{ "count": 70, "next": null, "previous": null, "results": [ { "id": 5479, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5479/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2025-05-30T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Ocean Currents in equirectangular projection", "description": "Ocean flows beauty version. The flows are colored by temperature data from 600 meters and deeper. Flows above 600 meters deep are white. || These are ocean currents based on ECCO-2 data. This is supplementary material that is related to the new Perpetual Ocean 2 tour. These versions were created specifically for Science on a Sphere, but can be used for other purposes as well. || Ocean flows colored by salinity data || Ocean flows colored by temperature data || Beauty color bar ||", "hits": 616 }, { "id": 14745, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14745/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2025-02-28T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "An Ocean in Motion: NASA's Mesmerizing View of Earth's Underwater Highways", "description": "Complete transcript available.Universal Music Production: “Playing with the Narrative Instrumental” and “What Was Reported As Is Instrumental” || Thumbnail_main.jpg (3840x2160) [4.4 MB] || Thumbnail_main_print.jpg (1024x576) [596.0 KB] || Thumbnail_main_searchweb.png (320x180) [116.0 KB] || Thumbnail_main_web.png (320x180) [116.0 KB] || Thumbnail_main_thm.png [7.6 KB] || Perp_Oceans_Final_2.webm (3840x2160) [549.9 MB] || Perp_Oceans_Final_2.mp4 (3840x2160) [3.0 GB] ||", "hits": 823 }, { "id": 5425, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5425/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2025-02-27T09:45:00-05:00", "title": "Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents", "description": "This is the 'beauty shot version' of Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents. The visualization starts with a rotating globe showing ocean currents. The camera then zooms into the Kuroshio current, moves over the Indian Ocean to the Agulhas Current, then over to the Gulf Stream. The flows from the surface down to 600 meters deep are all white. Flows below 600 meters depth use the blue-cyan-white color table below.", "hits": 1393 }, { "id": 5394, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5394/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2024-11-27T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "How much does the Gulf of Mexico Contribute to the Gulf Stream?", "description": "Animation 1: Lagrangian particles colored by temperature viewed from above with fixed camera. || GM_experiment22_2024-11-01_1336_final_flatT.01638_print.jpg (1024x576) [232.7 KB] || GM_experiment22_2024-11-01_1336_final_flatT.01638_searchweb.png (320x180) [103.9 KB] || GM_experiment22_2024-11-01_1336_final_flatT.01638_thm.png (80x40) [6.5 KB] || GM_experiment_flatT_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [58.9 MB] || flatT [0 Item(s)] || GM_experiment22_final_flatT.mp4 (3840x2160) [196.8 MB] || GM_experiment22_final_flatT.mp4.hwshow [193 bytes] || ", "hits": 217 }, { "id": 14692, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14692/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2024-09-30T11:00:00-04:00", "title": "Why Is NASA Tracking Seaweed From Space?", "description": "Universal Production Music: “Monday Morning Instrumental” by David HarmsThis video can be freely shared and downloaded. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, some individual imagery provided by Pond5.com and Dr. William Hernandez is obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.htmlComplete transcript available. || 14692_Sargassum_Thumbnail.jpg (1280x720) [313.3 KB] || 14692_Sargassum_Thumbnail_searchweb.png (320x180) [86.8 KB] || 14692_Sargassum_Thumbnail_thm.png (80x40) [7.6 KB] || 14692_Sargassum.en_US.srt [5.9 KB] || 14692_Sargassum.en_US.vtt [5.6 KB] || 14692_Sargassum_Final.mp4 (1920x1080) [441.1 MB] || ", "hits": 83 }, { "id": 5301, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5301/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2024-09-30T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Atlantic Ocean Surface Drift Patterns from the Caribbean in 2010 and 2011", "description": "Simulated particle backtrack with windage and timelineThis visualization shows simulated particles released during 2010 and 2011 traced back in time to show their path based on the ocean surface velocities from Global HYCOM model with 1% windage applied. Simulated particles were released between December through April and tracked back in time. The gold balls under the timeline indicate the months when particles were released. Flow lines represent the movement of a particle over a 20-day period. Particles that venture above the 23 degree north latitude line (shown in red) during their lifespan are colored gold while particles that stayed south of it are colored green. || sargassum_rev3_v54_w_Timeline_w_wind_2024-08-14_1619.02999_print.jpg (1024x576) [193.3 KB] || sargassum_rev3_v54_w_Timeline_w_wind_2024-08-14_1619.02999_searchweb.png (320x180) [76.7 KB] || sargassum_rev3_v54_w_Timeline_w_wind_2024-08-14_1619.02999_thm.png (80x40) [6.2 KB] || sargassum_rev3_v54_w_Timeline_w_wind_2024-08-14_1619_1080p60.mp4 (1920x1080) [52.6 MB] || sargassum_rev3_v54_w_Timeline_w_wind_2024-08-14_1619_p30_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [54.0 MB] || composite_wWind [0 Item(s)] || composite_wWind [0 Item(s)] || sargassum_rev3_v54_w_Timeline_w_wind_2024-08-14_1619_2160p60.mp4 (3840x2160) [151.2 MB] || sargassum_rev3_v54_w_Timeline_w_wind_2024-08-14_1619_p30_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [158.8 MB] || sargassum_rev3_v54_w_Timeline_w_wind_2024-08-14_1619_2160p60.mp4.hwshow [226 bytes] || ", "hits": 53 }, { "id": 14567, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14567/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2024-04-12T13:00:00-04:00", "title": "Our Oceans from Space", "description": "NASA's exploration of our oceans from space spans a rich history. Delving into the depths of our oceans unveils the mysteries of our own planet, our home. Therefore, NASA remains steadfast in leading the way in oceanic research. || ", "hits": 296 }, { "id": 5505, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5505/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2024-03-25T12:18:00-04:00", "title": "Perpetual Ocean 2: Equirectangular", "description": "This page contains equirectangular versions of Perpetual Ocean 2's 'beauty version'.", "hits": 269 }, { "id": 13978, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13978/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2021-10-29T01:00:00-04:00", "title": "Instruments in the Sea and Sky: NASA’s S-MODE Mission Kicks off", "description": "Using instruments at sea and in the sky, the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) team aims to understand the role these ocean processes play in vertical transport, the movement of heat, nutrients, oxygen, and carbon from the ocean surface to the deeper ocean layers below. In addition, scientists think these small-scale ocean features play an important role in the exchange of heat and gases between air and sea. Understanding small-scale ocean dynamics will help scientists better understand how Earth’s oceans slow the impact of global warming and impact the Earth climate system. || ", "hits": 41 }, { "id": 4885, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4885/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2021-08-24T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Antarctic Ocean Flows: an excerpt from Atlas of a Changing Earth (Dome Master format)", "description": "This visualization shows how the ocean circulation in the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica flows around and under the floating ice shelves and glaciers. The ocean flows are colored by temperature with blue indicating colder and red showing warmer currents. This version is in Dome Master format. || Antarctic_flows_v209.1700_print.jpg (1024x1024) [133.8 KB] || Antarctic_flows_v209.1700_searchweb.png (180x320) [56.2 KB] || Antarctic_flows_v209.1700_thm.png (80x40) [4.3 KB] || Antarctic_flows_v209_2048p30.mp4 (2048x2048) [153.2 MB] || Antarctic_flows_v209_4096p30_h265_3.webm (4096x4096) [47.5 MB] || 4096x4096_1x1_30p (4096x4096) [0 Item(s)] || Antarctic_flows_v209_4096p30_h265_3.mp4 (4096x4096) [186.8 MB] || ", "hits": 136 }, { "id": 4888, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4888/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2021-08-24T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Antarctic Ocean Flows: an excerpt from Atlas of a Changing Earth (4k format)", "description": "This visualization shows how the ocean circulation in the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica flows around and under the floating ice shelves and glaciers. The ocean flows are colored by temperature with blue indicating colder and red showing warmer currents. This version includes a title, credits, narration and music.This video is also available on our YouTube channel. || Antarctic_flows_2021_flat_HD_Audio.00310_print.jpg (1024x576) [81.9 KB] || Antarctic_flows_2021_flat_HD_Audio.webm (1920x1080) [16.4 MB] || Antarctic_flows_2021_flat_HD_Audio.mp4 (1920x1080) [286.8 MB] || Antarctic_flows_2021_flat_4k_Audio.en_US.srt [1.3 KB] || Antarctic_flows_2021_flat_4k_Audio.en_US.vtt [1.3 KB] || Antarctic_flows_2021_flat_4k_Audio.mp4 (3840x2160) [1.1 GB] || Antarctic_flows_2021_flat_HD_Audio.mp4.hwshow [200 bytes] || ", "hits": 91 }, { "id": 4871, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4871/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2020-11-05T15:00:00-05:00", "title": "Ocean Flows under the Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica", "description": "This visualization shows the ocean currents circulating around the Pine Island Bay and flowing under the Pine Island Glacier. || Antarctic_flows_2020_v137_sea_lvl_rise_p30.2600_print.jpg (1024x576) [85.7 KB] || Antarctic_flows_2020_v137_sea_lvl_rise_p30.2600_searchweb.png (320x180) [84.7 KB] || Antarctic_flows_2020_v137_sea_lvl_rise_p30.2600_thm.png (80x40) [5.5 KB] || SeaLevelRise_PineIsland_ECCO_flows_fast.mp4 (1920x1080) [47.1 MB] || SeaLevelRise_PineIsland_ECCO_flows_fast.webm (1920x1080) [6.3 MB] || Antarctic_flows_2020_v137_sea_lvl_rise_1080p60.mp4 (1920x1080) [66.2 MB] || 1920x1080_16x9_30p (1920x1080) [128.0 KB] || 1920x1080_16x9_60p (1920x1080) [128.0 KB] || SeaLevelRise_PineIsland_ECCO_flows_PRORES.mov (1920x1080) [1.4 GB] || SeaLevelRise_PineIsland_ECCO_flows_fast.mp4.hwshow [503 bytes] || ", "hits": 54 }, { "id": 4858, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4858/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2020-11-05T08:00:00-05:00", "title": "Ocean Flow Vignettes", "description": "Ocean flows off the East coast of the United StatesThis video is also available on our YouTube channel. || us_east_040.5000_print.jpg (1024x576) [198.7 KB] || us_east_040_1080p59.94.webm (1920x1080) [49.9 MB] || us_east_040_1080p59.94.mp4 (1920x1080) [259.5 MB] || us_east_coast (3840x2160) [0 Item(s)] || captions_silent.30253.en_US.srt [43 bytes] || us_east_040_2160p59.94.mp4 (3840x2160) [859.0 MB] || us_east.hwshow [188 bytes] || ", "hits": 92 }, { "id": 4802, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4802/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2020-04-21T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Earth Day 2020: Gulf Stream ocean current pull out to Earth observing fleet", "description": "Ocean currents from the ECCO-2 model: starting underwater, then pulling back to see the Gulf Stream, pulling back farther revealing the Earth observing fleetThis video is also available on our YouTube channel. || gulf_stream_to_fleet_final01.4300_print.jpg (1024x576) [274.9 KB] || gulf_stream_to_fleet_final01.4300_searchweb.png (320x180) [138.0 KB] || gulf_stream_to_fleet_final01.4300_thm.png (80x40) [8.1 KB] || 1920x1080_16x9_60p (1920x1080) [0 Item(s)] || gulf_stream_to_fleet_final01_1080p60.webm (1920x1080) [13.8 MB] || gulf_stream_to_fleet_final01_1080p60.mp4 (1920x1080) [140.9 MB] || gulf_stream_to_fleet_final01.mp4 (1920x1080) [203.9 MB] || 9600x3240_16x9_30p (9600x3240) [0 Item(s)] || captions_silent.29348.en_US.srt [43 bytes] || gulf_stream_to_fleet_final01.mp4.hwshow [448 bytes] || ", "hits": 134 }, { "id": 13515, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13515/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2020-01-07T10:00:00-05:00", "title": "NASA's Five Newest Earth Expeditions Ready for Takeoff", "description": "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. || ", "hits": 52 }, { "id": 4563, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4563/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2017-11-13T13:00:00-05:00", "title": "Ocean flows at surface and 2000 meters below sea level", "description": "Visualization showing global ocean currents from Jan 01, 2010 to Dec 31, 2012 at sea level then at 2000 meters below sea level. || final01_world_current.1000_print.jpg (1024x576) [241.7 KB] || final01_world_current.1000_searchweb.png (320x180) [103.0 KB] || final01_world_current.1000_thm.png (80x40) [7.1 KB] || global (1920x1080) [0 Item(s)] || final01_world_current.webm (1920x1080) [6.4 MB] || final01_world_current.mp4 (1920x1080) [100.7 MB] || final01_world_current.m4v (640x360) [13.5 MB] || final01_world_current.mp4.hwshow [187 bytes] || ", "hits": 160 }, { "id": 12629, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12629/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2017-06-09T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Ocean Circulation Plays an Important Role in Absorbing Carbon from the Atmosphere", "description": "Music: Anywhere by François Pavan [SACEM], Mi-Yung Pavan [SACEM]Complete transcript available. || LARGE_MP4-12629_AMOCcarbon_large.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [184.7 KB] || LARGE_MP4-12629_AMOCcarbon_large.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [106.8 KB] || LARGE_MP4-12629_AMOCcarbon_large.00001_thm.png (80x40) [7.3 KB] || LARGE_MP4-12629_AMOCcarbon_large.mp4 (1920x1080) [51.2 MB] || WEBM-12629_AMOCcarbon.webm (960x540) [20.0 MB] || NASA_TV-12629_AMOCcarbon.mpeg (1280x720) [169.5 MB] || APPLE_TV-12629_AMOCcarbon_appletv.m4v (1280x720) [23.4 MB] || APPLE_TV-12629_AMOCcarbon_appletv_subtitles.m4v (1280x720) [23.4 MB] || 12629_AMOCcarbon.en_US.srt [819 bytes] || 12629_AMOCcarbon.en_US.vtt [832 bytes] || NASA_PODCAST-12629_AMOCcarbon_ipod_sm.mp4 (320x240) [8.5 MB] || ", "hits": 368 }, { "id": 4544, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4544/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2017-05-26T10:30:00-04:00", "title": "2015-2016 El Niño: Daily Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly and Ocean Currents", "description": "This visualization shows 2015-2016 El Nino through changes in sea surface temperature and ocean currents. Blue regions represent colder temperatures and red regions represent warmer temperatures when compared with normal conditions. Yellow arrows illustrate eastward currents and white arrows are westward currents. || GMAO_elNino_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_currents__1300_print.jpg (1024x576) [175.5 KB] || GMAO_elNino_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_currents__1300_searchweb.png (320x180) [97.1 KB] || GMAO_elNino_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_currents__1300_thm.png (80x40) [6.7 KB] || GMAO_elNino_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_currents_1080p.webm (1920x1080) [163.5 KB] || with_colorbar (3840x2160) [256.0 KB] || GMAO_elNino_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_currents_1080p.mp4 (1920x1080) [159.4 MB] || GMAO_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_withColorbar.mp4 (3840x2160) [166.0 MB] || ", "hits": 75 }, { "id": 12601, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12601/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2017-05-26T10:30:00-04:00", "title": "A 3D Look at the 2015 El Niño", "description": "Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have combined ocean measurements with cutting-edge supercomputer simulations to analyze the 2015-2016 El Niño in three dimensions. This visualization looks at the top 225 meters of the ocean, showing warmer than normal water in red, colder than normal water in blue. In the second half, current information is included, with east-flowing currents in yellow and west-flowing currents in white.Music: Bourrée from Handel's Water MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. || 12601-El-Nino-3D-print.jpg (3840x2160) [2.7 MB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-print_searchweb.png (320x180) [93.3 KB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-print_thm.png (80x40) [7.1 KB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-UHD.mp4 (3840x2160) [381.6 MB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-captions.en_US.srt [1.7 KB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-captions.en_US.vtt [1.7 KB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-UHD.webm (3840x2160) [24.9 MB] || ", "hits": 54 }, { "id": 4469, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4469/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2016-06-16T15:00:00-04:00", "title": "Dynamic Earth-A New Beginning", "description": "The visualization 'Excerpt from \"Dynamic Earth\"' has been one of the most popular visualizations that the Scientific Visualization Studio has ever created. It's often used in presentations and Hyperwall shows to illustrate the connections between the Earth and the Sun, as well as the power of computer simulation in understanding those connections.There is one part of this visualization, however, that has always seemed a little clumsy to us. The opening shot is a pullback from the limb of the sun, where the sun is represented by a movie of 304 Angstrom images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). It is difficult to pull back from the limb of a flat sun image and make the sun look spherical, and the problem was made more difficult because the original sun images were in a spherical dome show format. As a result, the pullback from the sun showed some odd reprojection artifacts.The best solution to this issue was to replace the existing pullout with a new one, one which pulled directly out from the center of the solar disk. For the new beginning, we chose a series of SDO images in the 171 Angstrom channel that show a visible coronal mass ejection (CME) in the lower right corner of the solar disk. Although this is not the specific CME that is seen affecting Venus and Earth later in this visualization, its presence links the SDO animation thematically to the later solar storm. The SDO images were also brightened considerably and tinted yellow to match the common perception of the Sun as a bright yellow object (even though it is actually white).Please go to the original version of this visualization to see the complete credits and additional details. || ", "hits": 65 }, { "id": 30747, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30747/", "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "release_date": "2016-01-29T10:00:00-05:00", "title": "2015 El Niño Disrupts Ocean Chlorophyll", "description": "Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly & Ocean Color variations during El Nino vs. La Nina, using the rainbow colorbar for Ocean Color || ocean_color_ssta_swipe_new_rainbow_1080p.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [116.9 KB] || ocean_color_ssta_swipe_new_rainbow_1080p.mp4 (1920x1080) [2.4 MB] || ocean_color_ssta_swipe_new_rainbow_720p.mp4 (1280x720) [1.4 MB] || ocean_color_ssta_swipe_new_rainbow_720p.webm (1280x720) [3.8 MB] || ocean_color_ssta_swipe_new_rainbow_2304p.mp4 (4096x2304) [7.5 MB] || ocean_color_ssta_swipe_new_rainbow_360p.mp4 (640x360) [530.1 KB] || ", "hits": 101 }, { "id": 4174, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4174/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2015-08-10T00:00:00-04:00", "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. || ", "hits": 354 }, { "id": 30504, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30504/", "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "release_date": "2014-05-13T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Wind-Blown Marine Debris from Japanese Tsunami", "description": "On Friday, March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake struck off the Pacific coast of Japan that generated tsunami waves that reached 40.5 meters (~133 feet) high, traveling up to 10 kilometers (6 miles) inland in some areas (e.g., Sendai). The earthquake and resulting tsunami generated an estimated 24-25 million tons of rubble and debris in Japan. This simulation shows how winds near the ocean surface impacted the movement of marine debris as they moved across the Pacific from March 2011 to July 2012. The colors show the percentage of windage, or the amount of force (i.e., wind) created on an object by friction. Objects that float mostly above water are more impacted by the speed of the wind than the speed of the water; therefore, they have high windage values (orange and red shades). These objects move more quickly than objects that float mostly below water that are impacted more by the speed of the water and thus have low windage values (purple and blue shades). The results were used to assess the location of the tsunami debris in the ocean and the timeline of its arrival on the west coast of the United States. The International Pacific Research Center, Surface Currents Diagnostic model was used to run the simulation. || ", "hits": 48 }, { "id": 30494, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30494/", "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "release_date": "2014-03-01T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Simulated Sea Surface Speeds", "description": "This simulation shows sea surface speed in ultra-high resolution. Several oceanic characteristics are included in the simulation and are visible in its output; including tides, atmospheric pressure forcing, diurnal cycles, and dynamic/thermodynamic sea ice . The model has a .75 to 2.2 km horizontal grid spacing and 90 vertical levels, with 1-m vertical levels near the surface. The full 3D grid is output at hourly intervals.Yellow shades represent relatively fast sea surface speeds, while red shades represent slower speeds. The simulation was carried out using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (mitgcm.org) by the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) group. Credits: C. Hill, G. Forget (MIT)C. Henze, B. Nelson, B. Ciotti (Ames)D. Menemenlis (JPL)A. Chaudhuri (AER)MITgcm/ECCO developers and usersSGI and NAS computer scientists and engineers || ", "hits": 84 }, { "id": 30486, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30486/", "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "release_date": "2014-02-28T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Sea Surface Temperature in the Eastern Pacific", "description": "This animation from Jan 2011 to Dec 2013 shows high resolution sea surface temperature (SST) in the Eastern Pacific off Central America. Clearly visible off the Central American Coast are the cooling events associated with the winds that blow through the mountain gaps in Central America. The cooling events can form cold eddies and domes, such as off the coast of Costa Rica. The MUR SST dataset combines data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) instruments, and currently the NAVY Windsat Satellite. More details of the MUR data set may be found at PO.DAAC. || ", "hits": 49 }, { "id": 30487, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30487/", "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "release_date": "2014-02-28T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Sea Surface Temperature and the Agulhas Current", "description": "This animation from Jan 2011 to Dec 2013 shows high resolution sea surface temperature (SST) in the Agulhas Retroflection off South Africa. Clearly visible in the Agulhas animation are the eddies that form as a result of the retroflection of the current. These eddies can shed or spin off the main current and travel into the South Atlantic. The MUR SST dataset combines data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) instruments, and currently the NAVY Windsat Satellite. More details of the MUR data set may be found at PO.DAAC || ", "hits": 45 }, { "id": 3879, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3879/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2013-10-01T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Wind and Ocean Circulation shot for Dynamic Earth Dome Show", "description": "This visualization was created for the planetarium dome show film called Dynamic Earth. It is rendered with a fish-eye projection, called domemaster, which is why it looks circular. In a dome, the image fills the dome's hemisphere so that the parts near the bottom of the image are low and in front of the view, the top of the image is behind the viewer, and the left and right sides are to the left and right of the viewer.The camera slowly pushes in towards the Earth revealing global wind patterns. The wind patterns are from the MERRA computational model of the atomsphere. As the camera continues to push in, the winds fade away, revealing ocean currents which are driven, in part, by the winds. The ocean currents are from the ECCO-2 computational model of the oceans and ice. Only the higher speed ocean currents are shown. The camera moves around the Western Atlantic highlighting the Gulf stream from above and below. The camera finally emerges from beneath sea level and moves over to the Gulf of Mexico to examine the Loop Current.This shot is designed to seamlessly match to the end of the Earth/CME shot (animation id #3551.). Topographic features are exaggerated 20 times above water and 40 times below water. The exaggeration is primarily to allow the viewer to distinguish the depths of the flow fields.This visualization was shown in the \"VR Village\" at SIGGRAPH 2015. || ", "hits": 105 }, { "id": 4103, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4103/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2013-09-19T16:00:00-04:00", "title": "Measuring beneath the Pine Island Ice Shelf", "description": "On the margins of Antarctica, an ice shelve acts as a dam slowing the movement of outlet glaciers flowing toward the sea. However, the ice shelves are exposed to the underlying ocean and may weaken as a result of warm ocean currents. Scientists recently completed an expedition to the ice shelf buffering the Pine Island glacier, a major outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that has rapidly thinned and accelerated in recent decades. Drilling a shaft through the ice shelf, they submerged instruments beneath the ice to measure ocean velocity, temperature, and salinity. Their observations revealed a 600-m-wide 80-m-deep channel cut into the underside of the ice-shelf that incurs melting beneath the ice shelf of 0.06 m per day. See the paper here for details.This animation shows the ocean currents colored by their velocity circulating around and under the Pine Island ice shelf. Orange and yellow indicate faster currents while green and blue depict slower. A small red marker indicates the location of the drill site. In this animation, the Pine Island ice shelf is temporarily sliced away to reveal the ocean flows under the ice and subsequently restored up to the location of the drill site. A shaft penetrates through the ice sheet and the instrument is lowered through the shaft into the water that flows beneath the ice shelf. In this animation, the topography and ice shelf thickness is exaggerated by 15 times. || ", "hits": 42 }, { "id": 3958, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3958/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-09-24T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "OSCAR Ocean Currents with Velocity", "description": "This visualization shows OSCAR (Ocean Surface Current Analysis Real-time) ocean currents colored by current velocities. OSCAR data (produced by Earth & Space Research and distributed through NOAA and PO.DAAC) is derived from observed satellite altimetry and wind vector data. The visualization runs from January 1, 2008 through July 27, 2012. Blues are slow currents, greens currents are about 0.5 meters per second, and red currents are about 1 meter per second. This visualization was rendered in a variety of sizes from standard 1080p HD to 4k to 6840x3420. The higher resolution versions were rendered for very high resolution display technologies such as hyperwalls and cinema projectors.For more information about the NOAA/NASA OSCAR projects, click here.These visualizations were developed, in part, for display at the \"20 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry\" Symposium in Venice, Italy in September 2012 and for the Fall 2012 American Geophysical Union conference in December 2012. || ", "hits": 438 }, { "id": 3992, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3992/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-09-19T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Daily Sea Ice during Aug & Sept 2012 with Winds", "description": "Early in the month of August, 2012, storms in the Arctic affected the motion of the sea ice north of Siberia and Alaska. This animation shows the motion of the winds over the Arctic in conjunction with seasonal melting of the Arctic sea ice from August 1 through September 13, 2012, when the NASA scientists determined that the sea ice reached its annual minimum extent. The surface winds, shown my moving arrows, are colored by the velocity. Slower winds are shown in blue, medium in green and the fast winds are shown in red.Note: Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, who calculate the sea ice minimum based on a 5-day trailing average, identified September 16 as the date when the lowest minimum extent occurred. NASA scientists who calculate area on each individual day identified September 13th as the date of the minimum sea ice, although there is little difference in size between the two days. || ", "hits": 38 }, { "id": 11056, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11056/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2012-08-02T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "The Ocean - a driving force for Weather and Climate", "description": "The Ocean is essential to life on Earth. Most of Earth's water is stored in the ocean. Although 40 percent of Earth's population lives within, or near coastal regions- the ocean impacts people everywhere. Without the ocean, our planet would be uninhabitable. This animation helps to convey the importance of Earth's oceanic processes as one component of Earth's interrelated systems.This animation uses Earth science data from a variety of sensors on NASA Earth observing satellites to measure physical oceanography parameters such as ocean currents, ocean winds, sea surface height and sea surface temperature. These measurements, in combination with atmospheric measurements such as surface air temperature, precipitation and clouds can help scientists understand the ocean's impact on weather and climate and what this means for life here on Earth. NASA satellites and their unique view from space are helping to unveil the vast... and largely unexplored.... OCEAN.NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information Systems (EOSDIS) EOSDIS is a distributed system of twelve data centers and science investigator processing systems. EOSDIS processes, archives, and distributes data from Earth observing satellites, field campaigns, airborne sensors, and related Earth science programs. These data enable the study of Earth from space to advance scientific understanding. For questions, please contact eosdis-outreach@lists.nasa.gov || ", "hits": 162 }, { "id": 11003, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11003/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2012-06-19T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Excerpt from \"Dynamic Earth\"", "description": "A giant explosion of magnetic energy from the sun, called a coronal mass ejection, slams into and is deflected completely by the Earth's powerful magnetic field. The sun also continually sends out streams of light and radiation energy. Earth's atmosphere acts like a radiation shield, blocking quite a bit of this energy.Much of the radiation energy that makes it through is reflected back into space by clouds, ice and snow and the energy that remains helps to drive the Earth system, powering a remarkable planetary engine — the climate. It becomes the energy that feeds swirling wind and ocean currents as cold air and surface waters move toward the equator and warm air and water moves toward the poles — all in an attempt to equalize temperatures around the world.A jury appointed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Science magazine has selected \"Excerpt from Dynamic Earth\" as the winner of the 2013 NSF International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge for the Video category. This animation will be highlighted in the February 2014 special section of Science and will be hosted on ScienceMag.org and NSF.govThis animation was selected for the Computer Animation Festival's Electronic Theater at the Association for Computer Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH), a prestigious computer graphics and technical research forum. This is an excerpt from the fulldome, high-resolution show 'Dynamic Earth: Exploring Earth's Climate Engine.' The Dynamic Earth dome show was selected as a finalist in the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival Science Media Awards under the category \"Best Immersive Cinema - Fulldome\". || ", "hits": 129 }, { "id": 3938, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3938/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-04-11T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Biosphere Data 2000 through 2004", "description": "The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the SeaStar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation represents nearly a decade's worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea and along the Western seaboard of the United States. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there is little life due to lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land. The nutrient-rich waters contribute to some of the oxygen-poor pockets of the seas called dead zones. || ", "hits": 22 }, { "id": 3935, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3935/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-03-26T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Modelling Weather: Wind, Clouds, and T2M.", "description": "This visualization shows a Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) run for most of the month of June, 2005. The simulation was seeded at the beginning of the run and then ran on its own to create a 2 year simulation. Only 25 days of the full run are depicted here. The ocean color layer ranging from blue to orange depict air temperatures 2 meters (T2M) above sea level. Since Sea Surface Temperatures (SST) are typically measured at sea level and below, the T2M model output behaves somewhat differently. Nonetheless, it is a reasonable proxy to SST. Landcover information is taken from the Next Generation Blue Marble dataset. Sea Ice is depicted as solid white and clouds are shades of white. The wind layer is depicted as flowing white arrows.This project was developed in support of a hyperwall show titled \"Pursuit of Light\" which is scheduled to premiere on April 19, 2012 at the Smithsonian Uvar-Hazy Center during the space shuttle Discovery Transfer Ceremony on a Jumbotron. The hyperwall itself is a multi-screen display system that allows for the display of very high resolution images beyond current 1080p HDTV standards, allowing for much greater detail to be shown on much larger screens. Please click here for more information on NASA's travelling hyperwall. || ", "hits": 66 }, { "id": 3912, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3912/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-03-16T10:00:00-04:00", "title": "Global Sea Surface Currents and Temperature", "description": "This visualization shows sea surface current flows. The flows are colored by corresponding sea surface temperature data. This visualization is rendered for display on very high resolution devices like hyperwalls or for print media.This visualization was produced using model output from the joint MIT/JPL project entitled Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II (ECCO2). ECCO2 uses the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) to synthesize satellite and in-situ data of the global ocean and sea-ice at resolutions that begin to resolve ocean eddies and other narrow current systems, which transport heat and carbon in the oceans. The ECCO2 model simulates ocean flows at all depths, but only surface flows are used in this visualization. || ", "hits": 590 }, { "id": 3913, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3913/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-02-15T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Gulf Stream Sea Surface Currents and Temperatures", "description": "This visualization shows the Gulf Stream stretching from the Gulf of Mexico all the way over towards Western Europe. This visualization was designed for a very wide, high resolution display (e.g., a 5x3 hyperwall display).This visualization was produced using model output from the joint MIT/JPL project entitled Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II (ECCO2). ECCO2 uses the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) to synthesize satellite and in-situ data of the global ocean and sea-ice at resolutions that begin to resolve ocean eddies and other narrow current systems, which transport heat and carbon in the oceans. The ECCO2 model simulates ocean flows at all depths, but only surface flows are used in this visualization. There are 2 versions provided: one with the flows colored with gray, the other with flows colored using sea surface temperature data. The sea surface temperature data is also from the ECCO2 model. The dark patterns under the ocean represent the undersea bathymetry. Topographic land exaggeration is 20x and bathymetric exaggeration is 40x. || ", "hits": 466 }, { "id": 3908, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3908/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-02-08T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "ECCO2 Sea Surface Temperature and Flows", "description": "Generated for Science On a Sphere show \"Loop\". This animation depicts the part of Earth's ocean circulation model that involves heat transfer.In the polar latitudes the ocean loses heat to the atmosphere. Near the equator ocean water warms, and because it is less dense, it remains close to the surface. Cast away from the planet's equator by the winds and Earth's rotation, warm equatorial waters travel on or near the surface of the globe outward toward high latitudes. But as water loses heat to the increasingly cold atmosphere far away from the equator it sinks and pushes other water out of the way. Endlessly, this pump known as Meridional Overturning Circulation, circulates water and heat around the globe. Considering that the ocean stores exponentially more heat than the atmosphere and the fact that they're always in direct contact with each other, there's a strong relationship between oceanic heat and atmospheric circulation. || ", "hits": 73 }, { "id": 3881, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3881/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-12-09T15:00:00-05:00", "title": "Thermohaline Circulation on a Flat Map", "description": "The oceans are mostly composed of warm salty water near the surface over cold, less salty water in the ocean depths. These two regions don't mix except in certain special areas. The ocean currents, the movement of the ocean in the surface layer, are driven primarily by the wind. In certain areas near the polar oceans, the colder surface water also gets saltier due to evaporation or sea ice formation. In these regions, the surface water becomes dense enough to sink to the ocean depths. This pumping of surface water into the deep ocean forces the deep water to move horizontally until it can find an area on the world where it can rise back to the surface and close the current loop. This usually occurs in the equatorial ocean, mostly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. This very large, slow current is called the thermohaline circulation because it is caused by temperature and salinity (haline) variations.This animation shows one of the major regions where this pumping occurs, the North Atlantic Ocean around Greenland, Iceland, and the North Sea. The surface ocean current brings new water to this region from the South Atlantic via the Gulf Stream and the water returns to the South Atlantic via the North Atlantic Deep Water current. The continual influx of warm water into the North Atlantic polar ocean keeps the regions around Iceland and southern Greenland generally free of sea ice year round.The animation also shows another feature of the global ocean circulation: the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The region around latitude 60 south is the only part of the Earth where the ocean can flow all the way around the world with no obstruction by land. As a result, both the surface and deep waters flow from west to east around Antarctica. This circumpolar motion links the world's oceans and allows the deep water circulation from the Atlantic to rise in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, thereby closing the surface circulation with the northward flow in the Atlantic.The flows in this visualization are based on current theories of the thermohaline circulation rather than actual data or computational model runs. The thermohaline circulation is a very slow moving current that can be difficult to distinguish from general ocean circulation. Therefore, it is difficult to measure and simulate.This visualization was produced for the Science On a Sphere production \"Loop\". It is intended to be over-layed on a world map background. Below are 3 sets of 4 sequences. The first set of 4 sequences are all composited over a world map background with a limited number of frames that make them loopable (with a very slight jump at the point where the looping happens). This is primarily provided for real-time displays such as hyperwall systems. The 4 sequences are: all depth layers combined, shallow depths, middle depths, and deep depths.The second set is the same as the first set except that the layers are not composited over the background and instead include and alpha channel. The third layer is actually the frames that were used in the film \"Loop\" and consist of a large number of continuous, seamless frames. Each sequence is as before, all layers, shallow, middle, and deep layers all with alpha channels.The depth layers nominally correspond to the following ranges below sea level: shallow (0m - 600m), middle (1875m - 2500m), and deep (3000m - 4000m). These depths do vary with bathymetry. So, in areas where the sea floor is not very deep, these depths are scaled so that the flows do not interesct the sea floor or each other. || ", "hits": 135 }, { "id": 3884, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3884/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-12-05T15:00:00-05:00", "title": "Thermohaline Circulation using Improved Flow Field", "description": "The oceans are mostly composed of warm salty water near the surface over cold, less salty water in the ocean depths. These two regions don't mix except in certain special areas. The ocean currents, the movement of the ocean in the surface layer, are driven primarily by the wind. In certain areas near the polar oceans, the colder surface water also gets saltier due to evaporation or sea ice formation. In these regions, the surface water becomes dense enough to sink to the ocean depths. This pumping of surface water into the deep ocean forces the deep water to move horizontally until it can find an area on the world where it can rise back to the surface and close the current loop. This usually occurs in the equatorial ocean, mostly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. This very large, slow current is called the thermohaline circulation because it is caused by temperature and salinity (haline) variations.This animation shows one of the major regions where this pumping occurs, the North Atlantic Ocean around Greenland, Iceland, and the North Sea. The surface ocean current brings new water to this region from the South Atlantic via the Gulf Stream and the water returns to the South Atlantic via the North Atlantic Deep Water current. The continual influx of warm water into the North Atlantic polar ocean keeps the regions around Iceland and southern Greenland generally free of sea ice year round.The animation also shows another feature of the global ocean circulation: the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The region around latitude 60 south is the only part of the Earth where the ocean can flow all the way around the world with no obstruction by land. As a result, both the surface and deep waters flow from west to east around Antarctica. This circumpolar motion links the world's oceans and allows the deep water circulation from the Atlantic to rise in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, thereby closing the surface circulation with the northward flow in the Atlantic.The color on the world's ocean's at the beginning of this animation represents surface water density, with dark regions being most dense and light regions being least dense (see the animation Sea Surface Temperature, Salinity and Density). The depths of the oceans are highly exaggerated (100x in oceans, 20x on land) to better illustrate the differences between the surface flows and deep water flows. The actual flows in this model are based on current theories of the thermohaline circulation rather than actual data. The thermohaline circulation is a very slow moving current that can be difficult to distinguish from general ocean circulation. Therefore, it is difficult to measure or simulate.This version of the visualization combines the Earth look of the original thermohaline visualization with the new thermohaline flow field generated for the Science On a Sphere production, \"Loop\".This version is also designed so it can be played on 3x3 or 5x3 hyperwalls. When playing on a 3x3 hyperwall, use b1 -> d3 tiles. Each individual image tile is 1368x768. || ", "hits": 176 }, { "id": 10841, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10841/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-11-10T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Perpetual Ocean", "description": "Driven by wind and other forces, currents on the ocean surface cover our planet. Some span hundreds to thousands of miles across vast ocean basins in well-defined flows. Others are confined to particular regions and form slow-moving, circular pools. Seen from space, the circulating waters offer a study in both chaos and order. The visualization below, based on ocean temperature, salinity, sea surface height and sea ice data collected during field observations and by NASA satellites between July 2005 and December 2007, highlights many of the world's most important ocean surface currents. Watch powerful, fast-moving currents like the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean and the Kuroshio in the Pacific Ocean carry warm waters northeastward at speeds greater than 4 mph. View coastal currents such as the Agulhas in the Southern Hemisphere transporting equatorial waters from the Indian Ocean farther southwards. Explore the image collection to compare the direction and unique flow pattern of each of these major currents. || ", "hits": 183 }, { "id": 10849, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10849/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-10-12T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Meanwhile, At the Bottom of the Ocean", "description": "The Ben Franklin mission has been forgotten by time, overshadowed by the concurrent Apollo 11 mission. However, the scientific findings obtained by the six aquanauts has provided a foundation for understanding the Gulf Stream and ocean currents.This webshort was produced as an educational tie-in with the Science On a Sphere feature LOOP. || ", "hits": 25 }, { "id": 3827, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3827/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-08-15T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Perpetual Ocean", "description": "This visualization shows ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through December 2007. The visualization does not include a narration or annotations; the goal was to use ocean flow data to create a simple, visceral experience.This visualization was produced using model output from the joint MIT/JPL project: Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II or ECCO2. ECCO2 uses the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) to synthesize satellite and in-situ data of the global ocean and sea-ice at resolutions that begin to resolve ocean eddies and other narrow current systems, which transport heat and carbon in the oceans. ECCO2 provides ocean flows at all depths, but only surface flows are used in this visualization. The dark patterns under the ocean represent the undersea bathymetry. Topographic land exaggeration is 20x and bathymetric exaggeration is 40x. This visualization was shown at the SIGGRAPH Asia 2012 Computer Animation Festival.Don't miss these related visualizations:Excerpt form Dynamic EarthGulf Stream Sea Surface Currents and TemperaturesOcean Current Flows around the Mediterranean Sea for UNESCOGlobal Sea Surface Currents and TemperatureFlat Map Ocean Current Flows with Sea Surface Temperatures (SST) || ", "hits": 1278 }, { "id": 3829, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3829/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-05-10T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Aquarius studies Ocean and Wind Flows", "description": "Aquarius is a focused satellite mission to measure global Sea Surface Salinity. During its nominal three-year mission, Aquarius will map the salinity at the ocean surface to improve our understanding of Earth's water cycle and ocean circulation. Aquarius will help scientists see how freshwater moves between the ocean and the atmosphere. It will monitor changes in the water cycle due to rainfall, evaporation, ice melting, and river runoff. Aquarius will also demonstrate a measurement capability that can be applied to future operational missions. Ocean circulation is driven in large part by changes in water density, which is determined by temperature and salinity. Cold, high-salinity water masses sink and trigger the ocean's \"themalhaline circulation\" - the surface and deep currents that distribute solar energy to regulate Earth's climate. By measuring salinity, Aquarius will provide new insight into this global process. Aquarius' measurements of ocean salinity will provide a new perspective on the ocean and its links to climate, greatly expanding upon limited past measurements. Aquarius salinity data - combined with data from other sensors that measure sea level, ocean color, temperature, winds and rainfall will give us a much clearer picture of how the ocean works, how it is linked to climate, and how it may respond to climate change.Aquarius will provide information that will help improve predictions of future climate trends and short-term climate events such as El Niño and La Niña. Precise salinity measurements from Aquarius will reveal changes in patterns of global precipitation and evaporation and show how these changes may affect ocean circulation. || ", "hits": 133 }, { "id": 10709, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10709/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-05-10T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Aquarius Water Cycle", "description": "Scientists need a breadth of information to understand the ocean's processes. That's where Aquarius comes in. The sensor will use advanced technologies to give NASA its first space-based measurements of sea surface salinity, helping scientists to improve predictions of future climate trends and events. || ", "hits": 42 }, { "id": 10710, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10710/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-05-10T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Aquarius Ocean Circulation", "description": "Ocean circulation plays a key role in distributing solar energy and maintaining climate, by moving heat from Earth's equator to the poles. Aquarius salinity data, combined with data from other sensors that measure sea level, rainfall, temperature, ocean color, and winds, will give us a much clearer picture of how the ocean works. || ", "hits": 34 }, { "id": 3820, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3820/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-02-10T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Ocean Current Flows around the Mediterranean Sea for UNESCO", "description": "This visualization shows ocean current flows in the Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Atlantic. The time period for this visualization is 16 February 2005 through 16 January 2006. For each second that passes in the visualization, about 2.75 days pass in the simulation. The colors of the flows represent their depths. The white flows are near the surface while deeper flows are more blue.This visualization was produced using model output from the joint MIT/JPL project: Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II or ECCO2. ECCO2 uses the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) to synthesize satellite and in-situ data of the global ocean and sea-ice at resolutions that begin to resolve ocean eddies and other narrow current systems, which transport heat and carbon in the oceans.This visualization was created in support of the 2011 UNESCO conference in Paris, France. || ", "hits": 269 }, { "id": 3821, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3821/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-02-10T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Flat Map Ocean Current Flows with Sea Surface Temperatures (SST)", "description": "This visualization shows ocean current flows on a flat map of the world. This simple flat map (cylindrical equidistant projection) is designed to be easily wrapped to a sphere. The flows are colored by sea surface temperatures with blues being cooler waters and yellows/reds warmer waters. The time period for this visualization is 10 January 2005 through 2006. For each second the passes in the visualization, about 2.5 days pass.This visualization was produced using model output from the joint MIT/JPL project: Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II or ECCO2.. ECCO2 uses the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) to synthesize satellite and in-situ data of the global ocean and sea-ice at resolutions that begin to resolve ocean eddies and other narrow current systems, which transport heat and carbon in the oceans.This visualization was created in support of the 2011 UNESCO conference in Paris, France. || ", "hits": 4709 }, { "id": 3816, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3816/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-01-21T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "The Thermohaline Circulation - The Great Ocean Conveyor Belt - Stereoscopic Version", "description": "The oceans are mostly composed of warm salty water near the surface over cold, less salty water in the ocean depths. These two regions don't mix except in certain special areas. The ocean currents, the movement of the ocean in the surface layer, are driven primarily by the wind. In certain areas near the polar oceans, the colder surface water also gets saltier due to evaporation or sea ice formation. In these regions, the surface water becomes dense enough to sink to the ocean depths. This pumping of surface water into the deep ocean forces the deep water to move horizontally until it can find an area on the world where it can rise back to the surface and close the current loop. This usually occurs in the equatorial ocean, mostly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. This very large, slow current is called the thermohaline circulation because it is caused by temperature and salinity (haline) variations.This animation shows one of the major regions where this pumping occurs, the North Atlantic Ocean around Greenland, Iceland, and the North Sea. The surface ocean current brings new water to this region from the South Atlantic via the Gulf Stream and the water returns to the South Atlantic via the North Atlantic Deep Water current. The continual influx of warm water into the North Atlantic polar ocean keeps the regions around Iceland and southern Greenland generally free of sea ice year round.The animation also shows another feature of the global ocean circulation: the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The region around latitude 60 south is the the only part of the Earth where the ocean can flow all the way around the world with no obstruction by land. As a result, both the surface and deep waters flow from west to east around Antarctica. This circumpolar motion links the world's oceans and allows the deep water circulation from the Atlantic to rise in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, thereby closing the surface circulation with the northward flow in the Atlantic.The color on the world's ocean's at the beginning of this animation represents surface water density, with dark regions being most dense and light regions being least dense (see the animation Sea Surface Temperature, Salinity and Density). The depths of the oceans are highly exaggerated to better illustrate the differences between the surface flows and deep water flows. The actual flows in this model are based on current theories of the thermohaline circulation rather than actual data. The thermohaline circulation is a very slow moving current that can be difficult to distinguish from general ocean circulation. Therefore, it is difficult to measure or simulate.This is a stereoscopic version of the original visualziation. || ", "hits": 302 }, { "id": 10504, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10504/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2009-10-12T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Salt of the Earth", "description": "Salinity plays a major role in how ocean waters circulate around the globe. Salinity changes can create ocean circulation changes that, in turn, may impact regional and global climates. The extent to which salinity impacts our global ocean circulation is still relatively unknown, but NASA's new Aquarius mission will help advance that understanding by painting a global picture of our planet's salty waters.For complete transcript, click here. || Salt_of_the_Earth_640x480.00519_print.jpg (1024x576) [66.1 KB] || Salt_of_the_Earth_640x480_web.png (320x180) [106.1 KB] || Salt_of_the_Earth_640x480_thm.png (80x40) [12.6 KB] || Salt_of_the_Earth_appletv_1280x720.webmhd.webm (960x540) [65.9 MB] || Salt_of_the_Earth_H264_1280x720_30fps.mov (1280x720) [150.0 MB] || Salt_of_the_Earth_appletv_1280x720.m4v (960x540) [166.5 MB] || Salt_of_the_Earth_1280x720.mp4 (1280x720) [99.9 MB] || Salt_of_the_Earth_broll_prores.mov (1280x720) [4.7 GB] || Salt_of_the_Earth_Youtube_1280x720.mov (1280x720) [72.2 MB] || Salt_of_the_Earth_640x480.m4v (640x360) [55.1 MB] || GSFC_20091012_Aquarius_m10504_Salt.en_US.srt [6.0 KB] || GSFC_20091012_Aquarius_m10504_Salt.en_US.vtt [6.1 KB] || Salt_of_the_Earth_ipod_320x240.m4v (320x180) [23.1 MB] || Salt_of_the_Earth.wmv (346x260) [35.0 MB] || ", "hits": 223 }, { "id": 3652, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3652/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2009-10-09T13:24:00-04:00", "title": "Sea Surface Temperature, Salinity and Density", "description": "Sea Surface TemperatureThe oceans of the world are heated at the surface by the sun, and this heating is uneven for many reasons. The Earth's axial rotation, revolution about the sun, and tilt all play a role, as do the wind-driven ocean surface currents. The first animation in this group shows the long-term average sea surface temperature, with red and yellow depicting warmer waters and blue depicting colder waters. The most obvious feature of this temperature map is the variation of the temperature by latitude, from the warm region along the equator to the cold regions near the poles. Another visible feature is the cooler regions just off the western coasts of North America, South America, and Africa. On these coasts, winds blow from land to ocean and push the warm water away from the coast, allowing cooler water to rise up from deeper in the ocean. || ", "hits": 934 }, { "id": 3658, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3658/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2009-10-08T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "The Thermohaline Circulation - The Great Ocean Conveyor Belt", "description": "The oceans are mostly composed of warm salty water near the surface over cold, less salty water in the ocean depths. These two regions don't mix except in certain special areas. The ocean currents, the movement of the ocean in the surface layer, are driven mostly by the wind. In certain areas near the polar oceans, the colder surface water also gets saltier due to evaporation or sea ice formation. In these regions, the surface water becomes dense enough to sink to the ocean depths. This pumping of surface water into the deep ocean forces the deep water to move horizontally until it can find an area on the world where it can rise back to the surface and close the current loop. This usually occurs in the equatorial ocean, mostly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. This very large, slow current is called the thermohaline circulation because it is caused by temperature and salinity (haline) variations.This animation shows one of the major regions where this pumping occurs, the North Atlantic Ocean around Greenland, Iceland, and the North Sea. The surface ocean current brings new water to this region from the South Atlantic via the Gulf Stream and the water returns to the South Atlantic via the North Atlantic Deep Water current. The continual influx of warm water into the North Atlantic polar ocean keeps the regions around Iceland and southern Greenland mostly free of sea ice year round.The animation also shows another feature of the global ocean circulation: the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The region around latitude 60 south is the the only part of the Earth where the ocean can flow all the way around the world with no land in the way. As a result, both the surface and deep waters flow from west to east around Antarctica. This circumpolar motion links the world's oceans and allows the deep water circulation from the Atlantic to rise in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the surface circulation to close with the northward flow in the Atlantic.The color on the world's ocean's at the beginning of this animation represents surface water density, with dark regions being most dense and light regions being least dense (see the animation Sea Surface Temperature, Salinity and Density). The depths of the oceans are highly exaggerated to better illustrate the differences between the surface flows and deep water flows. The actual flows in this model are based on current theories of the thermohaline circulation rather than actual data. The thermohaline circulation is a very slow moving current that can be difficult to distinguish from general ocean circulation. Therefore, it is difficult to measure or simulate. || ", "hits": 324 }, { "id": 10468, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10468/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2009-07-21T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Journey to Galapagos", "description": "NASA oceanographer Dr. Gene Carl Feldman is no stranger to the Galapagos Islands, although he has never been there. He has studied these \"Enchanted Isles\" from the vantage point of space for the last 25 years, but in July 2009 he will set foot on the islands for the first time. 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species. In celebration of these two events, the Charles Darwin Foundation is holding an international symposium to assess the current state of knowledge about this remarkable place, and has invited Dr. Feldman to present a paper on his perspective of the Galapagos. || ", "hits": 13 }, { "id": 3515, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3515/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2008-07-10T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Biosphere Data Over Northeastern United States", "description": "The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the SeaStar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation represents nearly a decade's worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea and along the north eastern seaboard of the United States. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there is little life due to lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land. The nutrient-rich waters contribute to some of the oxygen-poor pockets of the seas called dead zones. || ", "hits": 23 }, { "id": 3516, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3516/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2008-07-10T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Biosphere Data Over United States Eastern Seaboard", "description": "The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the SeaStar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation represents nearly a decade's worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea and along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there is little life due to lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land. The nutrient-rich waters contribute to some of the oxygen-poor pockets of the seas called dead zones. || ", "hits": 20 }, { "id": 3524, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3524/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2008-07-10T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Biosphere Data Over Northeastern United States (Land Masked)", "description": "The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the SeaStar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation represents nearly a decade's worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea and along the north eastern seaboard of the United States. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there is little life due to lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land. The nutrient-rich waters contribute to some of the oxygen-poor pockets of the seas called dead zones. || ", "hits": 15 }, { "id": 3526, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3526/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2008-07-10T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Biosphere Data Over United States Eastern Seaboard (Land Masked)", "description": "The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the SeaStar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation represents nearly a decade's worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea and along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there is little life due to lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land. The nutrient-rich waters contribute to some of the oxygen-poor pockets of the seas called dead zones. || ", "hits": 15 }, { "id": 3527, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3527/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2008-07-10T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Biosphere Data Across the United States Western Seaboard (Land Masked)", "description": "The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the SeaStar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation represents nearly a decade's worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea and along the Western seaboard of the United States. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there is little life due to lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land. The nutrient-rich waters contribute to some of the oxygen-poor pockets of the seas called dead zones. || ", "hits": 15 }, { "id": 3528, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3528/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2008-07-10T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Biosphere Data Around the Gulf of Mexico (Land Masked)", "description": "The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the SeaStar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation represents nearly a decade's worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea in and around the Gulf of Mexico. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there is little life due to lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land. The nutrient-rich waters contribute to some of the oxygen-poor pockets of the seas called dead zones. || ", "hits": 19 }, { "id": 3517, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3517/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2008-06-25T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Biosphere Data Across the United States Western Seaboard", "description": "The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the SeaStar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation represents nearly a decade's worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea and along the Western seaboard of the United States. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there is little life due to lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land. The nutrient-rich waters contribute to some of the oxygen-poor pockets of the seas called dead zones. || ", "hits": 32 }, { "id": 3518, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3518/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2008-06-25T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Biosphere Data Around the Gulf of Mexico", "description": "The SeaWiFS instrument aboard the SeaStar satellite has been collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can determine how successfully plant life is photosynthesizing. A measurement of photosynthesis is essentially a measurement of successful growth, and growth means successful use of ambient carbon. This animation represents nearly a decade's worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea in and around the Gulf of Mexico. Dark blue represents warmer areas where there is little life due to lack of nutrients, and greens and reds represent cooler nutrient-rich areas. The nutrient-rich areas include coastal regions where cold water rises from the sea floor bringing nutrients along and areas at the mouths of rivers where the rivers have brought nutrients into the ocean from the land. The nutrient-rich waters contribute to some of the oxygen-poor pockets of the seas called dead zones. || ", "hits": 31 }, { "id": 20085, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20085/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2006-10-04T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Ocean Convection at High Altitudes - Normal Condition", "description": "Understanding the variability of the density of ocean water is critical to understanding changes in the ocean's circulation, particularly those parts of the circulation that pertain to climate. In the tropics, the sun warms the surface water and causes that water to expand. Because the surface water is now less dense than the cooler water below, the warmest waters remain near the surface. Near the poles, the energy input by the sun is not as strong, and the surface waters are not warmed to the degree they are away from the poles. Here, it is the salinity of the water plays a critical role as to which water is found at the surface as the waters near the surface are not that much different in temperature to the water below. These animations highlight the crucial role of salinity in high latitude convection (upward and downward movement of water) and climate.This animation, labeled Normal, is a display of the way convection might often occur at high latitudes. Here the water initially is assumed to be almost constant in temperature and salinity from top to bottom. At the times when the air immediately above is colder than the water, there is a transfer of heat from the water to the atmosphere. The surface waters cool, condense, become more dense and ultimately sink. Because the cooling can be very intense at high latitudes, the surface water can cool enough to sink to the bottom. Note in this animation that the convection is depicted to occur in a narrow, almost chimney like area. This is very much the way nature and deep convection behaves at high latitudes. Note later in this animation, the coldest water has made its way to the bottom and it appears the water is moving from right to left near the bottom. This depiction is meant to indicate a movement toward the tropics at these depths. || ", "hits": 183 }, { "id": 20086, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20086/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2006-10-04T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Ocean Convection at High Altitudes - Fresh Condition", "description": "Understanding the variability of the density of ocean water is critical to understanding changes in the ocean's circulation, particularly those parts of the circulation that pertain to climate. In the tropics, the sun warms the surface water and causes that water to expand. Because the surface water is now less dense than the cooler water below, the warmest waters remain near the surface. Near the poles, the energy input by the sun is not as strong, and the surface waters are not warmed to the degree they are away from the poles. Here, it is the salinity of the water plays a critical role as to which water is found at the surface as the waters near the surface are not that much different in temperature to the water below. These animations highlight the crucial role of salinity in high latitude convection (upward and downward movement of water) and climate.This animation, labeled Fresh, illustrates the condition where the water near the surface is assumed to be much fresher than the saltier water below. Now when a atmosphere cools the surface water, the water sinks, but it does not make it all the way to the bottom. The scenario displayed is one where the condensing effect of the cooling is not strong enough to overcome the effects that salinity has on the density of the water. The less saline the water, the less dense it is. A cold fresh layer of water is constrained near the surface. Sometimes, this layer can even freeze insulating the water from any further cooling by the atmosphere. Note that in this animation there is very little movement of the water at depth back toward the tropics. || ", "hits": 108 }, { "id": 3489, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3489/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2006-06-01T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "2007 Sea Surface Temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico", "description": "Sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico rise due to natural summer warming. These warm surface temperatures are a contributing factor to favorable conditions that can lead to the formation of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Eastern Shore of the United States. In general, hurricanes tend to form over warm ocean water whose temperature is 82 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 27.7 degrees Celsius) or higher. These areas are depicted in yellow, orange, and red. This data was taken by the AMSR-E instrument aboard the Aqua satellite. || ", "hits": 22 }, { "id": 3205, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3205/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2005-07-29T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "ARGO Float Animation #2", "description": "This visualization shows the locations of the ARGO buoy array over time. When the buoys above water, the lines are brighter; when the buoys are under water, the lines are fainter. The ARGO buoys measure ocean salinity, column temperature, and current velocities. This version of the visualization uses a faster camera move than version #1 (animation 3204). || ", "hits": 39 }, { "id": 3204, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3204/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2005-07-28T11:00:00-04:00", "title": "ARGO Float Animation #1", "description": "This visualization shows the locations of the ARGO buoy array over time. When the buoys are above water, the lines are brighter; when the buoys are under water, the lines are fainter. The ARGO buoys measure ocean salinity, column temperature, and current velocities. This version of the visualization uses a slow camera move. || ", "hits": 26 }, { "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": 232 }, { "id": 2905, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/2905/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2004-02-12T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Global Sea Surface Temperature from June, 2002 to September, 2003 (WMS)", "description": "The temperature of the surface of the world's oceans provides a clear indication of the state of the Earth's climate and weather. The AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite measures the temperature of the top 1 millimeter of the ocean every day, even through the clouds. In this visualization sequence covering the period from June, 2002, to September, 2003, the most obvious effects are the north-south movement of warm regions across the equator due to the seasonal movement of the sun and the seasonal advance and retreat of the sea ice near the North and South poles. It is also possible to see the Gulf Stream, the warm river of water that parallels the east coast of the United States before heading towards northern Europe, in this data. Around January 1, 2003, a cooler than normal region of the ocean appears just to the west of Peru as part of a La Niña and flows westward, driven by the trade winds. The waves that appear on the edges of this cooler area are called tropical instability waves and can also be seen in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean about the same time. || ", "hits": 57 }, { "id": 2897, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/2897/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2004-02-11T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Cold Water Trails from Hurricanes Fabian and Isabel (WMS)", "description": "This visualization shows the cold water trails left first by Hurricanes Fabian and then by Hurricane Isabel in the Atlantic Ocean from August 27, 2003 through September 23, 2003. The colors on the ocean represent the sea surface temperatures, and satellite images of the hurricane clouds are laid over the temperatures to clearly show the hurricane positions. Orange and red depict regions that are 82 degrees F and higher, where the ocean is warm enough for hurricanes to form. Hurricane winds are sustained by the heat energy of the ocean, so the ocean is cooled as the hurricane passes and the energy is extracted to power the winds. A hurricane can experience a dramatic reduction in wind speed when it crosses the cold track of a previous hurricane. However, in this case, the cold water track from Fabian warmed up before Isabel crossed it, so Isabel's winds did not decrease. The sea surface temperatures were measured by the AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite, while the cloud images were taken by the Imager on the GOES-12 satellite. || ", "hits": 26 }, { "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": 219 }, { "id": 561, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/561/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "1999-01-21T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Pacific Ocean Current Velocity: May 1992 - May 1998", "description": "1 degree by 1 degree spatial resolution || Pacific ocean currents || a000561.00095_print.png (720x480) [551.2 KB] || a000561_thm.png (80x40) [6.6 KB] || a000561_pre.jpg (320x240) [17.7 KB] || a000561_pre_searchweb.jpg (320x180) [98.2 KB] || a000561.webmhd.webm (960x540) [39.5 MB] || a000561.dv (720x480) [549.4 MB] || a000561.mp4 (640x480) [29.2 MB] || a000561.mpg (352x240) [10.1 MB] || ", "hits": 66 } ] }