{ "count": 39, "next": null, "previous": null, "results": [ { "id": 20050, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20050/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-04-05T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Raindrop Acoustics", "description": "SMALL RAINDROP ANIMATION - When a small raindrop falls on the ocean, it produces sound underwater by its impact on the ocean surface and, more importantly, by sound created from a bubble trapped underwater during its splash. Different raindrop sizes produce distinctive sounds. When recorded underwater, small raindrops make a sound like a hiss. The following animation is first simulated as a real-time small raindrop, and then slowed down to demonstrate the distinct sound of impact and the subsequent ring of the higher frequency sound made by the bubble. || ", "hits": 51 }, { "id": 20051, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20051/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-04-05T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Raindrop Acoustics", "description": "MEDIUM RAINDROP ANIMATION - Interestingly, the splash of a medium sized raindrop does not trap bubbles underwater and is consequently quiet, much quieter than small raindrops. The only acoustic signal from these drops is a weak impact sound as it hits the ocean surface. The following animation is first simulated as a real-time raindrop and then slowed to demonstrate how it does not make a bubble under the water. || ", "hits": 30 }, { "id": 20052, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20052/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-04-05T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Raindrop Acoustics", "description": "LARGE RAINDROP ANIMATION - For large and very large raindrops, the splash becomes energetic enough to create a wide range of bubble sizes trapped underwater, which produces a loud sound relatively low in frequency. The following animation is first simulated as a real-time large raindrop, and then slowed down to demonstrate the distinct sound of impact and the subsequent ring of the lower frequency sound made by the bubble. || ", "hits": 26 }, { "id": 20044, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20044/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-03-11T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Indecisive El Niño", "description": "This animation shows El Niño's and La Niña's mulitiple personalites. The sequence begins with normal jet streams, normal sea surface temperatures, and normal wind patterns. The first change illustrates what occurs when a very strong El Niño strikes surface waters in the Central equatorial Pacific Ocean. Warm water anomalies (red) develop in the Central Pacific Ocean while normal westerly winds weaken and allow easterly winds to push the warm water up against the South American Coast. The second change in the animation illustrates typical La Niña conditions. Cold water anomalies (blue) develop as stronger than normal trade winds bring cold water up to the ocean surface. The third change in the animation illustrates the current, weaker El Niño. Warmer waters develop in the central Pacific Ocean and stay in place due to westerly and easterly wind patterns. || ", "hits": 38 }, { "id": 20045, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20045/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-03-11T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "El Niño Hurricane Connection", "description": "Animation compares the effects of La Niña and El Niño on the formation of Atlantic Hurricanes. El Niño tends to suppress the formation of hurricanes by steering the subtropical jet stream into the hurricanes' path and shearing off the tops of the storms before they develop into full intensity. During La Niña, the jet stream moves north, and hurricanes tend to more easily evolve without interference. || ", "hits": 30 }, { "id": 20046, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20046/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-03-11T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "La Niña Retreat", "description": "Winds Of Death - It is the strong east to west winds that sustain La Niña. The winds cause cool waters to rise to the surface from the ocean depths. When the winds diminish, the supply of cool water is cut off and the ocean begins to warm. || ", "hits": 11 }, { "id": 20047, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20047/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-03-11T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Hurricane Heat Engine", "description": "TRMM provides a closer look at hurricanes using a unique combination of passive and active microwave instruments designed to peer inside cloud systems and measure rainfall. TRMM allows scientists to study the combustion process in the hurricane engine and relate this process to intensification or weakening. || ", "hits": 27 }, { "id": 20048, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20048/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-03-11T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Hurricane Heat Engine", "description": "TRMM provides a closer look at hurricanes using a unique combination of passive and active microwave instruments designed to peer inside cloud systems and measure rainfall. TRMM allows scientists to study the combustion process in the hurricane engine and relate this process to intensification or weakening.Hurricane Energy Process - As water vapor is evaporated from the warm ocean surface, it is forced upward in towering convective clouds in the eyewall and rain band regions of the storm. As the water vapor changes from a gas to a liquid (cloud water), latent heat is released. || ", "hits": 69 }, { "id": 20049, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20049/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-03-11T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Hurricane Heat Engine", "description": "TRMM provides a closer look at hurricanes using a unique combination of passive and active microwave instruments designed to peer inside cloud systems and measure rainfall. TRMM allows scientists to study the combustion process in the hurricane engine and relate this process to intensification or weakening. Cloud Growth - The release of latent heat warms the surrounding air, making it lighter, which promotes more vigorous cloud development. It is suspected that rapid bursts of cloud growth, particularly in the eyewall region of hurricanes, may relate to the intensification phase of a storm. Towering eyewall clouds are potential precursors to intensification of hurricanes. || ", "hits": 77 }, { "id": 20053, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20053/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-03-11T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Unmaned Aerosonde Braves Hurricane Winds", "description": "The aerosonde will make continuous observation of the temperature, moisture, and wind structure of the near-surface hurricane environment providing real-time detailed observations to NOAA forecasters. Aerosonde and its sophisticated instruments will try to detect signals of rapid intensity changes in the hurricane. Enhancing this predictive capability would not only save our economy billions of dollars, but more importantly, it would save countless lives. || ", "hits": 21 }, { "id": 20054, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20054/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-03-11T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Dead Zones", "description": "Dead zones are areas of water so devoid of oxygen that sea life cannot live there. If phytoplankton productivity is enhanced by fertilizers or other nutrients, more organic matter is produced at the surface of the ocean. The organic matter sinks to the bottom, where bacteria break it down and release carbon dioxide. Bacteria thrives off excessive organic matter and absorb oxygen, the same oxygen that fish, crabs and other sea creatures rely on for life. || deadzone_pre.00002_print.jpg (1024x768) [40.6 KB] || deadzone_thm.png (80x40) [8.7 KB] || deadzone_pre.jpg (320x240) [4.9 KB] || deadzone_pre_searchweb.jpg (320x180) [19.5 KB] || a010056_seq.webmhd.webm (960x540) [5.1 MB] || 720x486_4x3_29.97p (720x486) [32.0 KB] || a010056_seq.mpg (720x480) [14.2 MB] || a010056_H264_640x480.mp4 (640x480) [7.5 MB] || deadzone.mpg (320x240) [3.1 MB] || ", "hits": 87 }, { "id": 20030, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20030/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2004-06-24T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "NASA Explains 'Dust Bowl' Drought", "description": "Abnormal sea surface temperatures (SST) in the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean played a strong role in the 1930s dust bowl drought. Scientists used SST data acquired from old ship records to create starting conditions for the computer models. They let the model run on its own, driven only by the observed monthly global sea surface temperatures. The model was able to reconstruct the Dust Bowl drought quite closely, providing strong evidence that the Great Plains dry spell originated with abnormal sea surface temperatures. This sequence shows the warmer than normal SST (red-orange) in that the Atlantic Ocean and colder than normal SST (blues) in the Pacific Ocean, followed by a low level jet stream that shifted and weakened reducing the normal supply of moisture to the Great Plains. || ", "hits": 66 }, { "id": 20031, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20031/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2004-06-24T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "NASA Explains 'Dust Bowl' Drought", "description": "This illustration shows how cooler than normal tropical Pacific Ocean temperatures (blues) and warmer than normal tropical Atlantic Ocean temperatures (red and orange) contributed to a weakened low level jet stream and changed its course. The jet stream normally flows westward over the Gulf of Mexico and then turns northward pulling up moisture and dumping rain onto the Great Plains. During the 1930s, this low level jet stream weakened, carrying less moisture, and shifted further south. The Great Plains land dried up and dust storms blew across the U.S. || ", "hits": 85 }, { "id": 20032, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20032/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2004-06-24T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "NASA Explains 'Dust Bowl' Drought", "description": "This animation illustrates the dust storm caused by the drought in the 1930's. || ", "hits": 21 }, { "id": 20029, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20029/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2004-06-23T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Ocean Circulation Conveyor Belt Helps Balance Climate", "description": "As part of the ocean conveyor belt, warm water from the tropical Atlantic moves poleward near the surface where it gives up some of its heat to the atmosphere. This process partially moderates the cold temperatures at higher latitudes. As the warm water gives up its heat it becomes more dense and sinks. This circulation loop is closed as the cooled water makes its way slowly back toward the tropics at lower depths in the ocean.If the poles warm, it is possible that melt water from glaciers and the polar ice cap can shut off this circulation and interrupt this circulation system. The melt water is fresher and hence less dense than the ocean water it melts into, and thus the melt water will tend to accumulate near the surface. This layer of fresh water acts as an insulating barrier between the atmosphere and the normal ocean water. The water from the tropics can not release its heat to the atmosphere, and the circulation loop is interrupted. The mechanism has a positive feedback potential in that if the ocean circulation slows, then even less heat will make it to the higher latitudes re-enforcing an effect that will cool the climate at these higher latitudes. || ", "hits": 217 }, { "id": 20028, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20028/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2004-06-21T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Cold Water Upwelling Promotes Phytoplankton Blooms", "description": "Carbon is the root of all life on Earth, and as it circulates through our biosphere, the Earth's state of health responds. Whenever the size of phytoplankton colonies in the ocean changes, it affects the amount of carbon absorbed from the atmosphere. These blooms are highly dependent on surrounding environmental conditions. As a hurricane passes over the tropical waters of the Atlantic, it draws up cold water from deep below the warmer surface. As the cooler water rises, it brings with it phytoplankton and nutrients necessary for life. These microscopic plants then bloom in higher than average amounts. Bigger storms cause larger plankton blooms and more plankton absorb a greater amount of carbon from our atmosphere. Scientists are still trying to determine how much carbon dioxide might be removed by such a process. || ", "hits": 135 }, { "id": 20023, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20023/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2004-02-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Ice Albedo: Black Soot and Snow", "description": "Black soot may contribute to melting glaciers and other ice on the planet and eventually a warmer Earth. Traveling potentially thousands of miles from its sources on air currents, this pollution eventually settles out of the air, onto land and into the oceans. On ice and snow, it darkens normally bright surfaces. Just as a white shirt keeps a person cooler in the summer than a black shirt, the vast stretches of polar ice covering much of the planet's top and bottom reflect large amounts of solar radiation falling on the planet's surface, helping regulate Earth's temperature. Soot lowers this albedo, or reflectivity, and the ice retains more heat, leading to increased melting.Soot-darkened ice retains more light, contributing to the process. As light is absorbed, the environment is heated, thus intensifying a feedback loop: a warmer planet yields more ice melting and thus an even warmer planet. || ", "hits": 264 }, { "id": 20024, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20024/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2004-02-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "ICESat Data Accumulation Animation", "description": "Accumulating Data: Glas Builds Its Facts One Point at a Time - The technology behind GLAS is called lidar. Lidar is a distance measuring system similar to radar, except that instead of radio waves it uses pulses of laser light for range finding. The name is a contraction based on the words light and radar: Light Detection And Ranging. A lidar system determines precise distances by measuring the amount of time necessary for a pulse of light to leave an emitter, hit a target, and return. In this case, distance measurements helped researchers determine changes in ice thickness, vegetation, cloud thickness, and much more. || ", "hits": 30 }, { "id": 20026, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20026/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2004-02-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Dust, Fire, Soot Inhibits Rainfall", "description": "Three Contributing Factors for Rainfall Inhibition - Dust is only one of three types of aerosols which can inhibit rainfall. Previous studies have shown that aerosols from biomass burning (i.e. burning of plant material such as forests, grasslands, and agricultural waste) and aerosols from man-made pollution also contribute to disturbing the rainfall process. This animation highlights the power of these three factors vs. the normal conditions of the rainfallprocess. In this virtual world, a dust storm rises from arid conditions. Biomass burning sends smoke and an industrial complex adds pollutants into clouds and the atmosphere, thus preventing any rainfall. The cloud on the left shows rainfall production in normal conditions. || ", "hits": 31 }, { "id": 20022, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20022/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2004-02-05T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Ice Albedo: Bright White Reflects Light", "description": "This animation provides a close perspective of the relationship between ice and solar reflectivity. As glaciers, the polar caps, and icebergs (shown here) melt, less sunlight gets reflected into space. Instead, the oceans and land absorb the light, thus raising the overall temperature and adding energy to a vicious circle. || ", "hits": 485 }, { "id": 20019, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20019/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-12-12T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Cold Water Upwelling", "description": "Deep Water Feast: Upwellings Bring Nutrients to The Surface- Large phytoplankton blooms tend to coincide with natural phenomena that drive cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface. The process is called upwelling. Here's what's happening: winds coming off principal land masses push surface layers of water away from the shore. Into the resulting wind-driven void deeper water underneath the surface layers rushes in toward the coast, bringing with it nutrients for life to bloom. It's different on the equator. There, water currents on either side of the hemispheric dividing line are generally moving in opposite directions — due to planetary rotation and the Coriolis effect. As those currents rush past each other they 'peel back' the surface of the ocean, creating a void for deeper water to rush into and take its place. || ", "hits": 185 }, { "id": 20020, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20020/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-12-12T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Ice Albedo-Close Up", "description": "This is a conceptual animation showing how melting ice on land and at sea, can affect the surrounding ocean water, changing both the chemistry and relative sea level. || ", "hits": 61 }, { "id": 20021, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20021/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-12-12T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Ice Albedo - Global View", "description": "This is a conceptual animation showing how polar ice reflects light from the sun. As this ice begins to melt, less sunlight gets reflected into space. It is instead absorbed into the oceans and land, raising the overall temperature, and fueling further melting. || ", "hits": 148 }, { "id": 20010, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20010/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-12-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Particulates Effect on Rainfall", "description": "Normal rainfall droplet creation involves water vapor condensing on particles in clouds. The droplets eventually coalesce together to form drops large enough to fall to Earth. However, as more and more pollution particles (aerosols) enter a rain cloud, the same amount of water becomes spread out. These smaller water droplets float with the air and are prevented from coalescing and growing large enough for a raindrop. Thus, the cloud yields less rainfall over the course of its liftime compared to a clean (non-polluted) cloud of the same size. The split screen compares a normal rain producing cloud (left) with the lack of rain produced from a cloud full of aerosols from pollution. || ", "hits": 408 }, { "id": 20011, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20011/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-12-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Pollution Reduces Winter Precipitation", "description": "In winter, moist air flows off the ocean and rises over the hills downwind of a coastal city, dropping its rain and snow mainly as it ascends the hills. As pollution from the city is pushed into the clouds by the hills downwind of the city, it interferes with droplet formation in the clouds as observed by NASA's satellites. The smaller cloud droplets convert more slowly into precipitation. Instead of precipitating, much of the water in the clouds evaporates, reducing the net rainfall downwind of the urban area by up to 15% to 25% on a seasonal basis. First is the unpolluted case. || ", "hits": 63 }, { "id": 20012, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20012/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-12-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Pollution Increases Summer Precipitation", "description": "In summer, weaker winds move the clouds more slowly. Heat absorbed by the city and pollution's interference with raindrop formation interact to cause the clouds to intensify before producing precipitation. The onset of rainfall from a cloud leads eventually to its demise by cooling off the air near the ground. the air pollution delays the onset of precipitation, so that the intense storm clouds can build higher and larger before they start precipitating and subsequently dissipating. Therefore, these larger and more intense thunderstorm clouds produce eventually heavier rainfall on the city and the downwind areas. First is the unpolluted, then the polluted case. || ", "hits": 90 }, { "id": 20013, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20013/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-12-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Urban Rainfall Effect on Coastal Cities", "description": "Cities tend to be 1-10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than surrounding areas. The added heat destabilizes and changes air circulation around cities. During the warmer months, the added heat creates wind circulations and rising air that produces new clouds enhances existing ones. Under the right conditions, these clouds evolve into rain-producers or storms. Scientists suspect that converging air due to city surfaces of varying heights, like buildings, also promotes rising air needed to produce clouds and rainfall. || ", "hits": 83 }, { "id": 20014, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20014/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-12-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Earth's Atmosphere Layers", "description": "The Earth's layers of atmosphere differ in chemical composition and temperature. They combine to create a protective sheild that maintains our delicate energy balance essential for life on Earth. Most weather occures in the nearest layer, the troposphere (0-7 miles). The stratosphere is the level where jet airliners fly and the ozone layer resides (7-30 miles). Beyondthat is the coldest part of the atmosphere, the mesosphere where only large helium balloons fly (30-50 miles). Finally, the thermosphere gradually fades into space (50-180 miles). || ", "hits": 215 }, { "id": 20016, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20016/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-12-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Aqua Mission Science Objectives", "description": "The Water Cycle - Water falling from summer storm clouds onto a field of wheat today will someday fall again somewhere else. This is the essence of the water cycle. The first step in the cycle is evaporation. Heated by sunlight, liquid water turns to vapor and enters the atmosphere. Another source of atmospheric water vapor is the respiratory process of plants. Vapor leaves plants through tiny pores called stomata. This process is called transpiration. As moist air ascends into the atmosphere and encounters lower atmospheric pressure, the invisible water vapor transforms back into liquid water, and we see the next phase in the water cycle: condensation. Droplets of water coalesce from traces of vapor, and as they gain size by joining with other droplets, they yield the next part of the water cycle. This is called precipitation. The cycle is endless. As it's name suggests, the Aqua project will be intensely involved in studying the water cycle in its many forms.Evaporation - Depending on total ambient temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and water temperature, some molecules of water are almost always passing from liquid to gaseous state at the surface. This is called evaporation. Evaporation is what puts moisture into the air, pulling water off the surface of lakes and streams and topsoil. Not only does water vapor enter the atmosphere, but also evaporating water pulls heat away from the surface. That heat will get redistributed to a different part of the atmosphere when the recently liberated water vapor re-condenses.Transpiration - Related to evaporation, this is the respiratory equivalent of breathing in plants. Transpiration is how plants lose water to the surrounding air. While some water directly evaporates through the walls of cells on the surface of plants, the majority of water lost happens through intercellular structures called stomata. These are like tiny pores. Transpiration helps pull nutrients from plant roots up to leaves. It's a natural process that's heavily influenced by ambient temperature, humidity, and other factors. Additionally, transpiration also helps properly circulate carbon dioxide and oxygen, diffusing the first into plant cells for growth, and carrying the second away from cells as waste gas.Condensation - The process that describes the change in physical state of a gas to a liquid is called condensation. Generally this is a phenomenon brought about by either of two processes: cooling of air to its dewpoint, or the addition of enough water vapor to bring the air to the point of saturation. But as that moisture either reaches high enough altitudes so that the air containing it is chilled by lower temperatures found there, or affected by increasing humidity from dynamic meteorological conditions, it condenses. The water molecules start moving more slowly, and the state of matter begins to change, as water molecules start hooking up. Gas becomes a liquid. Condensation can take many forms without necessarily falling from the sky. Dew, fog, mist, and clouds are all examples of condensed water.Precipitation - Simply speaking, precipitation is a function of water changing its material state from vapor to a liquid or a solid. But more specifically, two fundamental steps must take place for water to fall from the sky. The first is that basic precipitation components must develop. These include ice crystals that form around various minute particles in the atmosphere such as dust or salts. The second step is for those ice crystals or condensed droplets to grow. Because of their increasing size, larger droplets or ice crystals are more apt to collide with other particles of water, and thus more likely to fall or 'precipitate' out of a cloud. || ", "hits": 298 }, { "id": 20017, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20017/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-12-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Aqua Mission Science Objectives", "description": "Water Vapor And Climate Change - There is no more important greenhouse gas than water vapor. As one of the fundamental parts of Earth's atmosphere, water vapor affects global warming in both positive and negative terms, and offers a trail for scientists to follow towards a better understanding about how the planet functions as a whole. It's also one of the principal aspects of the Earth's climate targeted for study by the Aqua satellite. By applying integrated analytic tools to the study of climate and climate change, experts hope to learn more specifically how water vapor and other greenhouse gasses move and function throughout the atmosphere. || ", "hits": 130 }, { "id": 20018, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20018/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-12-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "E01 - Hyperion Imaging Spectrometer", "description": "Beyond the Pale—Hyperion Imaging Spectrometer - It's not so much that the Hyperion instrument will be able to see the Earth more 'close up' or have a higher spatial resolution than previous instruments. Yet Hyperion's goals are nothing less than ambitious. The instrument is designed to gather highly complex data from a given region on the Earth by viewing the surface in terms of 220 distinct colors or 'bands' of light. Think of looking at a photograph in black and white and then comparing the exact same frame in color. Even though there is no greater resolution to the image, no change in perspective, lighting, or magnification, the amount of data presented to the viewer has greatly increased. Project managers designed Hyperion to fill in that kind of data in observed regions on the ground. The uses for an instrument than can make such fine spectral distinctions include studies of land use, changes in land cover, mineral resource assessment, research into coastal processes, changes in the atmosphere and more. || ", "hits": 22 }, { "id": 20003, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20003/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-11-05T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Soot Effects Rainfall", "description": "Heating Up the Atmosphere (Animation) - When soot absorbs sunlight, it heats the air and reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the ground, cooling the Earth's surface. The heated air makes the atmosphere unstable, creating rising air (convection) that forms clouds and brings rainfall to regions that are heavily polluted.The increase of rising air is balanced by an increase in sinking air (subsidence) and drying. When air sinks, clouds and thus rain, cannot form creating dry conditions. Soot or black carbon is the product of low temperature burning. It is generated from industrial pollution, traffic, outdoor fires and household burning of coal and biomass fuels. || ", "hits": 54 }, { "id": 20004, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20004/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-11-05T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "SUV Rollovers: Center of Gravity", "description": "Center of Gravity—Why Rollovers Happen (animation) - A particular object's center of gravity—in this case an SUV—will always be contained within the geometric confines of that vehicle as it's oriented in space relative to the pull of gravity. If there's a change in a vehicle's spatial orientation due to the imposition of some external force, the vehicle's center of gravity will shift from its original position as long as that external force persists. That means that the tires, which had supported a vehicle's center of gravity, begin to lose their usefulness as supporting structures relative to the pull of gravity. As a result, the vehicle seeks a new structural support relative to the pull of gravity, like its side or roof. If this change happens fast enough, the vehicle will not only fall over: it will roll. || ", "hits": 30 }, { "id": 20005, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20005/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-11-05T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Arctic Vortex", "description": "Arctic Vortex - During winter, stratospheric winds (uppermost atmosphere) tend to form a vortex around the North Pole. These polar clouds lead to chemical reactions that affect the chemical form of chlorine in the stratosphere. In certain chemical forms, chlorine can deplete the ozone layer. || ", "hits": 33 }, { "id": 20006, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20006/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-11-05T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Carbon Cycle", "description": "The Carbon Cycle - The carbon cycle on land, acted out here show a tree taking in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and combined with water and nutrients from the soil, growing. In the fall and winter, parts of the growth die off and release some carbon back into the system. At some point, the tree is no longer able to take in carbon and begins to die. When that happens, all the carbon absorbed in its body is released back into the cycle as it decomposes. Fire can accelerate this, sending plumes of carbon-laden aerosols into the atmosphere, as well as leaving carbon-rich ash deposits on the ground for further decomposition and recycling. || ", "hits": 37 }, { "id": 20007, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20007/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-11-05T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Carbon Cycle", "description": "Carbon And The Ocean — The Slow Cycle - The oceans are vast, and their processes as complex as their waters are deep.Phytoplankton absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and nutrient rich waters and grows in wide colonies called blooms. These blooms are highly dependent on surrounding environmental conditions.As phytoplankton grows, it forms the foundation for the food chain, thus passing carbon up to higher life forms. But just as on land, links in the ocean's chain of life also break, and stored carbon settles out of the top layers of water. A portion of it gets swept back to the surface as upwellings, only to begin again, but a major portion sinks to the bottom, becoming what oceanographers call 'marine snow.' This decomposing biological matter literally precipitates through the water and builds up on the ocean bottom, essentially sequestered from the rest of the Earth for geologically long periods of time. || ", "hits": 196 }, { "id": 20008, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20008/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-11-05T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Microbes Hitch Ride on African Dust", "description": "Traveling Dust Animation - The dust comes every year during northern Africa's dry season, when storm activity in the Sahara Desert and Sahel generate clouds of dust. The dust originating from fine particles in the arid topsoil is transported into the atmosphere by winds and may be carried in excess of 10,000 feet high into the atmosphere by easterly trade winds. Typically, it takes one to two weeks for the dust clouds to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach the continental United States..This animation illustrates microbes hitching rides across the Atlantic in the highly irregular nooks and crannies found in the surfaces of dust particles and how they are transported across the Atlantic Ocean. || dustparts_pre.00002_print.jpg (1024x768) [143.4 KB] || dustparts_thm.png (80x40) [18.1 KB] || dustparts_pre.jpg (320x240) [20.5 KB] || dustparts_pre_searchweb.jpg (320x180) [118.0 KB] || a010008_seq001.webmhd.webm (960x540) [2.9 MB] || 720x486_4x3_29.97p (720x486) [32.0 KB] || a010008_seq001.mpg (720x480) [13.2 MB] || a010008_H264_640x480.mp4 (640x480) [7.4 MB] || dustparts.mpg (320x240) [2.7 MB] || ", "hits": 31 }, { "id": 20009, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20009/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-11-05T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Dropsonde Hurricane Sensor", "description": "Dropsondes Away! - Described by a researcher as 'Pringles cans with parachutes', scientists dropped sensors called 'dropsondes' into 2001's Hurricane Erin to gain temperature, pressure, moisture and wind readings throughout different locations in the hurricane. An ER-2 allows for eight dropsondes deliveries, while the fully staffed DC-8 plane drops as many as 15 dropsondes within the hurricane. || ", "hits": 24 }, { "id": 20002, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20002/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2003-11-04T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Noctilucent Cloud Animation", "description": "Because of their high altitude, near the edge of space, noctilucent clouds shine at night when the Sun's rays hit them from below while the lower atmosphere is bathed in darkness. Also known as Polar Mesospheric Clouds or PMCs, they typically form in the cold, summer polar mesosphere and are made of water ice crystals. In April 2007 the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) Mission was launched with the express purpose of studying noctilucent clouds. || ", "hits": 96 } ] }