctic, we see the seasonal change of sea ice and how it nearly doubles the apparent area of the continent during the winter.From Antarctica, the animation travels over South America showing glacier locations on this mostly tropical continent. We then move further north to observe daily changes in snow cover over the North American continent. The clouds show winter storms moving across the United States and Canada, leaving trails of snow cover behind. In a close-up view of the western US, we compare the difference in land cover between two years: 2003 when the region received a normal amount of snow and 2002 when little snow was accumulated. The difference in the surrounding vegetation due to the lack of spring melt water from the mountain snow pack is evident.As the animation moves from the western US to the Arctic region, the areas affected by permafrost are visible. As time marches forward from March to September, the daily snow and sea ice recede and reveal the vast areas of permafrost surrounding the Arctic Ocean.The animation shows a one-year cycle of Arctic sea ice followed by the mean September minimum sea ice for each year from 1979 through 2008. The superimposed graph of the area of Arctic sea ice at this minimum clearly shows the dramatic decrease in Artic sea ice over the last few years.While moving from the Arctic to Greenland, the animation shows the constant motion of the Arctic polar ice using daily measures of sea ice activity. Sea ice flows from the Arctic into Baffin Bay as the seasonal ice expands southward. As we draw close to the Greenland coast, the animation shows the recent changes in the Jakobshavn glacier. Although Jakobshavn receded only slightly from 1964 to 2001, the animation shows significant recession from 2001 through 2009. As the animation pulls out from Jakobshavn, the effect of the increased flow rate of Greenland costal glaciers is shown by the thinning ice shelf regions near the Greenland coast.This animation shows a wealth of data collected from satellite observations of the cryosphere and the impact that recent cryospheric changes are making on our planet.For more information on the data sets used in this visualization, visit NASA's EOS DAAC website.Note: This animation is an update of the animation 'A Short Tour of the Cryosphere', which is itself an abridged version of the animation 'A Tour of the Cryosphere'. The popularity of the earlier animations and their continuing relevance prompted us to update the datasets in parts of the animation and to remake it in high definition. In certain cases, our experiences in using the earlier work have led us to tweak the presentation of some of the material to make it clearer. Our thanks to Dr. Robert Bindschadler for suggesting and supporting this remake. || ", "hits": 52 }, { "id": 3601, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3601/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2009-06-27T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Global Agricultural Monitoring", "description": "The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen collaboration. In support of this collaboration, NASA and the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) jointly funded a new project to assimilate NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data and products into an existing decision support system (DSS) operated by the International Production Assessment Division (IPAD) of FAS. To meet its objectives, FAS/IPAD uses satellite data and data products to monitor agriculture worldwide and to locate and keep track of natural disasters such as short and long term droughts, floods and persistent snow cover which impair agricultural productivity. FAS is the largest user of satellite imagery in the non-military sector of the U.S. government. For the last 20 years FAS has used a combination of Landsat and NOAA-AVHRR satellite data to monitor crop condition and report on episodic events. || ", "hits": 27 }, { "id": 3598, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3598/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2009-06-24T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Monitoring Agricultural Production from Space", "description": "Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maps allow comparisons of the spatial and temporal variability in the amount and condition of vegetation. The time series satellite derived NDVI was used to monitor and analyze changes in vegetation patterns in the major wheat production domain area in Australia. The NDVI comparison was done during the growing season, April through November, for 2002, 2005, and 2006 and it found that significant differences in vegetation growth production. These data and utilities are fundamental for crop yield forecasts and can serve as an early warning system for regions suffering from crop loss and food shortages. Wheat is Australia's most important crop, with a seasonal gross value approaching 3 billion Australian dollars. Australia contributes between and 8 and 15% of world's wheat trade, making it the fourth largest exporter after the United States, Canada and the European Union. Severe drought in Australia not only decimating crops, but it also curtails exports and causes major price and trade impacts on global markets. In 2006, wheat exports dropped by a third from the year before which caused worldwide prices to soar to the highest levels in a decade. || ", "hits": 27 } ] }