{ "count": 23, "next": null, "previous": null, "results": [ { "id": 5519, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5519/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2025-03-18T17:05:00-04:00", "title": "Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Vertical Gravity Gradient", "description": "No description available.", "hits": 820 }, { "id": 31158, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31158/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2024-03-08T17:00:00-05:00", "title": "Antarctic Ice Mass Loss 2002-2025", "description": "The mass of the Antarctic ice sheet has changed over the last decades. Research based on observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites (2002-2017) and GRACE Follow-On (since 2018 - ).", "hits": 1782 }, { "id": 31156, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31156/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2024-03-08T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Greenland Ice Mass Loss 2002-2025", "description": "The mass of the Greenland ice sheet has rapidly declined in the last several years due to surface melting and iceberg calving. Research based on observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites (2002-2017) and GRACE Follow-On (since 2018 - ) indicates that between 2002 and 2023, Greenland shed approximately 264 gigatons of ice per year, causing global sea level to rise by 0.03 inches (0.8 millimeters) per year.", "hits": 1493 }, { "id": 31166, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31166/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2024-03-08T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "GRACE and GRACE-FO polar ice mass loss", "description": "The mass of the Polar ice sheets have changed over the last decades. Research based on observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites (2002-2017) and GRACE Follow-On (since 2018 - ) indicates that between 2002 and 2025, Antarctica shed approximately 135 gigatons of ice per year, causing global sea level to rise by 0.4 millimeters per year; and Greenland shed approximately 264 gigatons of ice per year, causing global sea level to rise by 0.8 millimeters per year.", "hits": 544 }, { "id": 31212, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/31212/", "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "release_date": "2022-12-28T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Where There's Water...There's SWOT", "description": "SWOT launched at 3:46 a.m. PST on Friday Dec. 16, 2022, from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California || InternationalSWOTMissionLaunchesfromVandenbergSpaceForceBase.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [83.6 KB] || InternationalSWOTMissionLaunchesfromVandenbergSpaceForceBase.00001_thm.png (80x40) [5.0 KB] || InternationalSWOTMissionLaunchesfromVandenbergSpaceForceBase.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [50.2 KB] || InternationalSWOTMissionLaunchesfromVandenbergSpaceForceBase.webm (1920x1080) [13.3 MB] || InternationalSWOTMissionLaunchesfromVandenbergSpaceForceBase_1.mp4 (1920x1080) [77.0 MB] || where-theres-watertheres-swot-has-audio.hwshow || ", "hits": 41 }, { "id": 4986, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4986/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2022-03-29T11:00:00-04:00", "title": "Space Geodesy Project", "description": "NASA's Space Geodesy Project (SGP) uses a variety of space- and land-based techniques to determine the precise shape, position, and orientation of the Earth with respect to the Terrestrial Reference Frame (TRF) and Earth orientation parameters (EOP). This visualization presents a summary of these techniques.The visualization begins with a shot of natural-looking Earth, then transitions to a view that shows the orbital components of the SGP, which include global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), satellite laser ranging (SLR) and Doppler Orbitography by Radiopositioning Integrated on Satellite (DORIS). The view then moves to the surface of the Earth, showing the positions and direction of the motion of ground stations as measured by these techniques, as well by ground-based very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), which uses the radio emissions of distant quasars to determine geodetic measurements.We then zoom into the center of the Earth to show the consequence of these surface motions: the movement of the geocenter, which these techniques can determine to within millimeters. || ", "hits": 72 }, { "id": 40373, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/general-relativity/", "result_type": "Gallery", "release_date": "2019-05-29T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "General Relativity", "description": "This is a collection of media resources available on the Scientific Visualization Studio website relating to Einstein's general theory of relativity. \n\nMore information and media can be found at:\nNASA's Blueshift Blog\n100 Years of General Relativity\nHow Scientists Captured the First Image of a Black Hole\n\nFor students and teachers:\nNASA's Space PLace - Einstein\nNASA's Cosmic Times - the universe\nNASA's Cosmic Times - pulsar gravitational waves\nNASA's Physics and Engineering Collection\nGravity's Grin\n\n\nNews and missions:\nThree Ways to Travel at (Nearly) the Speed of Light\nGravity Probe B\nLISA - Laser Interferometer Space Antenna\nScientist further confirms Einstein’s theory through new solar research\nLIGO Has Detected Gravitational Waves\nSimulation Sheds Light on Spiraling Supermassive Black Holes\nResults of Epic Space-Time Experiment\nListening for Gravitational Waves Using Pulsars \nBlack Hole Image Makes History\nTracking the Motion of Mercury", "hits": 534 }, { "id": 40348, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/esddatafor-societal-benefits/", "result_type": "Gallery", "release_date": "2018-04-24T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "ESD data for Societal Benefit", "description": "No description available.", "hits": 228 }, { "id": 30879, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30879/", "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "release_date": "2017-05-02T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Greenland Ice Loss 2002-2016", "description": "The mass of the Greenland ice sheet has rapidly declined in the last several years due to surface melting and iceberg calving. Research based on observations from the NASA/German Aerospace Center’s twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites indicates that between 2002 and 2016, Greenland shed approximately 280 gigatons of ice per year, causing global sea level to rise by 0.03 inches (0.8 millimeters) per year. These images, created from GRACE data, show changes in Greenland ice mass since 2002. Orange and red shades indicate areas that lost ice mass, while light blue shades indicate areas that gained ice mass. White indicates areas where there has been very little or no change in ice mass since 2002. In general, higher-elevation areas near the center of Greenland experienced little to no change, while lower-elevation and coastal areas experienced up to 13.1 feet (4 meters) of ice mass loss (expressed in equivalent-water-height; dark red) over a 14-year period. The largest mass decreases of up to 11.8 inches (30 centimeters (equivalent-water-height) per year occurred along the West Greenland coast. The average flow lines (grey; created from satellite radar interferometry) of Greenland’s ice converge into the locations of prominent outlet glaciers, and coincide with areas of high mass loss. || ", "hits": 175 }, { "id": 4194, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4194/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2014-08-10T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "SIGGRAPH Daily 2014: Measuring Elevation Changes on the Greenland Ice Sheet", "description": "This animation depicts the changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet between 2003 and 2012 and shows how the bedrock topography under the ice constrains or facilitates its movement. This is a subset of a longer, narrated animation that can be found here.The surface elevation1 and the bedrock topography2 are defined by geo-referenced DEM datasets. The change in elevation data3 derived from data collected by NASA’s ICESat satellite and from an airborne mission called Operation IceBridge is portrayed as colors accumulating over time on the surface. A cutting plane is used to reveal the thickness of the ice sheet and the bedrock topography beneath. A dataset of ice sheet velocity4 derived from from satellite interferometry is used to define the motion of the ice sheet over time. Ice flow movement is calculated from this velocity data, colored by the speed of the ice, and propagated over the surface of the ice sheet.This visualization was generated using Maya, Renderman and IDL. Over the years, we developed some tools to facilitate visualizing data. These include manifolds that accurately project data onto a sphere, routines to accurately access the correct data texture in a series based on the date keyframed in a Maya scene and a flow system that propagates flow vectors at any given time step and inserts the results directly into the RIB stream at render time. These tools are a credit to the director of our studio, Dr. Horace Mitchell and my colleague Greg Shirah.1. Greenland Mapping Project (GIMP) Digital Elevation Model provided courtesy of the BPRC Glacier Dynamics Research Group, Ohio State University2. Greenland bed elevation provided courtesy of J. L. Bamber, Univesity of Bristol.3. Elevation Change data provided courtesy of Bea Csatho, University at Buffalo.4. Ice Sheet Velocity data provided courtesy of Eric Rignot, University of California, Irvine. || ", "hits": 14 }, { "id": 30174, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30174/", "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "release_date": "2013-10-17T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Southern California Groundwater", "description": "This animation depicts variations in surface elevation resulting from the discharge and recharge of groundwater basins in Southern California. These seasonal fluctuations, which range between -5 and +5 centimeters (-2 to +2 inches), result from the pumping of groundwater during the dry season (Summer/Fall) and recharge of the basins during the wet season (Winter/Spring). Reductions in elevation, resulting from extraction of groundwater, are shown in orange, while increases in elevation, resulting from the recharge of the basins, are shown in blue. || ", "hits": 18 }, { "id": 30188, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30188/", "result_type": "Hyperwall Visual", "release_date": "2013-10-17T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Mount Etna Deformation", "description": "This animation depicts a time-series of ground deformation at Mount Etna Volcano between 1992 and 2001. The deformation results from changes in the volume of a shallow chamber centered approximately 5 km (3 miles) below sea level. The accumulation of magma in this chamber results in the inflation, or expansion, of the volcano, while the release of magma from the chamber results in deflation or contraction. || ", "hits": 32 }, { "id": 20196, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20196/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2012-12-27T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Earth Orientation Animations", "description": "When you think of the Earth's orientation, you'd probably imagine something like a globe, where it always rotates around an axis, called the spin axis, defined by the north and south poles. And while this generally makes sense, in reality, the Earth's orientation is constantly changing very slightly, and this change can be described in three ways. Learn more about how the Earth's orientation changes by watching the animations below!Note: All motion in these animations is greatly exaggerated for clarity. || ", "hits": 1257 }, { "id": 4001, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4001/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-10-18T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Ice Flow toward the Petermann Glacier, Greenland", "description": "Greenland looks like a big pile of snow seen from space using a regular camera. But satellite radar interferometry helps us detect the motion of ice beneath the snow. Ice starts flowing from the flanks of topographic divides in the interior of the island, and increases in speed toward the coastline where it is channelized along a set of narrow, powerful outlet glaciers. In the east, these glaciers make their sinuous way through complex terrain at low speed. They form long floating extensions that deform slowly in the cold north. As we move toward sectors of higher snowfall in the northwest and centre west, ice flow speeds increase by nearly a factor 10, with many, smaller glaciers flowing straight down to the coastline at several kilometers per year.This complete description of ice motion was only made possible from the coordinated effort of four space agencies: the Japanese Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The data will help scientists improve their understanding of the dynamics of ice in Greenland and in projecting how the Greenland Ice Sheet will respond to climate change in the decades and centuries to come. || ", "hits": 35 }, { "id": 11093, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11093/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2012-10-11T13:00:00-04:00", "title": "Atomic Interferometry", "description": "Einstein predicted gravity waves in his general theory of relativity, but to date these ripples in the fabric of space-time have never been observed. Now a scientific research technique called Atomic Interferometry is trying to re-write the canon. In conjunction with researchers at Stanford University, scientists at NASA Goddard are developing a system to measure the faint gravitational vibrations generated by movement of massive objects in the universe. The scientific payoff could be important, helping better clarify key issues in our understanding of cosmology. But application payoff could be substantial, too, with the potential to develop profound advances in fields like geolocation and timekeeping. In this video we examine how the system would work, and the scientific underpinnings of the research effort. || ", "hits": 27 }, { "id": 11064, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11064/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2012-08-21T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Cool Migration", "description": "The world's second largest ice sheet seems uniform and motionless from above. But years of satellite measurements compressed into a few seconds illustrate just how fluid Greenland's ice really is. Several space agencies, including NASA, have closely monitored the ice sheet to understand how its dynamics might be influenced by changes to Earth's climate and how such changes could affect sea level rise. With the help of a remote sensing technique called radar interferometry, NASA scientists were able to create the first complete map that shows how Greenland's ice moves from the interior toward outlet glaciers on the coast. The speed and direction of the flows can be seen in the color-coded visualization, where areas shaded blue and purple represent the fastest ice, yellow and pink the slowest. || ", "hits": 38 }, { "id": 11031, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11031/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2012-07-05T07:00:00-04:00", "title": "Space Geodesy Profiles", "description": "Scientists from NASA's Space Geodesy Project discuss the techniques they use to precisely measure the Earth's position in the universe, determine the Earth's center of mass, calibrate satellites, observe sea level rise, and track the movements of the tectonic plates. || ", "hits": 99 }, { "id": 3962, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3962/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-07-02T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Greenland Ice Flow", "description": "Greenland looks like a big pile of snow seen from space using a regular camera. But satellite radar interferometry helps us detect the motion of ice beneath the snow. Ice starts flowing from the flanks of topographic divides in the interior of the island, and increases in speed toward the coastline where it is channelized along a set of narrow, powerful outlet glaciers. In the east, these glaciers make their sinuous way through complex terrain at low speed. They form long floating extensions that deform slowly in the cold north. As we move toward sectors of higher snowfall in the northwest and center west, ice flow speeds increase by nearly a factor of 10, with many, smaller glaciers flowing straight down to the coastline at several kilometers per year.This complete description of ice motion was only made possible from the coordinated effort of four space agencies: the Japanese Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The data will help scientists improve their understanding of the dynamics of ice in Greenland and in projecting how the Greenland Ice Sheet will respond to climate change in the decades and centuries to come. || ", "hits": 96 }, { "id": 10964, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10964/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2012-06-21T09:00:00-04:00", "title": "Using Quasars to Measure the Earth: A Brief History of VLBI", "description": "VLBI, or Very Long Baseline Interferometry, is a technique that uses multiple radio telescopes to very precisely measure the Earth's orientation. It was originally invented back in the 1960s to take better pictures of quasars, but scientists soon found out that if you threw the process in reverse, you could measure how the ground beneath the telescopes moves around, how long days really are, and how the Earth wobbles on its axis as it revolves around the sun! Learn more about VLBI here!This video is presented in both stereoscopic 3D and standard 2D versions. The labels below will help you pick which video is right for your display! || ", "hits": 47 }, { "id": 10995, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10995/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2012-05-30T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Goddard Spring Interns 2012", "description": "Ever wonder what it's like to be part of a NASA team? Well, three student interns have been given the opportunity of a lifetime. They were asked to create a major component for the Balloon Experimental Twin Telescope for Infrared Interferometry (BETTII) mission. Principal Investigator Stephen Rinehart mentored the students and gave them the freedom to be creative in making a star camera, which will study star birth in deep space. || ", "hits": 23 }, { "id": 3889, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3889/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-11-28T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Pine Island Glacier Ice Flows and Elevation Change", "description": "This animation shows glacier changes detected by ATM, ICESat and ice bridge data in the highly dynamic Pine Island Glacier. We know that ice speeds in this area have increased dramatically from the late 1990s to the present as the ice shelves in this area have thinned and the bottom of the ice has lost contact with the bed beneath. As the ice has accelerated, ice upstream of the coast must be stretched more vigorously, causing it to thin. NASA-sponsored aircraft missions first measured the ice surface height in this region in 2002, followed by ICESat data between 2002 and 2009. Ice Bridge aircraft have measured further surface heights in 2009 and 2010, and these measurements continue today. Integrating these altimetry sources allows us to estimate surface height changes throughout the drainage regions of the most important glaciers in the region. We see large and accelerating elevation changes extending inland from the coast on Pine Island glacier shown centered here. The changes on Pine Island mark these as potential continuing sources of ice to the sea, and has been surveyed in 2011 by Ice Bridge aircraft and targeted for repeat measurements in coming years. || ", "hits": 22 }, { "id": 3875, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3875/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2011-11-02T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "West Antarctic Glacier Ice Flows and Elevation Change", "description": "This animation shows glacier changes detected by ATM, ICESat and ice bridge data in the highly dynamic Amundsen Embayment of West Antarctica. We know that ice speeds in this area have increased dramatically from the late 1990s to the present as the ice shelves in this area have thinned and the bottom of the ice has lost contact with the bed beneath. As the ice has accelerated, ice upstream of the coast must be stretched more vigorously, causing it to thin. NASA-sponsored aircraft missions first measured the ice surface height in this region in 2002, followed by ICESat data between 2002 and 2009. Ice Bridge aircraft have measured further surface heights in 2009 and 2010, and these measurements continue today. Integrating these altimetry sources allows us to estimate surface height changes throughout the drainage regions of the most important glaciers in the region. We see large elevation changes at the coast on Thwaites glacier, at the center of the images, and large and accelerating elevation changes extending inland from the coast on Pine Island and Smith glaciers, to the left and right of the images, respectively. The changes on Pine Island and Smith glaciers mark these as potential continuing sources of ice to the sea, and they have been surveyed in 2011 by Ice Bridge aircraft and targeted for repeat measurements in coming years. || ", "hits": 41 }, { "id": 10807, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10807/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-08-24T13:00:00-04:00", "title": "NASA's Swift Satellite Spots Black Hole Devouring A Star", "description": "In late March 2011, NASA's Swift satellite alerted astronomers to intense and unusual high-energy flares from a new source in the constellation Draco. They soon realized that the source, which is now known as Swift J1644+57, was the result of a truly extraordinary event — the awakening of a distant galaxy's dormant black hole as it shredded and consumed a star. The galaxy is so far away that the radiation from the blast has traveled 3.9 billion years before reaching Earth. Most galaxies, including our own, possess a central supersized black hole weighing millions of times the sun's mass. According to the new studies, the black hole in the galaxy hosting Swift J1644+57 may be twice the mass of the four-million-solar-mass black hole lurking at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. As a star falls toward a black hole, it is ripped apart by intense tides. The gas is corralled into a disk that swirls around the black hole and becomes rapidly heated to temperatures of millions of degrees. The innermost gas in the disk spirals toward the black hole, where rapid motion and magnetism creates dual, oppositely directed \"funnels\" through which some particles may escape. Particle jets driving matter at velocities greater than 80-90 percent the speed of light form along the black hole's spin axis. In the case of Swift J1644+57, one of these jets happened to point straight at Earth.Theoretical studies of tidally disrupted stars suggested that they would appear as flares at optical and ultraviolet energies. The brightness and energy of a black hole's jet is greatly enhanced when viewed head-on. The phenomenon, called relativistic beaming, explains why Swift J1644+57 was seen at X-ray energies and appeared so strikingly luminous. When first detected on March 28, the flares were initially assumed to signal a gamma-ray burst, one of the nearly daily short blasts of high-energy radiation often associated with the death of a massive star and the birth of a black hole in the distant universe. But as the emission continued to brighten and flare, astronomers realized that the most plausible explanation was the tidal disruption of a sun-like star seen as beamed emission. || ", "hits": 179 } ] }